Can we do something about William and Charles profiting from the NHS etc ?

[Ukisgaslit]

If You haven’t seen it , the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches programme did some proper old fashioned investigative journalism and revealed how Charles and William via the Duchys are charging schools, the NHS and charities ( some they are patron of!) to use ‘their’ land.
It is not ‘their’ land - it is state land , as the crown estates are. The Duchys were overlooked in 1760 when George 111 handed his holdings over in return for annual handouts from the state - they were overlooked as they were worthless then.
They have made the Windsors billions since the mid 20th century and no corporation tax or capital gains tax paid. William recently refused to continue providing the little financial information that his father offered.

Aside from the obvious fact that the king is in a unique position, being above the law whether we like it or not ( though why is William treated as also above the law?) surely they are humiliated to be revealed as ripping off schools and charities and hospitals?

Where is the Windsor mea culpa and offer to repay with interest? Answer came there none.

So AIBU to expect MPs to please act and fold the Duchys into the crown estate ? The UK is in a weakened state and allowing this feudal greed to continue unchecked diminishes our society further .

Seriously? @TheHazelSeal

You can’t see why it would be better going to the treasury instead of straight into Charles pocket tax free?

i apricate the faith you have in the current government

Everything is owned by someone. You can't honestly think the blessed (crap) NHS should have everything for free??

Should every gov dept never pay rent, or rates, or heating, or lighting?

It's a ridiculous srgument

yes because the rich have deeper pockets that can afford the best accountants that know the tax laws and rules and can make all the necessary calculations, know the best off shore tax havens etc, same with amazon, star bucks etc

Exactly.

OP - I see the genuine and meaningful improvements that Charles has made to young people’s lives through the Prince’s Trust and I’m quite happy with the current tax arrangements that have been worked out for the royal family.

I’m less happy with what most recent governments have done with our taxes.

@Maray1967
Do you know how Prince’s trust is funded ?
Nothing to do the fact that Charles doesn’t pay his taxes . Do you seriously think he’s funding it from the loot he’s saved ? ( I can see now that actually some people do believe the royal PR guff…)

It was started ( the story goes ) with his pension from the navy - about £7000.
And how is the trust funded ? via donations from the public and from PUBLIC SECTOR bodies - the very organisations you dismiss as inadequate as they are tax payer funded
The now King’s trust ( William too lazy to take it on ) does great work .
Your attempt to link the fact that the Duchys avoid tax with the Princes trust is bizarre

And as posters above have also criticised the NHS most readers can draw their own conclusions about their motivation. You’d rather William and Charles bled the NHS dry than criticise a Windsor

There has been a handful of comments like this. They demonstrate a deep lack of understanding of the situation .

If you can’t see anything wrong in the head of state, a billionaire , and above the law , taking millions from the struggling NHS , while proclaiming his duty and dedication to the people , I can’t help you .

Its not about not paying rent for gods sake .

Thank goodness the vast majority of intelligent people see this situation for the outrage it is .

You would think they would want to charge the NHS peppercorn rent.

I'm not clued up on where and what the King or William receive, perhaps you could give us the list OP?

Going by the news about it in November last year:
https://news.sky.com/story/king-charles-and-prince-williams-private-estates-making-millions-from-public-bodies-13247406

Bigger questions should be why Guy & St.Thomas bought a fleet of ambulances that they put directly into storage, when the current fleet is falling apart.
Or
Why on earth our Navy no longer has berthing for naval ships.

I'm sure if you were to look into it further, that mismanagement in public services will play a large part into these rents.

You’d think so wouldn’t you

Still waiting for a response from the Windsors
They can’t claim ignorance so how will they repay what they’ve taken from hospitals and schools and charities ?
Or will there be another tabloid splash to try to distract the plebs ?
No one should be above the law - the Duchys are and the answer seems to ‘because it’s like this’
If you want details please watch Dispatches . A team of journalists worked for months to dig up this information

@ARealitycheck
Charging the NHS / schools millions in rent is only part of this latest scandal

William rents out properties so dilapidated that they break the law - and his ‘life’s mission is homelessness is it ?
He rents to serious polluters - and he cares about the environment ( from his helicopter his heart bleeds )

There is a lot more to it

As you are happy to make these statements. Could you possibly show the proof of them.

