Royals took more than £1bn income

[ladykale]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2023/apr/05/revealed-royals-took-more-than-1bn-income-from-controversial-estates-king-charles-queen-duchies-cornwall-lancaster

I just don't understand how high earners are taxed to death in this country and the average population still wants them to pay more and more tax, yet most are in favour of the Royal Familh whose income increased x16 during the Queen's reign and they took £1bn of income,

I don't know how they've successfully brainwashed the people of britain to continue supporting them.

I find it so ridiculous.

Same, it's just common sense

It's ridiculous that they have all these rules to preserve their wealth with not being inheritance tax and then these other exemptions

I would like to pass the pennies I have hahaha to my children tax free.

They have billlions and are allowed to do so

It’s like private schools that have millions and millions in investments and retained profits but don’t pay corp tax.

They’re not even in the top 10 unless you count the Crown Estate (which doesn’t technically belong to the RF) and is #4.

Since when is owning property and having investments “commercial activity”?

I took that excerpt from the Guardian so it doe talk about the Sovereign Grant. And it skews the facts to give a wrong impression. Therefore it makes you suspiciou ,about the whole article.

It's main thrust is talking about the two Duchies but it conveniently omits the fact that both the Duke of Cornwall/Prince of Wales and the monarch pay tax on the Duchies.

omits the fact that both the Duke of Cornwall/Prince of Wales and the monarch pay tax on the Duchies.
They paid tax on their income they took. The article is about corporation tax.

Well why should corporation tax be paid on entities that are not for profit corporations?

Other people like the Polvsen and Scott families own far more land than the RF and they don’t pay corporation tax on their property holdings either.

Because, as MPs have been stating for years, they engage in commercial activities. It raises issues of fair play in the industry etc A lot of not for profit and charities, like private schools, shouldn’t have the status they do. As to previous comment, if you earn profit from investments you should pay tax, private schools get treated differently. Quite a few people take issue with that, including the Labour Party.

To answer your question, you need to define those commercial activities.

The Duke of Buccleuch used to be the biggest landowner in the UK, but it's now a Danish billionaire, which is nice.

Ah, sorry, that's just Scotland, now that I've checked it. I was misremembering what I heard when we went to Drumlanrig Castle.

I agree. An MP saying in passing that there are commercial activities doesn’t mean there are actually any.

I think he still is? As of Nov 22 this website says the top 10 land owners are:

1. Forestry Commission (2.2m acres) A non-ministerial government department responsible for promoting the establishment and management of woodland.
2. Ministry of Defence (850,174 acres) A ministerial government department, with three-quarters of its land sited in England, where it used for military training.
3. National Trust and National Trust For Scotland(800,000 acres) Britain’s largest farmer, the National Trust, owns 620,000 acres and has an annual income of £680m, while the National Trust for Scotland has about 180,000 acres. Together, they have more than 1,500 tenants.
4. The Crown Estate (678,420 acres) The UK sovereign’s public estate, which is neither government property nor part of the monarch’s private estate.
5. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (332,000 acres) One of the world’s largest wildlife conservation organisations with 222 nature reserves across the UK.
6. Richard Scott, Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry(280,000 acres) The 10th Duke of Buccleuch, 12th Duke of Queensberry and chief of Clan Scott is a Scottish landholder and peer.
7. Anders Holch Povlsen (218,364 acres) A Danish entrepreneur and the largest individual private landowner in the UK. He is the sole owner of retail clothing chain Bestseller and has a net worth estimated at about £9.2bn.
8. The Duke of Atholl’s Trusts (145,000 acres) The Duke of Atholl is a title in the peerage of Scotland that is always held by the head of Clan Murray. It was created by Queen Anne in 1703.
9. United Utilities (141,000 acres) A water supply company with the majority of its acreage in the north-west of England, notably Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria.
10. Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor (140,000 acres) The seventh Duke of Westminster is just 31 years old and has an estimated net worth of £10bn.

https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/land-markets/who-owns-britains-farmland

Wikipedia had him as owning 218,000 so he must have bought more late last year and they've not updated it.

