VAT - Schools

[turboped]

One of the parents recently purchased a quantity of paint for our local school and a group of us were there this weekend applying it. Could the school have purchased the paint and claimed the VAT back?

[trevHCS]

A business can't claim it back as such. All they do is work out how much they collected from their customers, then work out how much they spent on business supplies and take the latter from the former which is what they pay the VAT man. Since the school won't be collecting VAT from anyone it's highly unlikely they can claim it back.

There might be an educational clause in the tax system regarding VAT that I'm not aware of, but I doubt it for things like paint even if it does exist especially when it's not being done by professionals (would be a pottentially nice tax fiddle for someone if it could).

[Mrs_Pegasus]

I will assume this is a local education authority school. The school will be VAT registered through the County Council. Therefore, all purchases made through their delegated budget will be claimed back through the County Council. However, if they have purchased the paint using their 'school fund' or 'private funds' then they will not be able to claim the VAT back.