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Private schools often charge high fees (symbol).
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / DPA
A private school with school fees between 950 and 1450 euros per month is no longer non-profit.
That was decided by the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) in Munich.
Such costs are not to be met by large parts of the population and therefore with the requirement of "promotion of the general public", it says in the now published decision (Az .: VR 31/19), as the JurAgentur reports.
This means that a private school in the Rhineland will no longer be allowed to call itself "non-profit" in the future.
It offers classes for grades one to twelve; the first language of instruction is English.
The sponsoring association of the state-approved private school charges school fees between 11,000 and 17,000 euros per year, as well as an annual administration fee of 400 euros.
The first enrollment costs 3,000 to 7,000 euros once.
To cover these costs, there are full and half scholarships, but less than ten percent of the schoolchildren benefit from them.
Under these conditions, large parts of the population are excluded from attending this school because the fees for the families are too high, argued the BFH.
Fees plus food plus material plus events
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Even without registration fees, the monthly costs would be between 950 and 1,450 euros.
In addition, there are expenses for food, material and events.
In Germany, however, a quarter of all households have a total monthly net income of less than 1,500 euros, under 2,500 euros it is almost half and less than 5,000 euros 80 percent.
However, the school authority itself apparently assumes that with a household income of less than 5,000 euros, the costs cannot be tolerated, because an application for a full scholarship is possible up to this amount.
"With a scholarship quota of less than 10 percent, the assumption is justified that the student body does not represent a segment of the general public," the BFH found.
The fact that the statutes of the sponsoring association, which is committed to popular education and international understanding, formally meet the requirements of charitable status, is not sufficient for tax recognition of charitable status.
The goal of strengthening the regional business location is irrelevant for the public benefit.
olb
