The British royal family is again under fire for its lack of transparency about its wealth and income, after the media revealed that Charles III and William receive money from public bodies while being exempt from certain taxes, reports France Presse on Sunday.
The exact extent of the properties and details of contracts, such as leases, signed between the Duchy of Lancaster, held by Charles III, and the Duchy of Cornwall, held by Crown Prince William, are not public.
However, an investigation by Channel 4 and the Sunday Times, published in recent days, has brought them to light for the first time.
According to media reports, the two duchies have earned millions of pounds in lucrative land leases from the NHS, the public health system now in crisis after years of underfunding, to government departments or charities.
At the same time, the two duchies, which include land, property and other assets in England and Wales, pay no tax on profits or capital gains.
For Norman Baker, a former Liberal Democrat MP and longtime critic of the royal family, this confirms that the royal family is “deceiving the public”.
“These are Crown lands that belong to the public (…) All this money should go to the Crown Estate, the Crown’s patrimony, whose income has been returned to the Treasury since a law was passed in 1760,” he told AFP.
According to this law, 15% of the Crown Estate’s profits return to the royal family in the form of an annual sovereign grant (Sovereign Grant) for the maintenance of the domain and the payment of over 500 employees of the Windsor family.
Next year, this subsidy will amount to 132 million pounds (158 million euros).
The Royal Family ensures that profits from the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall fund the public, charitable and private activities of the sovereign and his heir.
These two duchies had been excluded from the 1760 agreement because they generated very little revenue at the time.
– Nothing illegal –
But more than two centuries later, they are valued at around £1.8bn (€2.16bn) and, according to their annual report, made a £50m profit last year.
Charles III thus becomes one of the richest people in the United Kingdom, with a personal fortune estimated at 610 million pounds (734 million euros).
His Duchy of Lancaster will earn £12m over the next 15 years by leasing a warehouse to a London hospital where it can park its ambulances.
William, in turn, signed a £37.5m 25-year deal with the Ministry of Justice to lease the land on which Dartmoor Prison is located.
This inquiry “shows how the duchies are looking for profit wherever they can, at the expense of the public”, criticized Graham Smith, leader of the anti-monarchy group Republic.
Both duchies have denied any wrongdoing.
This is not the first time that the royal family has had to defend itself in relation to its properties.
In 2006, an influential parliamentary committee analyzed the extended tax exemptions they enjoy for these goods. However, the issue was again put on the back burner.
In 2013, the same commission called for increased Treasury control over the Duchy of Cornwall’s finances.
Norman Baker believes that Parliament should look again at this issue, as should the government.
In his opinion, the problem is also crucial for the royal family, because its finances are “the most vulnerable”.
But according to David Haigh, head of financial consultancy Brand Finance, the dukedoms of Charles III and William behave like “any other large estate owned by an aristocratic family”.
The duchies “act only within the law, in the interests of their private capital,” he points out, comparing the royal family to entrepreneurs such as James Dyson or Richard Bronson.
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
