Charles finally looking to solve the Andrew problem?

[ThePoshUns]

Better late than never, Charles is stopping Andrew's £1m p.an allowance.
I think he will still refuse to leave the Royal Lodge. I bet he'd rather see it rot around him than give it up. Pig of a man that he is.
At least Charles is trying to do the right thing.

King Charles cuts off Prince Andrew’s allowance

www.thetimes.com/article/381e3f39-3e6d-4d58-a1f4-e396b4883f1b?shareToken=a8c0a7c94c99974681137b11c50e9ced

Having just watched Dispatches, the whole lot of them should have all their wealth removed. If they just paid taxes like us plebs, we wouldn't have failing public services. Why exactly are they able to own so much of the country and then so kindly lease it back so the local community can have schools or other infrastructure. Seems they're terrible landlords too and their tenants are afraid to complain.

Is an absolute disgrace really. Smoke and mirrors so we don’t know what is really going on too.

No, @adriftinadenofvipers I'd have made sure he wasn't so entitled.

I thought if you gave more than £3,000, in a year, to an individual, the recipient would have to pay tax on it.

I wonder if that happened in this case? 🤔

I haven't watched yet but I have read about the murkiness of their finances before and how they flip incomes for tax purposes.
If they want public support to continue they do really need to reconsider how they go about things. They can no longer expect to be treated differently in terms of taxation.

I'm puzzled by this.

Prince A is a prize cunt and I'm no fan. But he is part of the royal family who are exceedingly rich & who own many more houses than they could possibly need.

Cut him off & throw away all the keys as far as I care. But he can hardly get a job due to the set up he was born into. And every time he tries he fucks up badly.

Surely PA is entitled to a house & money as part of the royal family?

The whole royal family/aristocracy set up is about special rights certain people are blessed by God with from birth. Not special rights granted from birth by god that god takes away if your best buddy is a paedophile.

If we are all in on this ridiculous system then we need to realise we can't pick & choose.

KC should set PA up using the mega wealth he has as head of the family, & leave him alone to quietly rot.

I also think Prince Charles needs to take care of this and install Prince Andrew in a cottage somewhere on one of the RF’s vast estates.

If not he will probably go and try and borrow money from more unsavoury sources which led to the Epstein issue in the first place.

And on a slightly separate issue, can someone tell me please, who pays for the upkeep on the other royal homes?

So Bagshott Park for example, is a substantial residence lived in by Sophie and Edward and family. 120 bedrooms. Worth £30 million. Owned by the Crown Estate. Edward has recently extended the lease for 150 years, so presumably his children are going to live there too. My question is, who pays for the upkeep, which must be considerable. Does that come out of the Crown Estates too?

I caught the end of a programme on one of the ‘5’ channels the other day about Princess Anne and Gatcombe saying that she had to buy an adjacent estate to make it sustainable financially? But where did she get that money and does that mean that she wasn’t given income from the Crown estates for upkeep?

@Seedcakeandsausagerolls77 Great questions. The trouble is... royal finances are opaque, it's all smoke and mirrors, and finding out answers to questions like that is near impossible

Thanks for the heads up about dispatches. Watching now. Shocking!

I’ll believe this when it actually happens. Sources have claimed it was finally happening multiple times in the past year. Frogmore cottage has been unoccupied for a while now.

And like someone else has already said, funny timing.

I’ll believe this when it actually happens

You and me both, @OneTealSloth
As said so often I really doubt Charles could afford to do too much to hack off his brother, considering how long he's been around and the inside track he'll have. Probably better for Charles's own interests to kick the can down the road and leave it for William to clear up - which with the way things are going may not be too long in the future

Interesting that this has happened when a channel 4 dispatches documentary and a times article has come out

I’d get rid of the lot of them but if royalists want a monarchy they can’t pick and choose. The sibling/kid of the sovereign is entitled to be called Duke/Duchess/Prince of whatever and they’re not going to be living in a semi in Milton Keynes. You can’t say you support hereditary monarchy …but.as long as it’s not Randy or Harold. That’s not how your chosen system works unfortunately 🤷‍♀️

He's still going to be ridiculously wealthy and he’ll still shy away from the alleged assaults against minors, unless the Epstein tapes are released and someone actually charges him with something (unlikely, as with Trump - also alleged). Anyway, no one is fooled by Charles’ recent posturing. It’s too transparent.

