The private school VAT challenge: weak arguments, but radical consequences
Last month, parents backed by the Independent Schools Council made a legal challenge against the Government’s decision to charge VAT
2 May 2025
Last month, parents backed by the Independent Schools Council made a legal challenge against the Government’s decision to charge VAT
Today’s episode of Untaxing is about Jaffa cakes and VAT. With the benefit of hindsight, that’s a very small VAT
The Independent Schools Council received a survey on parents’ responses to VAT on private school fees. It was statistically meaningless,
We wrote in January about some of the ways private schools might try to avoid Labour’s proposed 20% VAT on
Brooks Newmark & Co Ltd, run by former Conservative MP Brooks Newmark, lobbied for foreign PPE suppliers during the pandemic,
Labour seems set to introduce VAT on private school fees. We thought it would be helpful to set out the
Uber’s latest financial reports, filed yesterday, reveal that HMRC is challenging its VAT position and claiming £386m. Uber is appealing
There are currently high-profile campaigns to scrap VAT on sunscreen, and scrap VAT on public electric vehicle (EV) charging. The
We’ve been asked a few times to analyse the revenue impact of imposing 20% VAT on private schools. We’ve declined,
20% VAT applied to ebooks until May 2020 – then it was abolished. Our analysis of ONS pricing data shows
Tax Policy Associates has new data suggesting that around 26,000 businesses are stalling their growth for fear of hitting the
UPDATE: new data suggests the situation is now much worse than suggested in this article. Please see our latest report
5% VAT applied to tampons until January 2021 – then it was abolished. Many were hoping that the savings would