Three hundred and nineteen thousand pounds, approximately 383,000 euros, to rent the land for a primary school for twenty-one years. This is what a local administration in the Duchy of Cornwall, which pays its profits to Prince William, will have to pay for the right to use these lands.
For its part, the NHS, the British public health service severely affected by several years of austerity, will have to pay 829,348 pounds per year, or 11.4 million pounds for twenty-five years, to the Duchy of Lancaster, which pays its profits to King Charles III.
The commercial affairs of these duchies do not stop there: as revealed by a joint investigation by the British channel Channel 4 and the daily newspaper The Sunday Timesthe British Ministry of Justice signed a contract with the Duchy of Cornwall to lease the land on which a prison housing 640 prisoners stands. The rental amount: 1.5 million pounds per year.
For its part, the British newspaper The Mirror published photos of houses rented by the two duchies, revealing that some tenants live in substandard housing, while Prince William has been committed for many years to the homeless.
Exempt from certain taxes
The revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster are traditionally paid to the heir to the throne and the sovereign of the British crown respectively, currently Prince William and King Charles III. This income is used to finance their private expenses, such as their non-crown properties and the staff who look after them. To finance their public life, members of the royal family benefit from other funds, mainly those from the Crown domain, the profits of which are managed by the government, as we explained in this article.
The Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster are exempt from corporation and business capital gains tax. Voluntarily, the Prince of Wales and the Sovereign pay income tax on the income they receive from these duchies, normally at the highest tax rate of 45%. But, since 2022, they have not published how much taxes they paid. For the last known declaration, Charles, then crown prince, reduced the rate of this tax to 25%, deducting expenses he considered related to his official duties, writes the Sunday Times.
Could these revelations undermine the royal family?
In the United Kingdom, the publication of these revelations fueled calls for more transparency from the royal family. The Republic movement calls for the “abolition” of these duchies. Speaking to the BBC, Margaret Hodge, a former chair of the British Parliament's public accounts committee, called for duchies to pay certain taxes: “They don't pay capital gains tax or corporation tax, and yet they claim to act in a commercial manner. But they can't have it both ways. » If duchies “want to be private and commercial, they must pay the same tax rate as others, otherwise they have a competitive advantage.”
These calls to change the law, however, may not find an echo quickly. At the top of Britain's political establishment, the revelations did not draw fervent comment.
Keir Starmer, the Labor Prime Minister, has not commented on them, nor has his Budget and Finance Minister, busy presenting and defending the first budget of a Labor government in fourteen years. Among the Conservatives, the revelations came at a time when the party was electing a new leader, who has not yet revealed her opinion on the subject. The storm therefore seems to be passing for Charles III and Prince William, at least until the next revelations about their finances.
