Education
Accounting, Tax & Compliance
Technical accounting and tax planning expertise to manage the complexities of GAG pooling, VAT, and Gift Aid, allowing your central team to focus on education.
Navigating the technical complexity of education finance
For a central finance team, the administrative burden of staying compliant with ESFA, HMRC, and Companies House requirements is significant. Technical accounting in the education sector is a specialist field that requires a deep understanding of fund accounting, VAT exemptions, and sector-specific financial returns.
Armstrong Watson provides a full-service compliance partnership. We act as a technical extension of your finance department, providing the specialist knowledge required to manage your tax position and statutory reporting with absolute precision.
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Get in touch with our Sector specialists
Contact the teamExpertise in ESFA financial returns
The "return season" puts immense pressure on MAT finance directors. We provide support and validation for all key submissions, including:
Budget Forecast Returns (BFR)
Helping you model multi-year forecasts that reflect realistic pupil growth and inflationary pressures.
The Accounts Return (AR)
Assisting with the complex mapping of your trial balance to the ESFA’s reporting categories.
Land and Buildings Collection Tool (LBCT)
Ensuring your estate data is accurately captured for the DfE’s national accounts.
VAT: maximising recovery, minimising risk
VAT is arguably the most misunderstood area of education finance.
Section 33 recovery
We help MATs and academies maximise their recovery of VAT on "non-business" activities, ensuring you are not leaving thousands of pounds on the table.
VAT on independent school fees
With the 2025/26 implementation of VAT on fees, we are at the forefront of helping schools navigate anti-forestalling rules, capital expenditure recovery, and the impact on fee-remission schemes.
Partial exemption
For institutions with a mix of business and non-business income (such as sports lettings or cafes), we help you calculate and negotiate a fair "Partial Exemption" method with HMRC.
Trading subsidiaries and Gift Aid
If your trust or school generates commercial income, we advise on the use of trading subsidiaries. This protects your charitable status and allows you to "Gift Aid" profits back to the main institution, effectively eliminating corporation tax. We also ensure your fundraising efforts are Gift Aid compliant, providing a vital 25% boost to alumni and community donations.
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