Three quarters of the British population think the Royals should pay corporation and capital gains tax on their private estates, according to a new poll. It comes after the Mirror with Dispatches and the Sunday Times investigated King Charles III’s inherited Duchy of Lancaster empire and Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall. Our investigation found the King and his heir are earning millions of pounds in rent from the NHS and other public bodies. At the same time, we revealed that one in seven Duchy of Cornwall properties have the worst F and G ratings for energy efficiency, leaving tenants at risk of fuel poverty and living in cold, damp and mouldy homes.
The Royals make £50m a year in profit from the £2bn Duchies and voluntarily pay income tax on these earnings, after deducting the costs of official expenditure. But the estates are exempt from capital gains tax, which was recently hiked by the Government, as they argue the proceeds from sales are reinvested and not paid out. They are also exempt from corporation tax, which has risen sharply in recent years, and inheritance tax, meaning hundreds of royal farms are and tens of thousands of hectares of farmland are unaffected by the controversial recent changes to inheritance tax on farms.
