Indepemdent Schools Set To Cash In On Windfall From New Vat Rules

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https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/12/eton-among-elite-private-schools-set-to-cash-in-on-windfall-from-new-vat-rules

 

This could cost the government billions

[dave50]

Politics of envy are more important than any cost it might incur. 

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds stupid they can put in backdated claims.

Are they also going to pay backdated VAT ?

[Prudie]

If it's the law it's the government's own fault for as you say dave, blinded by their envy. Anyone who's been registered for VAT knows it works both ways, not only do you have to pay but also you can claim it back. The same goes for the smaller independent schools.

[Old_Geezer]

Hardly envy.  More a sense of fairness & justice.

The claim for years when they weren't VAT registered, is bizarre though.

[Prudie]

It's presumably the fiscal law and would apply to anybody who registers for VAT...

[davebro3]

Any tax proposals should be examined by HMRC & advice given. If Labour chooses to cut off its own noses to spite its face so be it. Incompetence springs to mind.

[davebro3]

ps, Gordon Brown was advised of the folly of abolishing the 10p income tax rate but went ahead anyway.

[New Judge]

I don't know why there is surprise.

VAT is (near enough) only paid by end users. All the organisations in between reclaim almost all the VAT they have paid. It makes for horrendously expensive administration for those businesses and a lucrative source of employment for HMRC in the form of Vat-men and women.

It is an horrendously complex form of taxation which could not be much more unwieldy if you tried.

I must say I am surprised that VAT can be reclaimed on capital expenditure going back so far. But thinking about it, if writing down capital assets (for which they have already paid, including VAT)is going to influence organisations' bottom line in the future, it seems only fair they should be able to reclaim the tax paid because I imagine they will not be able to write down those sums when they are VAT registered. 

Hopefully they will make a few bob out of the exercise and that will help them offset the cost of being unpaid tax collectors for the government, as well as funding the extra scribes they will need to administer this most ridiculous tax.

 

 

[ToraToraTora]

they just don't get it do they! When they decided to slap VAT they didn't realise that the Schools could then claim it back and more when they spend on capital projects. Oh dear x3.

[youngmafbog]

Actions always have consequences and often unintended ones.  The far left will never understand, most are financially illiterate and blinded by ideology.

Overall this will cost the Government, either in lost places for in the smaller schools or by recoup of capital expenditure as explained above.  But try explaining that to Robber Reeves or Sir Freegear.

 

 

[youngmafbog]

//It is an horrendously complex form of taxation //

Interesting you should say that as I have had to deal with it for much of my adult life and found it rather easy.  I wrote programs to do my accounts back in the 90's and the VAT section was the easiest.

//The claim for years when they weren't VAT registered, is bizarre though.//

No it isnt, not if you think it through.  NJ has set the path to see it so I wont repeat it.

//Are they also going to pay backdated VAT ?//

They did on the projects.

[jourdain2]

Good stuff! Well done the Independent Schools.

They are valuable institutions.  My kids went to Prep. school - reason? They could read well by the age of 5.  Elder daughter had a Reading Age of 9 yrs. 4 mths. and I was having to write stories myself to find suitable vocabulary + content.  Younger one was 7yrs. 3 mths..

The local schools insisted that they would teach them phonics!

No way.  Bright kids need special schooling as well as those who aremore challenged.  Independent Schools provide this.  Big plus forsociety is that we did not cost the Education Budget anything - it crucified us financially.

This govenment is populated by ideologically idiotic left-wing twerps.  

Oops! I'm correct though and I don't want bright, or challenged children to suffer.

 

[New Judge]

"Interesting you should say that as I have had to deal with it for much of my adult life and found it rather easy. "

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear, ymb.

It's fairly straightforward for most businesses (unless they get involved in arguments such as whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit).

But the costs borne by the government in administering it must be horrendous. Businesses that are registered for VAT are all collecting tax, paying it and claiming it back and all this has to be moniored and policed by the Vatman.

Since it is mainly only end users who are paying the tax without being able to reclaim it, a simple purchase tax would be far easier - and a lot cheaper - to administer.

[Old_Geezer]

But we've learnt from this thread that it isn't as simple as that. Customers of schools didn't pay VAT because the schools weren't registered for it, so it was never there to pass on to the government.  Yet now that the schools are registered to charge & pass on VAT from here onwards, projects the school paid for at that previous time are now claimable against the tax that was never paid nor passed on. It's a strange world.

[New Judge]

"...projects the school paid for at that previous time are now claimable against the tax that was never paid nor passed on."

They paid VAT on their capital projects and could not claim it back, OG. 

When it comes to "writing down" (i.e. accounting for the depreciation of those assets) they could, up to now, perform that write down based on the entire value (including VAT). Once they are registered for VAT they will, presumably only be able to write down based on the ex-VAT value. So it seems reasonable o me that they should be able to reclaim the VAT paid because they cannot now use that sum for depreciation.

Effectively their assets (for accounting purposes) have seen a one-off artificial reduction in value.