Having become King of the United Kingdom, Charles III saw his personal fortune increase considerably due to the inheritance affected following the death of Elizabeth II. What does he hold? Lighting attempt.
It is a secret as well kept as that of his health. In the United Kingdom, the fortune of Charles III is the subject of much speculation, all the more since the death of Elizabeth II. If the sovereign was already very rich, the new monarch would be even more so, in insane proportions. The subject is all the more sensitive as the British face price inflation of more than 10% over the year. On his throne, the king does not feel anything happening given his (supposed) colossal fortune.
Assumed because no figures are public. Nothing is released regarding the Buckingham tenant’s income. And never does the communication from the royal palace confirm or invalidate the data put forward. Supposed also because it is not always easy to make the distinction between what belongs to Charles in a personal capacity and what he holds because of his prerogatives within the monarchy. However, at the age of 75, Charles III had a comfortable financial well-being, reinforced by the inheritance obtained on the death of his mother. How is his heritage built up? The Guardian has attempted to unravel this mystery, aided by “12 experts with experience in valuing land, property, vehicles, art and jewellery. For more opaque assets, such as the king’s investments in equities and equities, we relied on the best indices available to make informed estimates.”
The addition of all these assets thus leads to a result of more than two billion euros of assets in favor of Charles III. However, this remains only assessments and does not take into account other income. For its part, Buckingham Palace replied that “although we do not comment on private finances, your figures (those of the Guardian, editor’s note) are a very creative mixture of speculation, assumptions and inaccuracies.”
Another heritage can, only in part, be added to this private heritage of the sovereign, whether it is Elizabeth II or her son Charles III: “The crown estate”, is the gigantic fortune of the British Crown this time, including a “colossal park of land, real estate, wind farm licenses” indicates AFP. The revenue from this heritage is paid into the Treasury, but 15% directly benefits the royal family through the “sovereign grant”, an annual allowance intended to cover “expenses related to official activities representing the Queen or members of his family,” including the 500 employees employed by them. This reached 86 million pounds, or 99 million euros, for 2021-2022. But this sum includes an exceptional extension granted for ten years for the renovation of Buckingham Palace (34 million pounds for 2021-2022).
Other subsidies are planned for the crown and for the royal family in general, which should now benefit Charles III directly. The “privy purse” thus designates a share of the revenue drawn from the assets of the Duchy of Lancaster. An area comprising “hundreds of real estate, high-end commercial properties, and thousands of hectares of agricultural land”, writes AFP again. Assets that have been the property of royalty since the Middle Ages. Estimated at 650 million pounds, the Duchy of Lancaster would have offered an income of around 24 million pounds to Queen Elizabeth in the last fiscal year. A sum that she could, after taxes, redistribute as she pleased to other members of her family or use to maintain and restore her castles of Balmoral and Sandringham.
Valued at some £3 billion, the famous Crown Jewels, for their part, symbolically belong to the Queen but are automatically passed on to the next monarch.
The British royal family has a privilege that exempts them from paying inheritance tax. Likewise, the contents of estates are not made public. This tax exemption comes from Queen Elizabeth II, in 1993. Indeed, in the early 90s, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle. Following a controversy over who was going to pay for the renovations, the Queen agreed to be taxed on income, which is not normally the case for the royal family. This allowed him to negotiate a tax shelter in 1993, which Charles benefits from today.
The assets of the Crown Estate are estimated at €17.9 billion, with 25% of the profits going to the Royal Family under the Sovereign Grant. Also, these goods cannot be sold by the king and are ceded to the government in exchange for a subsidy. As such, the government of John Major, Prime Minister between 1990 and 1997, had concluded that it would be “inappropriate for inheritance tax to be paid on these assets.” Regarding the Queen’s private estate, it enjoys the exemption in order to preserve “a certain degree of financial independence vis-à-vis the government in place”, he had indicated.
However, this exemption only benefits Charles III, the other children of the queen will have to free themselves from this right of succession. The new king has also indicated that he will pay his income taxes, even if nothing obliges him to do so.
