VAT on UK international schools ‘could prompt hundreds of pupils to leave’

Private schools are expected to begin paying 20% duty but EU diplomats want international institutions to be exempt

Imposing VAT on international schools in the UK could lead to hundreds of pupils leaving, European diplomats have said, as they called for the institutions to retain the exemption from the 20% duty that private schools are expected to lose.

The German and French ambassadors to the UK, Miguel Berger and Helene Duchene, said international schools were distinct from British private schools because the option of transferring to the British state sector was not always realistic for their pupils.