If you want to have a pop at William, how about considering when he became the landlord and what proportion of the porperties are dilapidated and being used as homes.

I can’t detail an entire programme - that’s ridiculous .
Watch Dispatches

Are you asking about the rent from public bodies ? It’s 11.4 million taken from the NHS to store ambulances and £600000 from state schools ( that’s was William I think , the former figure Charles ) William also charges us for the use of Dartmoor prison . The RNLI are charged to launch their boats when on a rescue mission !
Yes it’s an outrage that the billionaire Windsors are happy to take this money AFTER they have also taken up to half a billion annually from the Sovereign Grant ( security included )
But the reason why this won’t go away is it resonates on an emotional level. It wouldn’t matter if it was £11 thousand instead of 11 million - it’s the principle .

Oh and @ARealitycheck You are implying that I’m not giving William time to fix things - but do you understand that the previous landlord was Charles ! They’ve had decades and decades

But William has made one major change - Charles published his accounts ( limited but still he published them ) - Willaim
has refused to . Shut the books and told the public to FO
will be worse than Charles on every metric

William takes £1.5 million from the public for the rent of the Dartmoor prison . It’s empty but we still pay William . And we pay for any repairs

William charges the Ministry of Defence for troops to train on the land - the MOD will not reveal how much they pay William .

We have a right to know .The Windsors are head of the forces and are charging the troops ! And we know they charge the navy to berth .

She paid really limited taxes. Of course, no inheritance tax. They have also very large, way above inflation income increases in the last few years all the way through austerity. Government tried to oppose them, but then George Osborne came along and let them have the rises.

Like any normal commercial lease.

The profit from the Duchies is re-invested after family living expenses are paid. Of course, those costs are not insignificant, but the remaining profit is not straight into the pockets of the King and Prince of Wales.

And this gets to the nub of it. I just don’t understand the cognitive dissonance of people who can’t see the hypocrisy of the luvverly family photos of banging on pots with spoons during the pandemic, whilst raking in an absolute fortune in rent from the NHS at the same time.

I’m also trying to imagine what HMRC would say if I wrote across my tax return ‘nah, don’t fancy you knowing how much I earn, let the little people pay taxes, not for me, mate.’

This annoyed me more than the charities and hospitals, with all their honorary military ranks and titles and pretend medals. However as you can see from this thread lots don't care and will waffle about public spending by an elected government not being to their liking so better to let their god anointed king and his heirs have it.
There has been no rebuttal of the Dispatches episode by anyone in government or speaking for the duchies or royal family. Think we had a minor James O'Brien wobble on LBC but after that nothing to see here. Back to status quo, here's someone better than you telling you to have a happy new year peasants.

@ajandjjmum

Nope not at all like any other commercial lease .
How many more times must I repeat this? For those asleep at the back :
William and Charles do not pay the corporation tax due , they do not make their accounts available for scrutiny , they decide themselves how much if any income tax they will pay .
And if like most royalists , you push all that aside- the whole point of having these leeches- sorry- Windsors is that they are special’ and dedicated to ‘duty’ -except they aren’t are they ? They are just like any other moneymaking machine- with the important difference that they do not pay their dues while also being funded by the taxpayer !

I thought Duchy Income was instead of Sovereign Grant. If the land was owned by someone else they would still have to pay rent. NHS would still have to pay someone for parking their ambulances

@crumblingschools No the Duchy income of 50million plus a year is in addition to what the Windsors take from the taxpayer in the form of the Sovereign Grant !

I can see why you’d think that the Duchy income is enough though. But no that’s the Windsor slush fund and it’s all secret .

@crumblingschools , trouble is the ‘someone else’ would be unlikely to get away with deciding how much tax they’re going to pay on the income, if any.

Have a read of the posts of@Ukisgaslit , or watch the Dispatches documentary. I must admit, this thread has inspired me to have another watch.