criticism of the income of Charles III and William after an investigation into their assets

According to British media, the two duchies of the king and the prince have raked in millions of pounds in revenue thanks to lucrative contracts to lease land to the NHS, the public health system, to ministries or to charities.

The British royal family is once again under fire for a lack of transparency about its assets and income after media reports revealed that Charles III and William receive money from public bodies while being exempt from certain taxes.

The exact extent of holdings and details of contracts, such as rental leases, entered into by the Duchy of Lancaster, owned by Sovereign Charles III, and the Duchy of Cornwall, owned by Crown Prince William, are not public. But an investigation by Channel 4 and the Sunday Times published in recent days has brought them to light for the first time.

According to these media, the two duchies have raked in millions of pounds in revenue from lucrative land rental contracts to the NHS, the public health system currently in crisis after years of underfunding, to ministries or agencies. charitable. At the same time, the two duchies, which combine land, property and other assets across England and Wales, do not pay corporation tax or capital gains tax.

For Norman Baker, a former MP for the centrist Liberal Democrats and long-time critic of the royal family, this confirms that the latter “scam the public”. “This is Crown land that belongs to the public (…).All this money should go to the Crown Estate.”the Crown's patrimony, the revenues of which have been returned to the Public Treasury since a legal act dating from 1760, he complains to the AFP.

According to this law, 15% of the profits of “Crown Estate” are then paid in an annual allocation (the Sovereign Grant) to the royal family in order to maintain its assets as well as to remunerate the more than 500 employees of the Windsors. Next year, this allocation will amount to 132 million pounds (158 million euros). The royal family assures that the profits from the duchies of Lancaster of Cornwall finance the public, charitable and private activities of the sovereign and his heir.