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King Charles’ Tax Bill Revealed, But Wealth Remains Opaque
The monarch disclosed paying £12.9 million in tax in 2024-25, offering a rare look at royal finances while leaving unanswered questions about his income, personal wealth and tax arrangements.
King Charles tax bill publicly unveiled for the first time The monarch’s individual tax affairs have been detailed for the first time in public but the new figures leave several key questions unanswered regarding the total sums paid, as well as income.
King Charles himself paid £12.9 million in income tax and capital gains tax for 2024-25. According to annual royal finances disclosures, Buckingham Palace showed that he paid £11.7 million last year and £30 million in total since he became king.
Royal finances unveiled in historic tax revelation
The Annual Report & Accounts of the Royal Household 2025-26 also showed how much the head of the firm has paid in tax.
The publication is the first to document an amount on an individual’s taxes from the sovereign in his or her own right. The sovereign is technically exempt from paying capital gains tax and inheritance tax, along with income tax, however Queen Elizabeth II introduced the system of voluntary tax payment in 1993, a precedent King Charles has since followed.
It has not yet revealed exactly how much tax was paid, either by the King directly or via dividends passed onto him, nor, for that matter, did it reveal how many dividends he was issued or how the calculations were determined so as to allow the sovereign’s personal wealth to remain unknown.
The King’s private income is mostly based on his privately held portfolio, named The Duchy of Lancaster, which is a portfolio consisting of farmland, retail properties and other investments that are administered for the benefit of the sovereign.
The overall value of this portfolio amounted to £687.3 million and it generated a distributable surplus for the year of £25.2 million, according to the Duchy of Lancaster Annual Report for the past year.
Public Funding and Private Wealth Remain Separate
These disclosures coincide with a separate release showing new information about the Sovereign Grant, the public funding that helps meet the cost of official duties of The King, as well as supporting work on Buckingham Palace and official travels for The Queen’s representatives.
Funding and wealth remains separated: publicly, privatelyThe Sovereign Grant reported in the Annual Report & Accounts of the Royal Household will cover further refurbishment to Buckingham Palace, official travel by representatives of The King’s Cousins and for expenditure relating to official entertainment. The overall amount of money the grant was allocated in 2025-26 was £132.1 million. Prince William also published his personal taxes for the first time.
In addition to this new report about the Sovereign Grant, it has also been confirmed Prince William published his personal tax returns for the first time in his capacity as Prince of Wales, noting he has paid out over £20m in voluntary income tax since he took over the Duchy of Cornwall when the King ascended to the throne.
This year, the new figures show that £1,219,197 of income was paid to the Crown, 12.9% down from last year, which generated an income tax contribution of £3,492,931.56 to HM Treasury, plus a CGT contribution from the Duchy of Cornwall, equivalent to 14%, of £140,138,429.
For Prince William, the tax information shows an income of £2,232,280 which generated an income tax amount to £632,466 and a contribution to HM Treasury in CGT of £127,910,787,38.
There is disparity in transparency between the taxes of various royal families. Although the United Kingdom is perhaps one of the most transparent of countries with regard to a ruling monarch’s voluntary tax contributions, it still does not provide full transparency about a monarch’s personal financial situation.
Other constitutional monarchies, for example those in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden all provide details of the amount of money each ruling royal receives, yet they usually do not offer details on an individual monarch’s tax contribution.
Source: The Gurdian
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