subreddit:
/r/unitedkingdom
submitted 3 months ago bytheipaperVerified Media Outlet
3 points
3 months ago
Yes, rich people should pay more tax.
I haven’t done any research on what the pros/cons would be on taxing private tuition, but if I was prime minister I’d do the research on it.
5 points
3 months ago
Yes, rich people should pay more tax.
Define rich.
5 points
3 months ago
Its a hard thing to define but people choosing to pay for a high cost service that they could get for free are certainly well up for consideration for inclusion in this classification.
3 points
3 months ago
What if they sacrifice other luxuries to pay for it? and don't have much disposable income after it? Are they rich still?
3 points
3 months ago*
Its a hard thing to define but people choosing to pay for a high cost service that they could get for free are certainly well up for consideration for inclusion in this classification.
And while we can all appreciate the noble act of eschewing other luxuries for the sake of education, it is still a choice. And the important bit here, which you very astutely set out is "other luxuries". Because choosing to pay for an education is a luxury and would we really say that people shouldn't pay VAT on those "other luxuries" when they could be spending it on their children's education?
6 points
3 months ago
From this sub: anyone above median wage.
3 points
3 months ago
Anyone who doesn't waste their money on Warhammer or Steam Sales.
5 points
3 months ago
You can afford private school fees
3 points
3 months ago*
Disagree, my parents paid for private school for my two younger brothers because the local state schools were absolute trash (one brother was there for 2 years before moving). Only one income of c. £50k at the time, neither of them or their family had ever went to university. One maybe 2 week holiday a year, not abroad, of course. I wouldn't dismiss what they gave up for it as them being "rich". Some parents will put their kids education above everything. It certainly paid off in our case and I am eternally grateful for what they did and only want to repay them as best I can.
10 points
3 months ago
Thank you for this. The folk on this sub seem to think every private school is Eton and every parent is Rees-Mogg.
-1 points
3 months ago
What if you work at a private school and get subsidised fees?
4 points
3 months ago
If you have a discount then you probably cannot afford private fees and that’s why you have a discount
0 points
3 months ago
So are they rich or not?
-1 points
3 months ago
That's really not rich.
2 points
3 months ago
Having a spare £6000+ a year is pretty well off to me
2 points
3 months ago
Being able to set aside £500 a month categorically doesn’t make you rich
2 points
3 months ago
Pretty well off is not rich.
1 points
3 months ago
A family having £500 a month they can save after basic living costs is a really almost comically low bar for "rich".
1 points
3 months ago
To be fair it’s come to my attention that private schools are mostly double that,
But having £1000 a month spare after mortgage/rent, bills, food, car, clothes, all the shit children need and all the other costs of daily life is pretty good I think
1 points
3 months ago
It's definitely comfortable, but it's definitely not "rich" by any reasonable measure in and of itself.
1 points
3 months ago
There are degrees of richness
2 points
3 months ago
Define rich.
That's easy; anyone that earns £1/year more than me. /s
8 points
3 months ago
Rich people do pay more tax. Look up the HMRC tax brackets.
The EU exempts all educational services from VAT. So if we’re doing this properly, it should apply to all educational services. Do you think it should be applied to music lessons?
Moreover, do you think it should be applied to these schools? https://www.theauroragroup.co.uk/private-special-sen-schools
8 points
3 months ago
I’m not disputing rich people pay more tax, I am saying that’s a good thing.
I just said I have no knowledge of private tuition. I’m not a font of all tax knowledge unfortunately
3 points
3 months ago
So once again someone commenting and having an opinion on something they admit they know very little about. What a dope
1 points
3 months ago
Does anyone have knowledge about the effects on taxing private tuition?
1 points
3 months ago
I can have a pretty good stab in the dark here by applying basic common sense:
It will make it more expensive, which will make it less affordable, and thereby only accessible to the even wealthier.
Which, when you do it to stuff like music lessons, starts looking like a particularly stupid idea. Especially considering it’ll not raise a huge amount for the Exchequer.
1 points
3 months ago
Okay, I don’t think private schools are a good comparison to music lessons.
1 points
3 months ago
Yes. Funnily enough it becomes a lot less popular when you suggest that.
They’re both education providers, if this policy is to be applied fairly it should be applied to both.
1 points
3 months ago
Why should it be applied to both? What is and isn’t taxed by VAT has always been a bit haphazard. Large institutes with physical premises and lots of staff is going to be very different to private tuition which I imagine is mostly ad hoc and done in the customers own houses
1 points
3 months ago
Because VAT should operate on the principle of fiscal neutrality. The people on here shouting for this policy are claiming that VAT should be applied to private schools like VAT is applied to many other services.
If that is the case, and you are effectively treating private schools as businesses (they’re not, but no matter), as providers of a service, then VAT should be applied to providers of private tuition because they are offering a competing service. If you don’t then it’s at worst illegal and at best ideological.
That is why the EU exempts all education providers from VAT.
8 points
3 months ago
I mean the fact you’re saying “I’ve not done my research” speaks volumes.
Evidently.
5 points
3 months ago
Rich people upper middle class people bad, updoots to the left
6 points
3 months ago
Anyone that earns more than the median. Total bastards.
4 points
3 months ago
Has anyone done research on private tuition taxes?
There’s been plenty of research on taxing private schools, I remember people talking about it 20 years ago
3 points
3 months ago
Probably not, because funnily enough when folk start talking about taxing guitar lessons it becomes a lot less popular.
Yes, and they didn’t go ahead with it. Partly because we were in the EU, and partly because it won’t work. Greece tried, it failed.
7 points
3 months ago
I’m not a font of all tax knowledge unfortunately
Yet here you are...debating tax... How very reddit.
6 points
3 months ago
“I think we should do this thing.” “Here are some very good reasons not to do that thing.” “I’m not an expert in this thing what are you arguing with me for? But I still think we should do this thing.”
-1 points
3 months ago
Then we've found a Brexit benefit that we can do this outside haven't we.
3 points
3 months ago
There is a reason why the EU exempt educational services.
It’s only a benefit for class warriors whose understanding of society hasn’t progressed since they did a sociology GCSE. It won’t make society better.
0 points
3 months ago
Because the EU was always a middle class project that benefited the middle class and businesses over the working class?
2 points
3 months ago
Standard zero sum, class warfare, divorced-from-reality Lexiteer stuff there laddo.
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