Vat on Independent school fees?

[oldius]

The distinction should be fairly straight forward. Anyone who gains a degree and works in the public sector giving back to society (nurse, doctor, teacher, army etc…not someone working as admin the local council office) for 5 years should have any student debt wiped. From the moment they walk through the door of that job they pay nothing back towards the loan.

That way teacher, nurses, doctors leave uni, walk into work and never pay a penny. Thats a fair society - now some might say just don’t charge uni fees but we want to make sure those that go straight into private sector are captured. I’m sure there are a few outliers here but I generally think that’s fair and right.

Perfectly good point.

 

[metalblue]

No ......but surely removing their exemption from paying VAT on school supplies should be a start ... either that or providing state schools with the same exemption (I think its called a level playing field)

Private schools do pay VAT on school supplies (books, IT etc), because they are not VAT registered they cannot reclaim it. They will be able to (and back date 10 years any previous VAT payments they made on building work) as soon as this happens.

If you want to level the playing field - as we absolutely should as this will make private schools largely obsolete- then let’s double the per pupil spend to bring it roughly in line with what it costs to send a kid to a non elite private school. So we add £50bn to the education budget - it’s an investment and I’d happily pay more tax to see it happen. Every single kid deserves the best education we can give them.

This country needs bold policies not the gesture politics of VAT on private schools that’ll be lucky if it generates £500m a year towards the treasuries coffers.

 

[Ifwecouldjust.......]

The distinction should be fairly straight forward. Anyone who gains a degree and works in the public sector giving back to society (nurse, doctor, teacher, army etc…not someone working as admin the local council office) for 5 years should have any student debt wiped. From the moment they walk through the door of that job they pay nothing back towards the loan.

That way teacher, nurses, doctors leave uni, walk into work and never pay a penny. Thats a fair society - now some might say just don’t charge uni fees but we want to make sure those that go straight into private sector are captured. I’m sure there are a few outliers here but I generally think that’s fair and right.

Agreed...but 7 years not five in the case of Doctors .

 

[arbabarshad]

Number of school closures, number of downsizing schools, number of redundancies on the way and large number of pupils on the way to state schools that may or may not have capacity to take them.

 

[Eebo]

Sounds like these people need to get better at managing their finances. Maybe they should cut down on takeaways, get rid of Netflix and consider a cheap mobile with a SIM only plan?

They need to cut back on the Avocados and make coffee in a flask at hiome instead of getting one at Costa's or wherever and they'll soon be able to afford it

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Number of school closures, number of downsizing schools, number of redundancies on the way and large number of pupils on the way to state schools that may or may not have capacity to take them.

Fantastic news. It's not the job of the state to subsidise private enterprise.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Number of school closures, number of downsizing schools, number of redundancies on the way and large number of pupils on the way to state schools that may or may not have capacity to take them.

There must surely be a mechanism to take those failed private schools into state hands. If not, there should be.

It’s no different to pubs when the government puts the duty up. Some go to the wall for various economic reasons. It happens. Taxes can squeeze things at both ends. Some businesses don’t survive that. The only answer is to never raise taxes, which is completely unsustainable. Choices have to be made about how we are going to make the books balance, and this choice was correct.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Number of school closures, number of downsizing schools, number of redundancies on the way and large number of pupils on the way to state schools that may or may not have capacity to take them.

Let's do the maths. 544,316 private school students paying an average of £6,944 a term (in 2022). Three terms a year, so average cost of £20,832. So at 20% each private school student will be contributing £4166 to the tax coffers per year. A year's education in the state sector costs £7,460. So the tax from two private school students will be (more than) enough to pay for one state school student. So in order for this to be a burden on the state sector, it would take more than 1 in 3 private school students dropping out and joining the state sector. Do you think that'll happen?

 

[Bluesince1979]

I don’t know about you but I’ve never spent an average of £15k per year on holidays in my life. Nor have I spent £15k per year on buying a new, non-shitty, car. To do so feels like an impossibility in this day and age so in my view if you can, good luck to you but don’t plead poverty or hardship when we have children from poor families being educated in dilapidated, crumbling buildings by harassed and stressed - and hugely underpaid - teachers. In no small part due to the billions being spent to give wealthy parents yet another tax break at their expense.
This is the education debate equivalent of boomers (who bought 3-bed suburban semis for £20k) arguing that todays young people would all be able to buy an (average price of £350k) house with a 10-15% deposit if they wanted to if only they would “cancel Netflix” and “work a bit harder like I did”.

Not necessarily aimed at you per se , more so at those smug scroungers pleading poverty from their £500k house, with their £80k car, getting themselves all bitter and twisted at the thought of sending their precious cargo to a school where they might have to mix with kids from a council estate.

Dirty, filthy, scroungers.

You seem bitter and maybe a tad jealous.

 

[arbabarshad]

Let's do the maths. 544,316 private school students paying an average of £6,944 a term (in 2022). Three terms a year, so average cost of £20,832. So at 20% each private school student will be contributing £4166 to the tax coffers per year. A year's education in the state sector costs £7,460. So the tax from two private school students will be (more than) enough to pay for one state school student. So in order for this to be a burden on the state sector, it would take more than 1 in 3 private school students dropping out and joining the state sector. Do you think that'll happen?

Maybe not but around 8%-10% of those kids are on bursaries who are most vulnerable. And then every 4-5 kids in a school support a job. Plus doing it mid academic year leaves lots of kids having to move school mid year.

If state education was fantastic, there wouldn't perhaps be a need for private schools but can any government be trusted to run a state institution fantastically?