This is some of what I’ve read to base my comments on:
*Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the panel that has led inquiries into the tax affairs of Amazon, Starbucks and Google, called on the finance ministry in a report to review the hereditary estate’s historic tax exemptions.
The vast Duchy, created in 1337 by King Edward III to provide an income for him and his heirs, pays no corporation tax or capital gains tax.
“This tax exemption might mean that competing businesses do not have a level playing field on which to operate,” said committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge. “The Treasury should examine the impact on the marketplace of the Duchy engaging in commercial transactions while exempt from tax.”
The estate, one of Britain’s biggest landowners, is worth some 763 million pounds. It owns farms, cottages and pubs, as well as islands, a green power plant and the Oval cricket ground in London, and makes most of its money from managing these commercially.
Labor lawmaker Austin Mitchell, one of the cross-party committee’s members, described the estate as a “medieval anomaly” during an evidence session in July.
The committee said the finance ministry should do more to check its accounts.
The Duchy’s 19 million pound surplus in 2012/13 funded Charles’s public and private activities, as well as those of his wife Camilla and his sons William and Harry.
Treasury official Paula Diggle told the committee that parliament had looked at the issue in depth 20 years ago and decided it would be unfair to tax Charles twice, on his personal income and on the revenue from the Duchy.
A Duchy of Cornwall spokesman said in a statement: “We will carefully consider the content of the report, and will contribute as necessary to any response by the Treasury.
“We do not believe the Duchy has an unfair tax advantage over its competitors.”*
www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-royal-tax-idCABRE9A400I20131105
*The Prince of Wales's estate should be investigated following claims that it is exploiting an "unfair advantage" over commercial rivals because it is exempt from business taxes, a committee of MPs will say on Tuesday.
The public accounts committee is to urge the Treasury to assess whether the Duchy of Cornwall is competing on an "unlevel playing field" because it is not liable for corporation tax or capital gains tax. The move follows a series of claims, first reported in the Guardian, that the duchy – which manages a portfolio of land, property and investments – is running a "well entrenched tax avoidance scheme".
MPs accused the Treasury of failing to properly scrutinise the duchy's finances because it relies on estate officials to provide it with accurate information and does not carry out independent checks.
The committee's chair, the Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said: "Details of the treasury's approvals for the duchy's proposed land transactions over £500,000 – of which there are around 15 a year – are not published. Greater transparency is needed. The duchy enjoys an exemption from paying tax even though it engages in a range of commercial activities. This tax exemption may give it an unfair advantage over its competitors who do pay corporation and capital gains tax. The treasury should examine whether the duchy's tax exemption creates an unlevel playing field."
The duchy owns large tracts of rural and commercial property as well as housing in the south-west of England. Among its assets are a Waitrose supermarket depot in Milton Keynes and a Holiday Inn hotel in Cornwall. In the last financial year the duchy generated £28.8m and the prince received an income of £19m – up 4% on the previous year. The money is partly used to fund his and his family's public, charitable and official duties and the prince voluntarily pays income tax on the cash left after costs, around £9.2m last year, the committee said.
Only the royal family, its advisers and HM Revenue and Customs currently know what the prince claims as his expenses before tax on his £19m income from the Duchy of Cornwall.
The MPs called for his income tax arrangements to be opened up to scrutiny to improve transparency. It said the combined income tax and VAT paid by the prince was £4.4m, but how this was broken down was unknown.
A Treasury spokesman said: "The Treasury has a constructive working relationship with the Duchy, and challenges decisions where appropriate."
A Duchy of Cornwall spokeswoman denied there was a tax advantage over competitors. "The Duke of Cornwall's income is taxed at income tax rates. The duchy is not subject to corporation tax and the duchy is not a corporation. The duchy is exempt from tax on capital gains, any capital gains have to be reinvested in the business and cannot be distributed."
amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/05/duchy-of-cornwall-tax-prince-wales-charles
And the one in the OP https://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