Topics / Education, work and society
Should private schools pay VAT and lose charitable status?
Since January 2025, fees at UK private schools have been subject to VAT at the standard rate, and in England the schools have also lost business rates relief, while those that are charities keep their charitable status. The question is whether this approach should be kept and extended to removing charitable status, reversed, or replaced by tax treatment tied to a stronger public-benefit requirement.
Positions
- Yes: Private schools should pay VAT, as they now do, and should also lose charitable status, because tax advantages for fee-charging schools help entrench privilege. The revenue should go to the state schools that educate the large majority of children.
- No: VAT on school fees should be reversed and charitable status kept. Families who choose private schooling already contribute to state education through their taxes, and the policy prices children out of their schools and into a stretched state system without improving it.
- Reform charitable status instead: Rather than blanket VAT and the loss of charitable status, the law should require private schools to deliver meaningful, measurable public benefit, such as substantial means-tested bursaries and genuine partnerships with state schools, and make their tax advantages conditional on meeting that standard.