King Charles makes history and becomes the first British monarch to hand over their tax bill

King Charles made history by becoming the first British monarch to unveil the tax code, donating more than £30 million since his accession to the throne.

Buckingham Palace has revealed it paid more than £12.9 million to HMRC in 2024/25 and a further £11.7 million the previous year, putting it among the country’s top 100 taxpayers.

Its current accounts are not publicly disclosed because they are still being audited. He was crowned following his mother’s death in September 2022.

James Chalmers, keeper of the Privy Purse, said the request to disclose total income and capital gains came personally from the King, who was determined to help provide clarity and accessibility on royal finances, which are under greater scrutiny than ever before.

Prince William, who has so far refused to disclose how much tax he has paid as heir to the throne despite having done so while his father was Prince of Wales, has also bowed to the inevitable.

It paid £7.76 million to the taxman in 2024/25 and a further £8.34 million in 2023-24.

His private secretary Ian Patrick revealed on Thursday that he had paid more than £20 million to HMRC since he became the Prince of Wales, adding: ‘The Prince is aware of the interest in these arrangements and the importance of appropriate transparency.’

Last year William received £21.6 million in private income from the Duchy of Cornwall.

The duchy is a multi-billion pound land estate covering 51,800 hectares across 19 counties, and profits from it enable the heir to fund the throne’s public works and private expenditure.

Prince William, Prince of Wales, was welcomed by the Deputy Governor of Riyadh, Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, upon his arrival at King Khalid International Airport on the first day of his first official visit to Saudi Arabia.

William voluntarily pays income tax at the highest rate on any net surplus after deducting official expenses.

But aides still refuse to say what that spending is.

William, 44, has also made clear he is determined to modernize the Duchy, promising to sell 20 per cent of its land holdings over the next decade and invest the money in sustainable issues and social housing.

However, one of the people from whom he still collects rent is his own father.

As Duke of Cornwall, he leased King’s Highgrove, his beloved Gloucestershire estate, and received £503,711 in rent from Charles last year.

Accounts for William’s Duchy of Cornwall also reveal that, following a public outcry over the revelation that he had received a £1.5 million annual rent for the derelict Dartmoor Prison, he wanted the sum to be spent on regenerating the local community instead.

There was widespread anger that the Ministry of Justice had paid the heir to the throne money as part of a 25-year deal with the Duchy, despite the prison having been empty since July 2024 due to levels of toxic radon gas causing real financial hardship to the local community.

It was a busy year for the Royal Family, according to the Annual Sovereign Grant Review; The King and Queen held 708 meetings between them; The rest of the ‘firm’ took on a further 1,565 contracts in the UK and abroad.

The royal residences hosted 827 events and 97,000 guests – an increase of three thousand on the previous year – as part of the monarchy’s initiatives to expand access to occupied royal palaces.

More than 700,000 paying visitors also came through its doors.

In line with the King’s passion for sustainability, he has installed electric car charging points in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace and plans to replace royal vehicles with a largely electric fleet.

While staffing levels remain broadly equal between genders, the palace acknowledges that ‘some challenges remain’, including the proportion of ethnic minority employees falling to around 12 per cent of the workforce, well short of the 14 per cent target.

But as always, the biggest focus is on how much the Royal Family earns or is given, and what they spend it on.

The king relies exclusively on the Privy Purse, a private portfolio of land holdings and investments that includes income from the Duchy of Lancaster, rising 3.4 per cent to £25.2m this year.

Other funds come from personal investments and profits from private estates such as Sandringham and Balmoral.

The King voluntarily pays income tax on all of this, as well as capital gains from everything outside the Duchy.

As for the public funding he receives from the government, this is known as the Sovereign Grant and is used for his official duties and the affairs of his household.

He pays the expenses of other working royals from his own private funds.

Last year Government Grants increased by £45.8 million to £132.1 million, largely due to major building work at Buckingham Palace now coming to an end.

The grant has a core element covering travel, property maintenance and payroll, which has almost doubled over three years, from £51.8 million in 2024/25 to £99.9 million in 2027/28.

Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchist Republican group campaigning for an elected head of state, described the grant as ‘inflated’.

But Mr Chalmers stressed that the State Grant would drop to £100 million and remain ‘fixed’ for the next five years ‘in line with Her Majesty’s express wishes’.

He said the palace was “committed to transparency” and that money received from the government was “not a blank cheque”, with spending governed by “the same standards and disciplines as any publicly funded institution”.

‘In this and in every aspect of his mission, His Majesty is guided by a single purpose; “To serve with stability, loyalty and unwavering determination,” he said.

‘So while there have been many changes, our core principles remain the same: providing value for money and supporting the Royal Family as they work to help shape a better world… a future where tradition and modernity work hand in hand for the benefit of everyone.’

Specialist Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates also pointed out that the King and Prince of Wales pay income tax, while the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster are not subject to corporation or capital gains tax, no matter how large they grow and whether they pass from one generation to the next ‘completely free of inheritance tax’.

He added: ‘The reality is that the King is exactly like any other taxpayer and the line between personal assets and Crown assets is very shaky.’

Robert Salter, head of tax at Blick Rothenberg, added: ‘Most of their wealth actually belongs to the state but sharing their tax bill puts their finances on par and, as you would expect, they are clearly in the top 1 per cent of the country.

‘I suspect the royal family are quite casual about how they pay their taxes and where they invest.

‘Their wealth planning is still different from normal people; First of all, they don’t need a pension, so you’ll probably find that they donate more to charity.

‘Even if you assume the full £12.9 million is in income tax and they pay 45 per cent tax, they would still need to make between £26 million and £28 million.’

Where does royal funding come from?

Recorded by REBECCA ENGLISH

In its simplest form, royal finances are based on a clear distinction between public finance and private income.

Since 1760, the monarch has handed over to the country the entire income of the Crown Estate (a vast portfolio of commercial properties and land worth £14.5 billion) in exchange for an annual payment from Parliament to fund his official work.

This payment is known as the State Grant and is calculated using a formula set by law that is reviewed every five years.

Apart from this, the monarch pays for the central staff and administration of the Royal Household, the maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces in England, and official travel expenses for themselves and other working members of the Royal Family; They are also provided with an official residence and office free of charge.

Unspent funds are kept in reserve within specified limits, allowing them to be used responsibly in future years.

The King’s private finances are known as the Privy Purse and consist of a number of separate funding streams: profits from the Duchy of Lancaster, private investments, and private estates such as Sandringham and Balmoral.

Founded in the 13th century, the Duchy is an estate consisting of land ownership and investments held in trust for the monarch.

It was protected and fully supervised as a private source of income to ensure the monarch a degree of financial independence from the government.

Its capital cannot be touched, but the ruler can use the surplus each year, the profits of the estate, to finance private living expenses.

Queen Elizabeth II in 1993. Elizabeth voluntarily began paying income tax and capital gains tax on her private income, but never made these figures public.

The King pays the allowances and official expenses of working members of the Royal Family. This means that the vast majority of costs associated with the wider working royal family are now paid out of the monarch’s own pocket, through the Duchy.

The king also pays for the maintenance of private estates, other private expenses, and taxes. While no capital gains tax is payable within the duchy, the King pays it on money he earns from other private assets.

However, as the Treasury recognizes that assets such as Sandringham and Balmoral have both official and private uses, inheritance tax is not deemed payable on assets passed from one monarch to another.