VAT on private school fees is ‘wrong tax’, says father in legal challenge

Putting VAT on private school fees is a “wrong tax”, one of the parents taking legal action against the Government has said.

Several private schools, children who attend them and their parents are bringing legal action against the Treasury, claiming the policy of applying VAT to fees is discriminatory and unlawful.

This includes children and families at faith-based schools, and families who have sent their children with special educational needs (SEN) to private school.

The Treasury is defending the challenges, with HMRC and the Department for Education (DfE) also taking part.

Father of six Stephen White, whose eldest four children are at Bradford Christian School, a private Christian school in West Yorkshire, is one of the people bringing the challenge at the High Court in London.

Speaking outside of the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr White said the policy was a “wrong tax”.

He said: “I would think that this is morally wrong whether I was affected by it or not.

“I think it is wrong to tax the education of children, full stop, so I would disagree with it, but it does affect us personally.”

The High Court in London was told that Mr White and his family have made “great sacrifices” to move close to the school and meet the fees.

Outside the court, the self-employed father said that “everyone makes sacrifices” at the school his children attend.

He continued: “Every single teacher at our school would make more money at the poorest job in a state school, or they make a sacrifice to teach there. We all make a sacrifice to send them there, and it’s wrong, because we’re actually saving the state a load of money.

“Every child that we send to our private school means this government doesn’t have to pay anything for their education. We pay it all and we’re happy to pay it, we just don’t think we should pay extra taxation on top of the good things we’re already doing.”

Mr White’s 14-year-old son Josiah, who is also part of the legal challenge, is due to take his GCSEs next year but may need to drop some subjects if he has to leave his school due to the VAT policy, the court was also told.

Mr White said: “If we can’t afford to send them to Bradford Christian School next year, we will have to home educate, because my convictions don’t allow me to send them to a state school, and so that would have an effect on his education, which is why he’s a named claimant in this case, because he’s going to be directly affected if this law carries on.”

Sir James Eadie KC, representing the Treasury, HMRC and the DfE, said in written submissions for the three-day hearing that parents who opt out of the state education system “are free to choose any private education for their child that they can afford, or to educate their child at home”.

Sir James later said that the obligation to respect the religious convictions of parents is not impacted by the VAT policy.

He continued: “The existence of such convictions does not require the state to finance an education system to comply with such convictions, still less to refrain from taxing the provision of that or any private education.”

The hearing before Dame Victoria Sharp, Lord Justice Newey and Mr Justice Chamberlain is due to conclude on Thursday with a decision expected at a later date.

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