It seems a new age of transparency is upon royal finance, as Buckingham Palace announces that King Charles III will reveal his personal tax bill.
The King’s tax payments for 2024-25 will be shared on Thursday (25th June) as the palace annual accounts are released. This details how the Sovereign Support Grant is spent each year, and gives updates on various large projects such as the renovations to Buckingham Palace and is published a year in arrears, once a formal audit has taken place.
Buckingham Palace says the move is part of a modernising drive for greater transparency and to ‘encourage wider understanding of our accountability’.
As Prince of Wales, Charles also chose to reveal how much tax he was paying. Both the current Prince of Wales and Monarch voluntarily choose to pay tax; it is not a legal requirement for them.
Charles voluntarily pays income tax on all his private income, and capital gains tax on relevant elements of his assets, as laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation 2023, agreed by the government.
The context of this news is important – just months after the cost of royal housing arrangements has come under scrutiny, following the revelation that Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor – formerly Prince Andrew – had been paying a symbolic peppercorn rent on Royal Lodge.
It has since been revealed that The Prince and Princess of Wales are paying market-rate rent on their new family home, Forest Lodge.
The National Audit Office has looked into these arrangements, including on Forest Lodge, as well as Bagshot Park, home to The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, and other members of the Royal Family.
Information relating to Charles’ tax arrangements will include tax on his income such as profits from the Duchy of Lancaster (generating £26 million in 2024-25 for Charles), any personal investments and earnings from The King’s private estates, such as Sandringham and Balmoral.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said this was part of a wider drive to be more open with the public.
‘While this is the first time a Monarch has shared this personal tax information, you may recall it was similarly released by His Majesty when he was Prince of Wales.
‘The decision to do so as Sovereign has come at the express wish of The King himself, as part of the adaptations carried across since accession.
‘In order to constantly improve, and to encourage wider understanding of our accountability, the royal household has been considering options to enhance this transparency still further – and can today announce additional measures in keeping with our public service priorities.
They added: ‘To put it simply, we continue to modernise and evolve.’
