Thoughts on the King and Prince of Wales tax disclosures

[Kirschcherries]

According to the BBC KC and PW have released details of the tax they paid in the 2024-2025 Tax Year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8x2151y8q4o

Apparently KC is in the Top 100 tax payers - The Sunday Times Rich List for 2025 placed him at 238.

I think it’s good they have done this and believe they are entitled to use the same legal tax avoidance measures everyone else can use. I don’t think we have a right to know every detail of their personal wealth but this is balanced against transparency regarding the Sovereign Grant and Duchies.

Commenting without reading the article? Both the King and William revealed the amount of tax they paid.

Don't the tickets sales go to The Royal Collection? That's a registered charity I'm sure. Id hate to think Norman Baker is being misreported, or is he just wrong?

This is just smoke and mirrors. A sop to the public so he can appear transparent

Do you know how much personal tax Boris Johnson pays? Keir Starmer? Rishi Sunak? Gary Lineker?

I think the King is being transparent in a way that many other high earners in the Uk would not be. I also think that just because certain members of the public want the monarch to have no personal privacy at all, that is not the same as a lack of transparency.

And yes, I agree that the King’s tax calculation will have been delegated to professionals. Who are regulated, and owe personal duties to act with integrity over and above the duties they owe their client. They tend to take those obligations seriously, even if people on the sidelines don’t.

(And I know plenty about the royal finances, thank you - certainly enough to recognise the obfuscation and spin that goes on in relation to them by republican commentators!)

Thank you @BigWillyLittleTodger for clarifying

Clearly not.

Yeah I was astonished at this! Just so out of touch (I mean sure they’re the royal family) but what the hell?!?! There are literal homeless people lining our streets and they drop £20k on a trip? It’s so disgusting.

I read the article. I know that
Will W continue with this when he is Monarch?
Who knows.

Meanwhile, under a new formula for calculating the Sovereign Grant, the Royal Household will receive £99.9m a year from 2027-2028. Three years ago the figure was £51.8m.

From the article ⬆️
It is amusing to see the SG will be £99.9million.
It looks far better than £100million doesn't it 🤣

It is interesting the words and phrases that have popped up on this thread:

Illusion of transparency, obfuscation, evasion, waste. The article says opaque. There is also smoke and mirrors, spin, muddled.

Whatever your exact opinion there is a strong sense of lack of confidence in matters surrounding the royals.

Smoke and mirrors. It’s not completely transparent.

Yes so basically they pay just over £20m in tax between them ( on what must be an enormous private income) yet they will receive £40m more than they did 3 years ago from the SG!

I pay a higher percentage of my income in tax than Prince William.

Based on the figures disclosed, he received £22.9 million from the Duchy of Cornwall in 2024–25 and paid £7.76 million in income and capital gains tax after deductions. That works out to an effective tax rate of around 34%.

We don't know the full breakdown between income tax and capital gains tax, or all the details behind the calculation, so the exact position isn't public. But based on the figures that have been disclosed, his effective rate appears to be lower than mine.

Hence why people say its opaque and not transparent enough. The figure £7m might look wow they pay alot but they don't relative to what they earn.

Same with Charles. His figure might put him in top 100 ut it doesn't mean he is apying his fair share.

Interesting to see W finally waiving his £1.5m take from an unusable prison although I don't suppose he'll be returning the £4.5m he's already trousered.

Anyway.

It seems it is entirely possible after all for him to refuse income from the Duchy despite many claims here over the years he has no choice in the matter.

Nice to know 🙂

And on the tax as I suspected there's no detail which as we all know is where the devil lies.

Interesting though that W is paying some £5m less than C3 on a very similar income 🤔

I think the most interesting thing is that they’ve clearly been keeping an eye on public opinion on several things.

Buckingham palace being open more to the public since we paid for the renovation has come up on multiple forums that I’m on. As has the prison issue.

Given William hasn’t released his tax figures since becoming POW it’s definitely interesting to release them now, and with obvious pressure that he’ll have to keep doing so going forward.

Definitely seems like there’s been a realisation that it’s not been a good year or two for the RF’s reputation and they needed to make a few big steps (for them) in trying to appease that negativity

@JustAnotherWhinger they needed to make a few big steps (for them) in trying to appease that negativity

Yes. But why does it feel like being thrown a few scraps before they swiftly bang down the portcullis?

Probably because we’re used to politicians and royals giving the bare minimum that they need to in this kind of area.

It’s a step to try and appease people, but many (most?) won’t see it as far enough as it doesn’t give a lot of detail.

I’m now curious to know how they pay the taxes.

Since they don’t have to do they simply pay a set amount worked out by their people and pay it like a donation, or is there someone at HMRC that has the access to the workings out and sees the full thing?

Does the RF pay National Insurance as well as tax?

Being ex HMRC I would be interested if any HMRC staff have ever argued that they haven't paid the correct amount of tax. I imagine they have an entire department of their own, I bet their letters don't get stuffed in a filing cabinet before being dealt with months later.

https://alternativeroyalreporter.substack.com/p/all-bark-and-no-bite-the-royal-tax?r=39c5sl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true

⬆️
This sums it up for me very well.

Warning - Royalists of a nervous disposition will not like it but some very very valid points are made

It’s not that hard for an accountant to do a self assessment return to establish the amount of tax that would be due. I wouldn’t be surprised if HMRC didn’t do a sense check.

I can pay tax online to HMRC by DD or Direct Payment via the website, I don’t see any reason why KC and PW, or the GMIS can’t do the same.

Whilst £20k for a family of 5 to travel to and from Balmoral sounds unreasonable to a lot of people, I can see it is comparable to what other people of similar wealth would spend. I would certainly travel Business or First Class if my income was several million a year. I have paid for business class in the past and will do so again and my income is no where near even £100k.

I know I have travelled for work and had expenses reimbursed. I have also, at my own expense added extra nights to enjoy a place. If W & C are travelling to Edinburgh for official events then travelling on to Balmoral the cost of the flights for them maybe a legitimate business expense. The onward travel to Balmoral maybe a personal expense.

Taking out the BP renovations, the core part of the SG has gone up 92.3% since 2022.
WTAF
And now the % to them from the Crown Estate profits is up to 20.5%.
It was between 12-15% from 2012. It went up to 25% for 9 years for BP renovations from 2017
It will now be 20.5% until 2032

So I am sorry I am not impressed by this ooooh good old Charles paying this tax, they are taking us for absolute fools.

They would pay employer NI for their staff and potentially Class 2 and 4 for self employed. As it’s voluntary they might pay Class 3 voluntary contributions.