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.

😂 this is a joke, right?

Probably someone like an chief auditor and the account would be locked with only authotisedcaccess.

The stupid thing about the renovations is that they wouldn’t have cost that much if they’d been done on the go.

government after government kicked the can down the road rather than having a sensible plan of paying for small bits each year.

You can’t have state dinners or paying tourists in a building with bits falling down. It’s ludicrous that it got to that stage, and just ended up costing the taxpayers more.

Given how quickly the tours sell out, and the fact people will pay crazy amounts (as the Balmoral opening showed) having it open to the public more often is a very sensible idea.

Especially if they don’t house any of the royals there again - there’s no reason Anne and Edward/Sophie can’t stay at St James’ or Kensington (wherever they’ve been using during the renovations) which will mean much more minimal security costs as there’s no royals coming and going.

state events are planning donkeys in advance so it should be relatively easy to set up days for opening and when it would be closed as well.

And what would happen to the colonised countries like mine that have a treaty with the crown?

I’m sorry to say that the republicans in the U.K. don’t either consider or care about how this would impact the many other countries that this would affect.

Culture of dependence.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/26/economic-policy-royal-family-funding-windsor

I've read that with interest - I like Marina Hyde - I think she very often speaks sense.

@jeffgoldblum "I’m sorry to say that the republicans in the U.K. don’t either consider or care about how this would impact the many other countries that this would affect." - Not least how some commonwealth countries' legal systems are entwined with the UK's. That would put a bigger burden on them if the CW were dismantled.

On a bit of a tangent but another example of can kicking is HS2. Government after government have kicked this particular can down the road. It’s now going to cost the tax payer a staggering amount more than was initially quoted. Costed initially at £35 billion and is now currently standing at £102 billion and likely rising (it’s not due to be finished until somewhere between 2040/2043). Governments are quite good at can kicking at the tax payers expense.

It does make financial sense to open more of BP up to the public. I’m taking my DM to an exhibition there in August that is running for 6 months and it had completely sold out just two/three weeks after tickets went on sale. There is still a demand out there for all things royal.

That Marina Hyde article is wonderful

I can’t help feeling you could very much have the soft power and the tourism and the whatnot with a somewhat less outrageous funding model. Not to be vulgar, but how does Charles’s “slimmed down” monarchy now seem to cost twice what the bloated one did?

I have asked this very question more than once before on here and it’s never received an answer 🤷‍♀️.

So let me get this straight:

My comment -
Presumably debated and passed by (in) Parliament, as is required for any increase in percentage by the Sovereign Grant Act?

Your response -
I have no idea and that doesn't make it alright

You really don't believe in democracy, do you?

You do know that the Sovereign Grant is for official state business and upkeep of palaces, and is overseen by the NAO in the same way as other government departments?

Of course I do, don't be silly

I have since talked about successive useless governments rubber stamping anything connected to the RF

Just to clarify, when I say ‘on here’ I’m not referring to this particular thread but the RF board.

Every penny that goes to the Royal Family comes from money raised by the Crown Estate. The estate is a net beneficiary to the treasury. In 2024 it contributed 1.2bn to the exchequer. A large part of their travel costs is security. Do you think they should go to Ballater on the mega bus?

Also, what happens to the crown estate? Do we turn Buckingham palace into an HMO? Even if it could be sold, who would buy it? Certainly not anyone who would keep it for the benefit of the nation.

It’s a valid question to add.

It’s so frustrating. It’s so common with government, and local authorities.

Tax credits were another example of that. They decided to do it on the cheap and not get a system designed specifically for it. They used a tax system with bits reversed. There were countless problems not thought of that spent years causing problems and then being fixed, cost way way more than expected (as did the poor implementation but that’s definitely a tangent!).

the open days and exhibitions sell out in minutes. So they could definitely use a lot more days.

although I do hope they then take into consideration the wear and tear of that in future maintenance plans so that’s not kicked down the road for decades!

As I answered that poster earlier! They don’t care! 🤷‍♀️

Who are 'they'?

I don't answer the question because I know the monarchy aren't going anywhere so it's a hypothetical question AFAIC

Agree.

Also, as someone who lives in the 'proper North' (not Manchester), they kept revising it so that it's useless for anyone living up here.

My other bugbear is the A1 between Newcastle and Edinburgh; still the main road between the 2 capitals, still single carriageway for long stretches. We have just has 6 deaths in the last month on one of those stretches.

There was finally (after many years' wrangling) agreement from the Conservative government to fund the dualling project - cancelled by Labour when they got in as they expect not to lose in this homeland area.

(Sorry - rant over.)

Another more relevant one on another tangent is the NHS, didn’t Johnson say we were going to get an extra £300 million or so if we left the EU?? Woefully underfunded by successive governments, but still sold, as the envy of the world.

So for me it’s the status quo, until an adequate properly thought out alternative, is put forward, not the schoolchildren ‘get rid of the lot’. And I’m not a royalist before anyone starts.

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.

If these greedy, entitled fuckers stopped using the tax avoidance measures available it would be easier to stop everyone from using them. A fish rots from the head down. They should set the best example of all, not try and squirrel away as much as they can.

Have you any idea how much tax payer money they cream off us? That could be put to better use being spent on the general population?

How much exactly?

It will be intersting to see how the finances evolve as the central family gets smaller as going forward there will be less expenses.

Atm (rightly or wrongly) Charles, following on from QEII, is likely fully or partly funding housing for Anne and Edward & Sophie’s london bases (was Buck, think it’s now St James), and family homes of the Gloucesters, the Duke of Kent, the Michael’s of Kent, plus apartments for Beatrice and Eugenie.

In the future presumably (going by how they’ve done things, not as what I think they should) they will likely cover George, Charlotte and Louis as well as Beatrice, Eugenie and possibly Louise and James (assuming by precedent Charles would want to house all nieces and nephews). Going by the properties used by Beatrice and Eugenie these would be small London bases rather than family homes that the likes of the Gloucesters and Kent’s have.

If William and Kate are planning on staying Windsor based then it would make sense for George, Charlotte and Louis to be Windsor based as well.

So given that none of the children of the Gloucesters or Kent’s are in funded royal apartments that kind of suggests to me that the old plan of retiring Kensington Palace could be renewed.