Chris Thorpe outlines some of the potential traps in using trusts to pay school fees.
Given the increase in school fees over the last 20-30 years, and more particularly since January 2025 with the application of VAT to such fees, there has never been more incentive to pay those fees in a more tax-efficient manner.
Trusting in trusts
By using a trust, whose beneficiaries are the children attending the school, those children are essentially the taxpayers of the trust income being used to pay the fees; with children also having an income tax personal
