Childcare tax credit and boarding schools

richoneday

I have just spoken to the Tax credit helpline to find out if boarding school costs can be claimed as child care as under the Childcare voucher scheme it is now possible to use vouchers to pay for the boarding element as childcare. The person I spoke to said not but I am doubting because she was very inexperienced and had to keep checking on everything I asked her. It would seem inconsistent that childcare vouchers (which is a government scheme) now permit this to to be considered childcare but tax credits don't. Does anyone have any advice? Just to clarify I am not talking about school fees here I am talking about the portion of the fee that is paid that can be considered afterschool care and overnight care.

dmg24

Are we talking about a boarding school for children with special needs or a boarding school that your child has been sent to by choice?

[Deleted User]

You cannot claim help from tax credits towards education costs, only childcare.

A boarding school would be seen as education not childcare so the adviser you spoke to was correct.

If you pay an amount for school fees and a seperate amount for afterschool care I wouldnt see an issue with that as this part is obviously childcare.

Childcare vouchers give you a tax break and tax credits helps those with lower incomes so they are two totally different things completely.

You should use this childcare calculator as it will give you a rough idea if you are better to claim help from TCO or use childcare vouchers.
www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs/ccin.htm

If you can afford boarding school fees I suspect your income may be too high to get help from TCO. I am not judging, just making a calculated assumption.
If someone else (grandparent, ex-partner....) pays anything towards your fees you cannot declare this amount to TCO.

Spendless

What made you ask? I'm intrigued. You ask the question, are told the correct answer, but doubt it, then say how wrong you think it is if you can. Just wondered if someone has been 'winding you up'.?

richoneday

Thanks for all the replies. A couple of points - no this is not a special school but a 'normal' boarding school. We are not a wealthy family my daughter has won two scholarships to go there so we have got a huge discount on the fees but are still having to scrape together every penny to pay the balance. The reason I didn't believe the advisor is because in my experience of speaking to tax credits I haven't always been properly advised and the person I spoke to this time couldn't answer any of my questions without having to put me on hold and go off and ask someone else therefore I wasn't sure if she was communcating my question properly. I've spoken since to the Families Information Service who have said that if the school is OFSTED registered and could bill separately for the boarding element and the school fee element then they think I could claim this as childcare but they weren't sure. As a result I will just stick to using vouchers.

nollywood

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/children/approved-childcare.htm

If your child is between 5 years and 15 years old (or 16 years old if your child is disabled) this type of care will count as approved for tax credits if all of the following apply:

• Your childcare or activity based childcare is provided out of school hours.
• The care is provided under the direction of the school’s governing body.
• The care is provided on the school premises, or on other premises covered by the inspection that Ofsted carry out of the whole school. An example of this could be if the school uses a village hall for its out of school hours childcare activities."

beaniejt73

There is a good recent article on coolbumpkin dot com that might be of use.

The simple answer is 'yes' you can claim the boarding fees; you just have to subtract the 'academic' element of the total fee. I.e subtract the day child fee from the boarding child fee.

And before anyone asks why i am posting this when the original question has been answered, the reason is that the posts and therefore info on the thread are getting quite old and the article on that site is recent.

compoff

This is the actual guidance which confirms that boarding costs can be paid as long as they are outside of the fees paid for compulsory education. This guidance has been relevant since tax credits began -
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.
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

FBaby

This doesn't concern me at all but I find it quite interesting as surely the 'boarding fee' is not purely consisting of childcare! It will also include costs such as evening meals, heating, water rates, transport costs if any etc... Surely families whose children are in boarding schools will see their bills lower as a result of the child not living there full-time. I find it therefore quite surprising that parents could apply for tax credits of the full amount of boarding. Somehow doesn't seem right to me, but maybe I'm not understanding it properly.

mummyplus3

I had no idea you could do that, effectively claiming £175 a week reduced fees for boarding school amazing.