Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

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tulip
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Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by tulip »

Residential Boarding Schools

The Working Tax Credit (Entitlement and Maximum Rate) Regulations 2002, Reg. 14 (1), (2) and (5)

A person who is incurring and paying relevant childcare charges for a child in a residential boarding school, may be entitled to claim childcare costs providing that the school meets the conditions and those costs do not include any element for compulsory education.

Hi All

Apologies if this topic has been raised before. I was looking at the HMRC website to see if it is possible to claim childcare costs for a child at boarding school. And it is, see the bit I have copied from their website below. My question is has anyone done this and how do you work out the childcare element as opposed to the education bit, and of course does CH qualify for consideration.



Example 1:


A school charges £7,000 per year for compulsory education, and £1,500 per year for boarding which is provided as an option. The school provides an itemised invoice to show the £7,000 boarding fees. If the customer has chosen to pay for the additional fees for boarding, the childcare costs would be considered as relevant for tax credit purposes.


Example 2:


A school charges £8,000 per year for compulsory education and breakfast and after school clubs. The fees are the same whether the child attends these clubs or not. The invoice shows that the fees for the clubs are £2,000 per year. As all parents are charged the same whether or not their child attends the clubs, the costs are not allowable.

All thoughts on this gratefull received. Thanks Tulip
ailurophile
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by ailurophile »

Oh dear Tulip, this sounds like a real can of worms!

I guess you could calculate the nominal cost of 'childcare' by deducting the published fees for a day place from the fees for full boarding, but if you receive a bursary then this would have to be reduced pro rata.

I have no idea whether CH would qualify for consideration, but I imagine that if you did make a successful claim for childcare costs, the school would then want to recalculate your contribution based on your increased income from tax credits, at which point you might want to adjust your claim in line with the increased cost... and so it could go on ad infinitum. This has the potential to descend into a Kafkaesque nightmare of endless form filling!!
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by anniexf »

What is a residential boarding school, as distinct from a plain old boarding school? I think you'd need clarification from HMRC before making any assumptions about Tax Credit! Residential may have a specific and very limited meaning and application within the context of this regulation. :?
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by sejintenej »

anniexf wrote:What is a residential boarding school, as distinct from a plain old boarding school? I think you'd need clarification from HMRC before making any assumptions about Tax Credit! Residential may have a specific and very limited meaning and application within the context of this regulation. :?
The regs refer to a "residential boarding school" but neither they nor HMRC define either of those two adjectives or the combination. I would guess that if the pupil lives (in term time) at the school then the regs would cover them. If the pupil lives at home (teacher's accommodation for example) then probably there is a problem. After that it could be a question of how the school's invoice is set out and if that does not work finding out the reduction for non boarders. I would have guessed that the school has seen this question before and if not then a reasonable office staff member should be able to give you something in writing.

Having got your evidence then look in the local telephone directory and make an appointment at the local tax offioce. They are usually very good and if they don't know straight off then they can phone the technical specialists. Unfortunately you would get more out of flogging a dead horse than trying to phone your own tax office - I've been trying for months.
tulip
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by tulip »

Thanks for your responses. Good tip visiting in person. In general I find the helplines very unhelpful. I, of course appreciate the point that any increase in tax credits will also mean an increase in fees, so perhaps it is not worth pursuing.
DavidRawlins
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by DavidRawlins »

tulip wrote:Thanks for your responses. Good tip visiting in person. In general I find the helplines very unhelpful. I, of course appreciate the point that any increase in tax credits will also mean an increase in fees, so perhaps it is not worth pursuing.
If it works, and the fees go up a bit, at least CH would be getting something from the government, albeit indirectly.
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ailurophile
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by ailurophile »

DavidRawlins wrote:
If it works, and the fees go up a bit, at least CH would be getting something from the government, albeit indirectly.
It always struck me as unfair that while many pupils from low income families used to claim Education Maintenance Allowance of up to £30 a week for the specific purpose of helping them to meet the costs of sixth form education, CH could apparently not take a penny of this. I believe that EMA has now been replaced by some form of per capita payment made direct to schools for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, so presumably CH will benefit much more from the new system - assuming that it applies to independent as well as to state schools.
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by lippizaner »

Go on, try it and see what happens!
dinahcat
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by dinahcat »

CH is registered with ofsted . If you claim a reasonable child care cost you will be entitled to tax credits .If you claim the sum of say what a state school breakfast club and after school club would cost you, you will be entitled to tax credits against this.In the part where you to say who is providing child care you just put the name of the school and they check against the ofsted register.Of course ,if everyone did this it might open a can of worms.
wurzel
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by wurzel »

I know that child care vouchers can be redeemed against the boarding element of school fees if that helps anyone
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Mrs C.
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by Mrs C. »

ailurophile wrote:DavidRawlins wrote:


It always struck me as unfair that while many pupils from low income families used to claim Education Maintenance Allowance of up to £30 a week for the specific purpose of helping them to meet the costs of sixth form education,....... .

...or to be spent by the child on cigarettes, clothes, food and drink, anything BUT education! ....... although one or two may have used it to fund school trips, buy books etc
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dinahcat
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by dinahcat »

That's true for sure Mrs C but I can't help thinking that an 'Only Way Is Essex' theme night organised by the Grecians and a Pyjama party for 13 and 14 year olds held in the Grecians Club is just reinforcing the idea that that EMA is money for nothing and having a 'good time' in the worst possible taste is OK. I am from Essex and can go outside my door every day to see what was on offer last weekend at the Grecians Club. I despair that I am not paying for something better.I also had a very fed up DS who would not put on her pyjamas and go to a disco. She strangely enough did not want a load of boys to see her in them.
edit it's LE to GE at the party which means 13 to 16 in their night wear. I am so glad my DD didn't go.
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Mrs C.
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by Mrs C. »

I think quite a few were not going to go.
Having said that, the Grecian girls often wander around house in their PJs ....
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by Volupturaptor »

It seems it was the turn of the younger ones to have a pyjama party last night, my daughter went in her fleece "Babygrow" and from the enthusiastic tone of her text messages enjoyed it very much! :D
It was not during the school day, it was Saturday evening!
How much does it cost to put a bit of music on for them? I'm sure there are more expensive forms of entertainment!
It was not compulsory.
Don't see the problem! :?
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Mrs C.
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Re: Tax Credits claimed for childcare at CH?

Post by Mrs C. »

I think I`m correct in saying that last night`s events were organised as a "Monitors` Event" to raise money for the Chapel Charities.
They chose the theme and organised it by themselves - not an easy task!
Hopefully lots of money was raised.
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