Interesting. Thank you.

The royal family aren't liable fr tax. The late queen paid tax voluntarily. I think we should all have the right to volunteer to pay taxes. If it's fair for them, it's fair for us.

So does King Charles. He’s paid income tax since 1969. His mum, the late queen didn’t start paying income tax until 1993.

Duchy Originals is clearly a commercial enterprise, he collects rent on properties, makes profits when he sells trees… I think it’s a bit silly to pretend he isn’t operating a business. He’s actually been very successful since taking it all over, I think he was paid something like £2 million a year from it decades ago and now it’s £20 million ( now going to William ). He doesn’t sit around like Andrew, he’s taken what he inherited and it’s now thriving. I just think they should concede it’s a very different situation now and that it should be subject to corporation tax like anyone else. Apparently back in 2013 a Tory MP had the nerve to defend him by saying if he were to pay corp tax and income tax he would ‘be paying tax twice!’. Ah hello mate, that’s like everyone running a business!

Yes I was reading he has bought more recently. He’s a savvy businessman and people who write him off as just someone who likes taking to plants are a bit foolish.

What do you mean 'the royal family'? Do you think the Tindalls or the York sisters don't pay tax on their income?

If you're talking about property, the treasury has made constraints over this.

The Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall (Accounts) Act 1838 gave the Treasury a role to ensure that actions taken by any Duke when managing the Duchy cannot compromise the long-term value of the estate. For this reason the Treasury must, for example, approve all property transactions with a value of £500,000 or more. The Duchy’s annual accounts are laid before the House of Commons and the House of Lords so that Parliament can be satisfied that the Treasury is fulfilling its statutory responsibilities.

Has consideration been given as to whether the tax position of the estate impacts upon the wider marketplace?

The Duchy estate and the Treasury and have considered this and do not believe that the Duchy’s tax status impacts on the marketplace. The Duchy of Cornwall is a private estate which has Crown exemption. The Duke of Cornwall (The Prince of Wales) pays tax as agreed in the published Memorandum of Understanding. He does not pay capital gains tax since he does not receive the Duchy’s capital gains. The Duke does pay income tax on his income from the Duchy of Cornwall. The Treasury and Duchy do not believe that in practice these arrangements have a material effect on the property market.

At the Treasury's request, the Duchy of Cornwall has tested this proposition. It has reviewed its 12 large property transactions over the past three years. The prices at which they took place all reflected the then current open market prices. Deals were normally negotiated through independent agents and disposals for development often included overage to reflect future price movements.

The Duchy esate is neither corporation or a property trader, and the vast majority of its property holdings are held fir thing term as core holdings. All of the capital proceeds realised from the Duchy's property sales must be reinvested within the business, and are not distributable.

Duchy Originals Ltd is a registered business and does not pay corporation tax because it donates all profits to charity. It’s owned by the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund, not King Charles himself. It is not his business and he does not run it. He founded it and that is it.

King Charles gets ZERO regular annual income from it. You’re posting a bunch of nonsense.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02478770/filing-history

It is all a con. The Duchies pretend to be nothing to do with the state when it suits them and pretend to be private businesses when it suits them. It is deliberately ambiguous to stop anyone seeing exactly how much money is made, and how much the Royal Family get. It involves a lot of rented property, homes, hotels and businesses. The idea that this money is made from Charles flogging a few organic biscuits is laughable.

Just because they’re got an arrangement with the treasury doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean others aren’t allowed to have the opinion that he in fact does run a commercial enterprise. I think he does, so do a lot of people. Nice deal if you can get it though. I wonder if I could sell biscuits and elderflower cordial without paying corp tax. The answer is no.

And still Charles could not even pay for his own portrait to be sent out to institutions and schools. They get the taxpayer to fund everything they can while they continue to build up their own private wealth.