Overheard at the LFGSS golf club bar

Nice little tax avoidance scam

Not sure if this really works in practice as HMRC rules specifically disallow gift aid on payments made for receipt of a service.

I guess people may try to game the system but I would guess HMRC would be onto it if it was happening on a large scale.

Not that I agree with the notion of private schools being charities at all; they should not be.

As a cunt who sent his child to private school, there are no tax breaks for parents.

I had no idea how much nursery cost until I had a kid. I'd now be very happy if I was only paying 1200 quid a month to nursery.

That's sooo much money.

You need a better accountant and living grand parents or off shore.

Private School Tax Breaks UK
You can then fund private school fees by paying out dividends to the children, which will be entirely tax free if it is within their tax allowance. If the children don't have any additional income or earnings, they'll be able to use their personal tax allowance, which stands at £12,570 per year for 2021/22.

Or fuller picture from here: https://www.theprivateoffice.com/insights/claim-tax-relief-private-school-fees#:~:text=You%20can%20then%20fund%20private,per%20year%20for%202021%2F22.

It is amazing what you can get away with.

At least some of the non-Dom bullshit is limited by brexit. I know of a handful of people here who were rumoured to be living in the UK in reality but registered in Luxembourg for taxes (some benefit to their kids school fees too). Unfortunately for them it’s harder to come and go with little/no record now.

That said, even when I was at uni in the early 90s there was a lot off fiddling. Some of my dads better paid colleagues had arrangements with each other where they would warrant they’d kicked their kid out around the age of 18. They would then register at the other colleagues address and get the full student grant instead of zero.

For grandparents!

There have been attempts by parents to set up a small charity for benevolent education where the children were the beneficiaries. HMRC took a dim view.

Given that a person has a tax free allowance from birth, I find it remarkable that people are only running offshore bonds with their kids named as beneficiaries only to pay for school fees.

My sister works as a consultant and runs as a Ltd. company, she “employed” her children whilst they were in (private) 6th form and university.

Did she claim furlough for them!

Like all parental purchases, it's a function of how much you love your children. But I can absolutely appreciate that many people will weigh that cost up against all the veblen goods they could buy themselves and decide it's not worth it. Maybe have a look at grammar schools. Best of both worlds.

Anyway....

Thought here would be a good place to ask:

Can anyone recommend a swimming pool thermometer? Solar powered with a wireless digital display would be good. Accuracy just needs to be reasonable.

Cheers.

Like all parental purchases, it's a function of how much you love your children.

Are you seriously suggesting that parents who send their kids to private schools love them more than parents who don't?

Yes, yes that's exactly what I am saying.

It's a sarcastic comment on how everything that is sold to parents is marketed and how every decision parents make is rationalised.

Is this London's famous sarcasm?

Edit: it was.

Everyone knows the real way to show love for your kids is to pay over the odds for a house in catchment for an outstanding state primary that is a feeder for a selective state secondary, while spending the money saved from school fees on cars, bikes, watches, 3 x foreign holidays a year, or, ideally, a villa in the south of France.

Like all parental purchases, it's a function of how much you love your children.

Hilarious

The cynicism of my comment was very much inspired by the number of these parents I've met. Especially the ones who simultaneously reference diversity as some sort of positive rationalisation for their choice. Totally missing the point that a handful of outlier kids from council estates is about as indicative of diversity and inclusion as bursary kids at private schools.

It's almost as though there should be more money spent and distributed through a fairer funding model or something.

I thought the donations to private schools were intended by Machiavellian parents to be leverage, ie for ‘benefit of the doubt’ in grading and bragging rights, and signalling to future schools that the parents are a cash cow.

In the UK pre-pandemic, grades were awarded by independent examination boards. How would a school donation effect that?

My bad then, I’m used to a different education system.

.

I just think making definitive judgements about people ln the basis of the type of school they attend, or they send their children to, is quite reductive.

This is something I’ve noticed is particularly marked in the UK. I’ve chocked it up to class friction frustrations but that’s just a hypothesis.

full disclaimer: Fundamentally I dont understand UK education system let alone the nuances. I need to study it and soon as my kid is almost 2. So please someone explain it to me.

I just know private schools (they are called independent schools?) are expensive; having looked at some fees I know for certain I cannot afford them, so not even a choice for my kid.

We moved to the current house with thinking that we will die here i.e not moving. So the question of moving for school catchment is also out of question.

I come from a family where parents did make enough sacrifices so that they have a comfortable retirement. I went to a public/government school in India; no1 did that even back then, everyone went to private schools. I did okay and heavily believe in that model. Whatever my child will get in terms of education is hundreds of times better than what I got.

All child nurture is a gamble. No judgements from me if you send your kids to private schools. Just admiration of financial planning.