Assisted Purchase

Only new instruments, bows and cases can be sold under this scheme.

We can only sell instruments through the assisted purchase scheme if there is no part exchange involved.

What you need to do:

1. Check that the school does Assisted Purchase. If not, sometimes the scheme is accessible through a Music Hub or service, so if your child goes to a Saturday morning orchestra its worth checking if the organisation who runs the Orchestra offer the option to buy through the Assisted Purchase scheme.
2. Choose a new instrument from our shop to take on approval and inform us of your child’s name, school, school’s email address (ideally a finance related one) and class.
3. Take the approval form into school and give it to the relevant person in accounts. Pay the school the amount less the VAT (shown on your paperwork). Ask them to contact us with the relevant order number if needed, alternatively if an order number isn't necessary, we can just invoice the school.
4. School will recover the VAT from the government.

Please contact the shop for any further details.

The information below is taken directly from the HM Revenue and Customs website;

VATGPB7825 – Local authority education services: related activities: assisted instrument purchase scheme

Please note however that it is not necessary for the instrument “to be handed to the player in the designated teaching room”. This may apply to certain Brass and Woodwind instruments, but the string family is far too personal to be bought from a catalogue. After you have chosen an instrument in the shop you take it away “on approval” on payment of a small insurance premium until the school paperwork is completed.

The Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme (AIPS) applies to pupils in full-time state education who receive musical tuition at school, or in a local authority orchestra, as part of their curriculum. It enables them to purchase new instruments through the local authority.

The supply of the instrument by the local authority to the pupil is not by way of business if the pupil is being taught to play the instrument by the school. Participation in school orchestras counts as tuition. In these circumstances the VAT incurred by the local authority when it purchases the instrument, can be recovered under section 33.

To be eligible for the scheme the following conditions need to be met:

• the pupil must be in full-time education at a local authority school
• the pupil must be receiving music tuition for the instrument from a local authority engaged instrument
  teacher as part of the school curriculum
• the instrument must be used by the pupil at the school or in a local authority orchestra
• the instrument must be appropriate to the pupil’s needs
• the instrument must be handed to the pupil in a designated teaching room
• the instrument must be charged to the pupil at, or below, the VAT exclusive price paid by the local
  authority for its purchase

The scheme works in the following way:

• the parent contacts a local authority nominated music shop which prepares an order form with the necessary details
• the order form is sent by the shop to the school which officially orders the instrument
• the school charges the parent for the price of the instrument excluding VAT
• the instrument is delivered by the shop to the school with an invoice, including VAT, which is then claimed back by the school under section 33
• the instrument is delivered to the pupil in a designated teaching room