Government plans to impose VAT on private schools from January 1st next year may have to be delayed because of warnings from unions, tax experts and school leaders that meeting the deadline will cause administrative chaos and teacher job losses, and put pressure on the state sector. The Observer has more.
The Treasury on Saturday night refused to confirm that the plan to impose 20% VAT on private school fees would go ahead from January 1st, as confirmed by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in July, instead saying it would be introduced “as soon as possible”.
Numerous organisations in the education sector, including ones that back the principle of imposing VAT, are calling for a delay until next September to give private schools more time to register for the new tax, assess the impact and adapt.
There are also concerns about the effect on the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) sector if more state schools have to carry out Send assessments on pupils moving over from private schools.
Leaders of private schools say they are still unable to register for VAT because the plans are not yet enshrined in law and will not be until after the budget on October 30th.
Accountants and tax experts says this will be too little time for organisations, often with little tax expertise, to adapt. Bills for the term starting in January are normally sent out in December. Doubts about the timetable are being raised after the Treasury was bombarded with calls for a delay and demands to carry out a proper impact assessment in the responses to an official consultation, which ended last month.
The NASUWT teaching union said in its response that while it shares the government’s ambition to “break down the barriers to opportunity” and to recruit 6,500 more teachers to the state sector, it is worried about redundancies for those in the private sector and the risk of a permanent loss of jobs from the profession.
It suggests that an impact assessment should be carried out on the possible increase in Send assessments in the state sector and the level of provision needed.
It says: “We request that a more reasonable timeframe is proposed in order to implement the change fairly and without excessive disruption for teachers, pupils and parents.”
The Association of School and College Leaders says in its submission: “We would strongly recommend that the government undertakes and publishes a comprehensive impact assessment and a full consultation on these proposals before they are formalised in legislation, and that it delays their implementation until September 2025 at the earliest.”
It’s all going a bit Pete Tong for Rachel Reeves, isn’t it?
Worth reading in full.
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