I’m seeing one particularly irksome, self-entitled bawl from some parents of kids at fee-paying schools at the prospect of paying vat :
“We don’t get a discount on the tax we pay even though our child isn’t using a state school place!”
Fuck you! I don’t have any kids at all! I pay tax, some of which pays for other people’s kids to go to school! And you know what? I’m not moaning about it. Because I’m not a dickhead, and because I recognise that an educated society is a better society for all.
Ukpol
@bloor That truly is a weird take. But then, unwelcome as it may be to many families' budgets, it is an aberration that that service was not subject to VAT in the first place, IMHO.
I can understand annoyance with the timings, doing it mid-way through a school year, with little time to make alternative provision. That will be tough on a lot of parents.
But, in principle, it is hard to see this as anything other than correcting the current position, IMHO.
@neil I can understand ANYBODY being pissed off at an insta-20% hike on *anything* they pay. It sucks. Many people saw 20% and far more on stuff like energy and food not so long ago.
But that one specific cry I mentioned (which I saw many times) just really really pissed me off. And showed how those saying it just had no idea about the bigger picture.
As regards it being a correction. Maybe. But should there be VAT on uni fees, and if not why not? </devilsadvocate>
ukpol
But should there be VAT on uni fees, and if not why not?
No, there should not be VAT on university fees, for there should not be university / tertiary education fees, just as there are no fees for state primary or secondary education.
IMHO, there is a world of difference between a private school and a university, policy-wise.
@neil good answer and I agree, because again, although I didn’t go to uni (and I think still wouldn’t have even if free) I see the wider benefit.
My question though was, if the anomaly being corrected was “education gets an exemption from vat”; which I agree is a slight anomaly then what is the reason for a new sub-anomaly, to make uni (which is education) still not be vatable?
ukpol
Private education is an anomaly in terms of VAT.
Having fees at all for university is an anomaly.
Both can and should be corrected, but in different ways.
Charging VAT on fees for university could well be seen as consistent with charging VAT on private school fees, yes, but could also be seen as inconsistent given the fundamentally different nature of the services.
