King Charles III revealed on Thursday June 25 that he had paid more than 30 million pounds (35 million euros) in taxes on his private income since his accession to the throne in September 2022, an unprecedented effort at transparency for a British sovereign.
This announcement is part of the Royal Household’s commitment to transparency, according to Buckingham Palace. Royal finances have come under increasing scrutiny since repeated scandals involving the former Prince Andrew, the king’s younger brother.
Prince William, Charles’s eldest son and heir to the throne, has paid more than 20 million pounds (23 million euros) in taxes since the beginning of September 2022, when he became Prince of Wales on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, according to figures also revealed on Thursday.
British monarchs are not legally required to pay taxes on their private income, but have done so since 1993. The practice was introduced during the reign of Elizabeth II under public pressure, after costly repairs to Windsor Castle. The queen, however, had never revealed the amount of her taxes.
Modernize the royal function
The palace announced on Saturday that it was preparing to publish these figures, at the “express request of the king”, to continue to “modernize” the royal function. According to Thursday’s statement, “the amount of taxes payable by Her Majesty since her accession to the throne exceeds £30 million”, including £11.7 million for the 2023-24 tax year (which begins in April in the UK) and £12.9 million for 2024-25.
Among the assets affected by these taxes is the vast Duchy of Lancaster, the king’s domain which represents his main source of private income. Charles III received 26.8 million pounds (more than 31 million euros) thanks to this duchy for the 2024-2025 financial year. It generates income through the rental of agricultural land and the management of commercial and residential real estate in particular.
In addition to this income, the monarch receives an annual allowance, the “Sovereign Grant”, a civil list paid by the government so that he can fulfill his official functions. This tax-free grant, calculated on the basis of a percentage of the “Crown Estate” – the company managing the land and real estate of the crown – amounted to 132.1 million pounds in 2025-2026.
It will reach 137.9 million pounds in 2026-2027, to finance in particular the end of a vast renovation of Buckingham Palace in London.
Parliamentary inquiry
Profits from the “Crown Estate”, which includes rights to the seabed, fell during the 2025-2026 financial year, ended at the end of March, from 1.4 to 1.2 billion pounds. This drop is explained in particular by the reduction in the fee for offshore wind turbines.
As for Prince William, 44, he benefits from a similar arrangement in the Duchy of Lancaster with his Duchy of Cornwall. It paid 8.34 million pounds for the 2023-2024 tax year and 7.76 million pounds for 2024-2025, according to figures released on Thursday.
This is the first time that the taxes paid by the crown prince have been revealed. Charles used to make this amount public when he himself was Prince of Wales. The royal family is seeking to restore its image after the cascading revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, younger brother of the king, stripped of all his royal titles due to his links with the American sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
In early June, a report revealed that the ex-prince had for years sublet cottages at the royal residence near Windsor where he lived without paying rent himself. The Public Accounts Committee, the scrutiny body of the British Parliament, has launched an investigation into housing arrangements granted to members of the royal family.