I think this is meant sarcastically, but it’s not actually correct. There are 3 ways you can make gifts without paying tax (either the giver or the recipient):

1. give a max of £3k per person per year. If you give more than this the difference is added to the givers estate on death and any IHT is paid then from the estate. If the estate is too small to reach the IHT threshold, no tax would be payable at all. (Under the current system the recipient is not the liable one and tax isn’t paid at the time of the gift.)
2. give as much as you like and live a further 7 years. No one pays tax.
3. give as much as you like on a regular basis out of your current income in such a way that it doesn’t negatively impact on your standard of living.

These are the straight forward ways that are open to anyone. I expect with expert tax advice, there are other ways you can structure your wealth/giving to limit tax.

Thank you, actually I wasn't being sarcastic, I have been a bit confused by the £3,000 amount in the past - so it is only IHT that is affected for sums over this. (Not that I have that any money to give away. 🙁)

There are all sorts of ways to avoid IHT. Some, such as putting things into a Trust so they don't belong to an individual, cost money to administer, so.it isn't worth it for most people. But once the estate is over a certain amount that cost would be less than IHT.

The super wealthy play the tax lawd to minimise tax. Very little is 'earned' so subject to income tax, very little owned in a personal capacity and so subject to IHT.

Disagree with that by all means (I do) and get worked up about it, but the RF aren't doing anything that isn't standard practice once millions are involved.

Does anyone know where the money for the upkeep of Sophie and Edward’s house comes from? Is it the Privy Purse? Is that the same as the Duchy of Lancaster in other words?

A £30 million house with 120 rooms must take a lot of upkeep. How do they afford it? And why do they need such lavish accommodation?

I know Prince Andrew doesn’t deserve subsidised accommodation but why did he have such an enormous house in the first place?

I saw on a programme on Channel 5 that Princess Anne was responsible for making Gatcome pay. Does that mean she does not receive money from the Sovereign Grant, or less money, or what?

I know the Civil List was replaced by the Sovereign Grant but beyond that I don’t really understand all of the ins and outs.

Are these accounts open to the public or not?

I am asking these questions as a Republican to be clear. I don’t understand how the Duchies can be private estates with preferential tax derogations whilst operating professional enterprises from them? Surely there should be more clarity and transparency on these issues.

I would prefer we don’t have a monarch, but if we do, surely it’s the job of the State to provide the Head of State’s accommodation so that it is appropriate and transparent?

It shouldn’t be that the Head of State has private accommodation that it lets out to various elements of the State. That’s the wrong way around I think?

Andrew is never going to be remotely poor. I wouldn't worry for a second.

Does anyone know where the money for the upkeep of Sophie and Edward’s house comes from? Is it the Privy Purse? Is that the same as the Duchy of Lancaster in other words?

I can't comment on its accuracy but wonder if this might help, @Seedcakeandsausagerolls77:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/07/the-royal-clan-whos-who-what-do-they-do-and-how-much-money-do-they-get

The salient bit seems to be "Buckingham Palace stopped releasing information about specific payments to individual royals in 2010", but while I believe Edward and Sophie have a very advantageous lease on the place, the renovation costs were said to be shared between the Crown Estates and the couple themselves

And the Sovereign Grant report is here:
https://www.royal.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2024-07/Sovereign%20Grant%20Report%202023-24.pdf

Edited to add that it turns out the Ministry of Defence shelled out for Bagshot Park too: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/feb/13/antonybarnett.theobserver2

You'd have left it a bit late then.

If he is only cutting it off now I wonder what scandal is on the way ? Is Charles trying to get ahead of something else

More than likely.

Does anyone know where the money for the upkeep of Sophie and Edward’s house comes from?

They've been trying to blag nearly £11k a month for rather underwhelming looking offices on the edges of the estate for a while now.

Unsurprisingly still no takers but I suppose one can live in hope:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/90425864#/?channel=COM_LET

it turns out the Ministry of Defence shelled out for Bagshot Park too

😮

Utterly shocking. Why?!

Nice return for Eddie on a few weeks crawling through mud though

Where can I watch Dispatches please?

I've been looking in the All4 app but I can't find this episode.

Thank you very much indeed for this information Puzzledandpissedoff

I am trying to take it all in! The figures involved are pretty mind-blowing.

Edited to say: that last article about Edward and his property is twenty years old now but it’s not very edifying is it?