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.