VAT on school fees anybody else worried?

[helmethead]

20% increase on school fees could happen on Tuesday - I presume failing independent schools could then become free schools? Only raise £100m though a drop in the ocean of debt.

says who can you link to the info

Much as I would like to see that happen, it is highly unlikely.

Couldn't give a shit tbh OP

huh? oh so the free school idea is just to save the less better independent schools so you can get them free! ah yes that makes sense! hahahaha

I think you've misread - they're saying that VAT could rise to 20%.

If people can't afford the extra 2.5%, they can always set up a free school in their garden shed.

This was a potential outcome of Tuesdays budget in the money section of todays times.
We trying to work out if we can run the fees through the company claim back the VAT and then put the ex-VAT cost against drawings like the revenue let us do with petrol and other motoring expenses.
I have to say in defence of this one of the main reasons DD is at a private school is due to the level of before and after school care and all the extra activities happen at school enabling me to work long hours.

How could you put the fees through your company????? On what basis would it be a business expense?

Hmm. Yes. Tightening up any loopholes like that might be quite a good thing...

Thats just wrong though ..school fees as a business expense!

umm, HMRC don't let you do that with personal expenses - it is called tax evasion. They don't like it al all.

you could of course put it through the company, claim the VAT and then treat it as a benefit in kind, on with you are taxed and the company pays class 1a nic. that would be fine.

and benefit fraudsters get slated on here!

Lizcat tax evasion is illegal. I am horrified.

Yaaaaawn. School fees going to be more expensive. How my heart bleeds.

Exactly as ChasingSquirrels describes all drawings are on tax returns and I pay tax on all of that so not classed as business expense is part of my income. As partnerships which I am one are allowed to do on motoring expenses and private health care.

hahahahahaha!

This sounds like a loophole that needs tightening. School fees are hardly in the same category as motoring expenses.

I don't have a problem with private education. Your cash, your choice. I do have a problem with cheating the system. If they put VAT on school fees then you should pay it. Or is it the same old story - avoiding paying into the pot is fine - taking too much out in the form of benefits etc isn't?

I don't see anyone gloating. |I'm about to start paying stonking great school fees. I'm just fed up with other parents moaning about how unfair it is that they might have to pay a bit more. It is our choice to educate our children privately.

firstly, not everyone who sends their child to private school is loaded. Lots of people who send their children to private school make other financial sacrifices in order to be able to afford to give their children a better education. If fees go up then it will hit some people. And however much people want to gloat about that, it is worth considering the impact on children when their education needs to be disrupted if the parents can no longer afford the fees.

Secondly, there are an awful lot of loopholes that need closing that mean that the self-employed can avoid (not evade) paying vast amounts of income tax. I know a lot of self employed who are not earning vast sums of money, but who do not pay more than approx 15% income tax.

But when i suggested that the self-employed need clamping down on I was absolutely slated for it, because obviously no-one who is self employed would ever put anything through expenses in order to avoid paying tax on it - oh no.

Yeah Yeah anyone who pays school fees is a martyr. As I said earlier VAT on fees is highly unlikely to happen, so don't get too stressed.

If private school becomes unaffordable for many, then lots of children will have to be educated by the state system, which will increase costs to the taxpayer, offsetting the money raised by VAT. So I don't think they will do it.

swc - Parents make a choice to send their children to a fee-paying school, their choice being the private school or the local state school.

Most of us who send our children to state school are happy with the education they receive, and we pay for that education through our taxes.

Because we are happy with the teaching, the extra-curriculum provision, the accountability, the pastoral care and before and after school provision at our state schools, it is difficult for us to understand why people pay for an equivalent education.

Therefore, it is difficult to feel sorry for parents who make this choice, when a perfectly reasonable option is free.