Dear All,

This morning, the High Court announced their decision, ruling that the right to tax prevails over the effects of that tax on others -- including children in independent schools.  It is not the outcome we wanted to see, but the fight goes on.  We, and others, will assess our next steps in the coming weeks.

Thank you all for your tireless support and advocacy on this issue.

Best regards,

Tony Perry, Education Not Taxation

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Education Not Taxation Statement re High Court Ruling (15 June 2025)

While we are disappointed in the overall outcome of the challenge, we are grateful that the Court recognised that imposing VAT on school fees will have a disproportionately prejudicial effect on pupils with SEN but no EHCP, and therefore that the Government’s measure discriminates against them.  

As the Court found, the Government’s education tax violates the human rights of these vulnerable children.  Labour have consistently demanded respect for the European Convention of Human Rights and we expect them to think hard about what these senior judges have said – does their concern for human rights not extend to these rights for children as well?

We know from the stories of children, parent and schools that the harms caused by this measure are far wider than this, and we urge the Government to reconsider its education tax.  Events since the court hearing in April confirm that the tax will raise less money than the Government told the Court – and this week it emerged that the Prime Minister is allocating the monies raised to housing and not education.  We look forward to meeting with ministers soon to reiterate the harms this is causing children and families and to discuss next steps.

We will continue to highlight the harms caused by taxing education.  In the longer term, we believe that state schools should be paid for by all of society via general taxation, without imposing a tax on a small part of society that does not even use the state system and in many cases can ill afford ever higher taxes.  We also believe that choice is vital to improving education for all.  We will continue to campaign for repeal of the tax and for more sensible ways to fund education.