General Election 2024

Are we getting into inheritance tax next?

pay private school fees up front

People with spare LTV on their mortgage could quite easily do that, and that would apply to the vast majority of people who have their children in private school.

For example, if I had a £24k bill to pay over a year and I could only afford to pay it at £2k/mo out of my income but was offered a £4k discount if I paid it in advance then an extra £20k on my mortgage would cost me a chunk less than £24k to get rid of by the end of the year (even with extra interest payments and early repayment charges factored in).

The people I know grumbling most about the VAT hike are the people who are paying for private schooling because their children weren't thriving well in the underfunded state schools because of limited SEND provision in the state sector. These are children without official EHCPs (which come with funding) but most have some level of ADHD/autism diagnoses.

Yes the long-term answer is that the state schools should be better funded, and have better SEND provision, but that's not going to happen overnight and so many of these parents (who are lucky enough to be able to afford it now, possibly not so with a 20% hike in prices) will continue to do what they can to try and send their kids private because the state alternative is a huge step back for them.

(Don't get me wrong, I completely support the general principle of removing VAT exemption for private schools but I disagree with a cliff-edge implementation and think it should be done in a more gradual way to have less of an immediate effect. The actual tax revenues at stake are a fraction of a percentage point of the general taxation income, so that can't be an argument, and solving the state school budgets is going to take a lot more than removing this tax break with generate. I'm also lucky that I live in an area of the country that means my daughter can get excellent state school education and isn't struggling due to other issues.)

The school we were looking at sent an email saying that they would offer a discount for fees paid upfront. So I assume all schools will have done something similar.

It was a negligible amount. I want to say 1% but can't find the email. But to me that sound like a commercial rational for anti-avoidance. There was also disclaimer basically saying that if the Govt said VAT had to be paid on upfront fees you'd have to pay it.

It would be funny if they all had to register these as DOTAS.

Dan Niedham article on the problem with advance fee payments.

Tl;dr: may not actually work to avoid paying VAT, and may cause real headaches for schools .

Schools are offering it but they don't know that vat can be avoided. Why the government would allow people who have paid up front to not pay tax is beyond me.