Vat on Independent school fees?

bluenova said:
For most careers it probably doesn't make a huge difference.

For the ones with power; politics, senior lawyers, senior civil servants, journalists - it's "curious" how much of a difference it makes.
Click to expand...

For a career in these professions a private education is all but mandatory. To be PM an Eton education puts you at the front of the queue. Bizarre that we prioritise a privileged background over ability. Fishing in such a shallow pool is a shocking waste of talent, yet it is a situation we are conditioned to accept.
 
BobKowalski said:
For a career in these professions a private education is all but mandatory. To be PM an Eton education puts you at the front of the queue. Bizarre that we prioritise a privileged background over ability. Fishing in such a shallow pool is a shocking waste of talent, yet it is a situation we are conditioned to accept.
Click to expand...
As proven by Boris Johnson. Thick as pigshit, lazy as fuck but knows a few big words and is adept at bullshitting. But went to Eton so make him PM. Ridiculous.
 
Ashton Moss Messi said:
We need a more thorough tax reform policy.
Organisations that call themselves charities but are more like low-profit entities eg care businesses, and those that technically/ legally are charities such as public schools, are ripe for a proper re-evaluation of what we expect from a charity.
VAT reform is an easy policy to communicate, as per public school fees, but could or should be part of wider and deeper tax reform.

Schools "qualify" as charities because they provide support for "the poor"
For reference, Manchester Grammar...

Fees for the year 2023/24 are £15,180 per year, or £5,060 per term.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, since 1998 we have spent £25 million funding life-changing bursary places for more than 600 bright boys, who might otherwise have missed out on a first-class education because of their financial circumstances.

so that's 600 in 25 years, about 24 per year
The £25m for 600 boys is about £42k per boy over a typical 7 years school life.
There are currently c1,600 kids enrolled at say £15k average, that's £24M per year
£1m going to bursaries.
1/24 or about 4% going to save/avoid VAT of about 20%.

And, as a further reference, Eton awards about 14 King's Scholarships per year at the £50k/year school.
One of the well-know King's Scholars is a certain scruffy blonde haired narcissist ex-Prime Minister.
One of 19 ex-Eton PMs.
Click to expand...
But then even those figures are bullshit, because the majority of scholarships (66%) are not given for academic ability, they're either given for sporting or musical talent, or simply for the children of teachers at the school. And we can all probably guess what sort of sporting or musical talent is rewarded. They're probably not giving it to a talented footballer or boxer, are they? Most scholarships go to middle and upper-class parents. And that's because a lot of the scholarships don't cover the full fees, so even with a scholarship, you've still got to have a few quid to pay for it. The also use accounting tricks to artificially increase the 'cost' of these scholarships, allowing them to justify giving fewer of them.
 
Brewster's millions said:
Personally I find it odd that discussions such as imposing VAT on private education and other issues around school funding are conducted separately from questions around tertiary education, given the potentially enormous fiscal burden created by student loans.

The student loan book could very easily hit half a trillion pounds in another twenty years and the fiscal cost created by defaults will for a period at least be extremely high. In fact when the ONS changed how student loans are accounted for in the public finances a few years ago - to more accurately reflect the fiscal impact of expected defaults - the move added 12 billion to government borrowing in a single year.
Click to expand...
Yep, student loans have always been an accounting con. The government have basically committed to paying people's university fees, just with future generation's money, rather than up front. Which allowed them to book it all as personal debt rather than government debt.
 
west didsblue said:
As proven by Boris Johnson. Thick as pigshit, lazy as fuck but knows a few big words and is adept at bullshitting. But went to Eton so make him PM. Ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Well yeah, go to Eton, make some connections, get handed a safe Tory seat when you fancy dabbling in politics, and then when you inevitably fuck up, use one of your many contacts to get one of those jobs with an important-sounding title and fuck all work.
 
pirate said:
except for the university of Buckingham, all university are not for profit organisations.
all profits are reinvested in the university

that makes the rest of your post horseshit
Click to expand...
Yep. I'm doing a masters at Manchester Uni right now. There was no VAT on my tuition fees. And that's because obviously the government would like to encourage people to spend money on education, because it's generally a social benefit.

