Private schools will be forced to pay VAT[1] under a Labour government in a move that head teachers warned could result in 100,000 children turning up at state schools looking for places.

The manifesto stated that the party would “close the tax loopholes enjoyed by elite private schools”, suggesting that the business rate exemption would be scrapped and that VAT would be levied for the first time. In all but the wealthiest schools, both costs would likely be passed on in full to parents, making fees unaffordable to many.

Labour said that the Social Justice Commission — a repurposed body that it would create by renaming the Social Mobility Commission — would advise ministers on integrating independent schools into the state sector, with a view to creating a “comprehensive education system”.

At the party conference in September, a motion calling for private schools to be abolished was passed but Labour has not made it a manifesto pledge.

A dispute broke out yesterday between the party and head teachers of private schools over how many children would be affected if VAT were levied on fees. Labour has estimated that 5 per cent of private school pupils would end up in the state sector as a result, about 30,000. However, the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference said that was “a woeful underestimate based on inaccurate assertions”.

The organisation believes that 100,000 pupils would make the move “quickly”, adding pressure to the state sector. Other families would choose to start private education later, for example at the age of 13 instead of five. It also noted that 85,000 children in private schools had special educational needs, and those who left would require help in cash-strapped state schools.

There are 625,000 pupils in private schools and 8.1 million in state schools.

In all the VAT plan would cost the taxpayer £416 million by the end of the fifth year of it being implemented, the organisation said. The pressure would particularly be felt at grammars and top performing state schools where parents would head if they were moving out of the private sector, other experts said.

Accountants pointed out that the policy would be unlawful if Britain ended up remaining in the European Union. A second Brexit referendum has been promised by Labour. The EU prohibits VAT being levied on school fees.

“This move would not be legal,” Alan Pearce, VAT partner at Blick Rothenberg, said. “It would only be legal after we have formally left the EU and until then private education must be treated as exempt from VAT under EU law.”

Julie Robinson, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said it was “deeply concerning” that Labour was “prioritising ideology over improving education for our children”.

“Abolishing independent schools through integration or nationalisation would be an attack on the rights and freedoms of parents to make choices over the education of their children, while punitive financial measures will harm families as well as school staff and communities, heap more pressure on the state sector, swell class sizes and result in higher costs,” she added.

David Goodhew, the headmaster at Latymer Upper School in west London, said that Labour’s plan amounted to “abolition by stealth” of private schools.

注：

1.VAT:单词缩写，Value-added Tax ，最早起源于法国，是在欧盟应用的一种税制。等同于中国地区的增值税。而在部分地区如澳大利亚地区又称为GST(Goods and Services Tax)。

——本文选自《泰晤士报》2019.11.22