Whether private schools are a social benefit is another question.
 
metalblue said:
It doesn’t make it a luxury good.
Click to expand...
It's sort of irrelevant anyway. Things aren't zero-rated because they're "essential" items. Aircraft are zero rated. Gambling is zero-rated. Meanwhile electricity, mobility aids and sanitary items are rated at 5%. Prams are 20%. Stationary is 20%.

Private schools are zero-rated because education is zero-rated, not because they're "not a luxury." They absolutely are a luxury, just like private health insurance, in my opinion (which is also zero-rated).
 
metalblue said:
Wow.
Click to expand...

Why is that a wow?

Do these schools pay much attention to technical education already, even though the kids are boarding and spending the majority of their time on site? Wouldn't woodwork, or other entry level technical classes be a productive thing to do in evenings or the weekend?

Or do they spend a disproportionate amount on sport compared to the relative prospects of them becoming professional sports people or coaches?

Eton still insists on playing two archaic forms of football.

I'd bet even successful plumbers who can afford to send their kids to private schools don't want their kids to be plumbers.
 
Last edited:
Blue and true said:
No amount of private schooling is going to shape a child if the aptitude and diligence isn't there to begin with.

Most parents choose the private route so they have a trophy child to show off to the Joneses.
Click to expand...
I completely agree with the first sentence but not the second. I'm sure most parents choose the private route because it provides the environment for their children to flourish and achieve the best that they are capable of.
 
Brewster's millions said:
You can’t see why one education policy which costs taxpayers billions a year is relevant to an education policy proposal which is highly controversial and would raise only a couple of billion a year?
Click to expand...
It's one of the least controversial Labour policies around.

It only appears marginally controversial because so many in the media and politics, who are commenting on it, went to, or have kids at private school.

The vast majority of the population have almost no sympathy at all for the families affected.

1711542662634.png

yougov.co.uk

How much sympathy, if any, would you feel towards families who send their children to private schools if they end up paying more because VAT was added to private school fees? | Daily Question

How much sympathy, if any, would you feel towards families who send their children to private schools if they end up paying more because VAT was added to private school fees?
yougov.co.uk yougov.co.uk
 
metalblue said:
Those figures will be distorted by elite private schools such as Eton who charge £50k per year for day fees.

Mine went to an all girls school. Withington charge £15k these days.
Click to expand...
Similar to mine. A bit less in the lower years and a bit more as they got older. My youngest is currently in her final year of 6th form and it is about £17,000. If I remember correctly, 1st year of secondary was about £13000. Primary quite a bit less.
 
bluenova said:
It's one of the least controversial Labour policies around.

It only appears marginally controversial because so many in the media and politics, who are commenting on it, went to, or have kids at private school.

The vast majority of the population have almost no sympathy at all for the families affected.

View attachment 111834

yougov.co.uk

How much sympathy, if any, would you feel towards families who send their children to private schools if they end up paying more because VAT was added to private school fees? | Daily Question

How much sympathy, if any, would you feel towards families who send their children to private schools if they end up paying more because VAT was added to private school fees?
yougov.co.uk yougov.co.uk
Click to expand...
The main issue of course is that the families that will be most affected by it are the ones that are most deserving of sympathy. The people who never have a holiday and drive a shitty old car so they can send their kids to private school instead. The actual elite won't give much of a shit about a 20% increase in costs. Hell, it might even help keep some of the riff-raff out.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
The main issue of course is that the families that will be most affected by it are the ones that are most deserving of sympathy. The people who never have a holiday and drive a shitty old car so they can send their kids to private school instead. The actual elite won't give much of a shit about a 20% increase in costs. Hell, it might even help keep some of the riff-raff out.
Click to expand...
Exactly. It won't make much difference to the very wealthy but it will to those that can only send their children to private school by making sacrifices in other areas of their lives.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top