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National standard PLC
The coronation “shows the Crown Estate, which is actually GB plc”, said George Gross, a visiting fellow at King’s College London who teaches the history of such royal ceremonies. “It’s all about keeping the UK at the center of the news throughout the weekend.”
For their official duties, the Crown is funded through the Sovereign Grant, an annual lump-sum payment agreed between the Sovereign and the British Government in 1760. It is typically as much as a quarter of the profits of the Crown Estate, whose assets include Regent Street, a popular retail destination featuring high-end fashion and toy store Hamleys.
The appropriation for the year to March 2023 is £86.3 million ($163 million), unchanged from the 2022 period, when most of the proceeds go towards maintaining the palace and staff salaries.
The Duchy of Lancaster owns 18,481 hectares of land in England and Wales, the profits of which provide income to the British Sovereign and help fund the activities of other members of the British Royal Family.
‘They are like a company. People don’t put them in that bracket very often.
Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media, Lancaster University
While the Duchy of Lancaster publishes a set of annual accounts, it does not provide a full breakdown of the financial arrangements of individual members of the royal family.
Laura Clancy, a media lecturer at Lancaster University who studies the British monarchy, said the royal family’s finances were “very cloudy”.
“They’re like a company. People don’t put them in that bracket very often.”
lots of perks
Although Charles himself doesn’t own the orb and scepter he will hold as part of his coronation, there are many perks of being Britain’s monarch that aren’t available to even the wealthiest man in the world.
Anything the monarch receives from his predecessor is exempt from inheritance tax, providing an incentive for Queen Elizabeth II to pass on most of her personal wealth to her eldest son. She was estimated to have a fortune of at least $450 million ($677 million) before her death in September, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
That’s largely from her own tax-exempt inheritance and one of the largest stamp collections in the world. The standard inheritance tax rate in the UK is 40%.
Charles ascended the throne almost 50 years older than his mother when she began her reign. It means he has the chance to build up a personal fortune during the six decades he has held the title of Prince of Wales, who earns a separate income from another estate, the Duchy of Cornwall.
According to figures compiled, Charles has paid out more than £400m over the past three decades from assets such as the Oval cricket ground, farmland and even Devon prison, which Charles has used to fund himself and his family and his family. Philanthropy Bloomberg.
Multi-million pound divorce settlement
Part of that sum also helped fund his multi-million pound divorce settlement with Princess Diana in the 1990s. Their eldest son, William, 40, is now Prince of Wales, while their younger son, Harry, 38, is no longer a royal and lives in the US with Meghan Markle, 41.
Charles, who voluntarily pays income tax, currently has a personal fortune of more than $800 million if he receives most of Queen Elizabeth’s estate and saves a portion of his annual income from the Duchy of Cornwall, according to Bloomberg’s Wealth Index. His holdings now include Sandringham and Balmoral castles, as well as the land surrounding those estates.
“The monarch is able to accumulate wealth like an heir to the throne,” said David Haigh, chief executive of consultancy Brand Finance.
The King may not own Buckingham Palace, but his official residence in London offers him the lifestyle most billionaires can only dream of: it’s valued at £1.3bn on the open market.Credit: Getty Images
Charles has sold some of Queen Elizabeth’s former horses, giving a glimpse into his mother’s personal wealth, but the exact details of Charles’ acquisitions from the queen’s personal estate will likely be kept as secret as her ancestors.
A London judge has a safe containing more than 30 envelopes containing the wills of deceased members of the British royal family more than a century ago. The will of the Queen’s late husband Prince Philip, who dies in 2021, will be kept secret for almost a century.
Of course, those assets that belong to the monarchy itself will not appear. Properties like Windsor Castle are simply occupied by the monarch and held in trust for future generations.
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The most valuable of these is Buckingham Palace, where Charles will return on Saturday after returning to his route from Westminster Abbey in a more luxurious carriage – the four-ton Golden State Coach drawn by eight horses. He may not own the palace, but the king’s official residence in London offers him the lifestyle most billionaires can only dream of: it’s valued at £1.3bn on the open market.
Meanwhile, with pubs, bars and restaurants making the most of the festivities, the coronation could deliver a boost to the UK economy of up to £180m, according to research by Barclays, which could offset the estimated total cost of hosting the event. will begin his reign.
“It’s quite difficult to replace a fairy-tale queen who’s been on the throne for 70 years,” said Haig, whose firm has previously estimated that the British monarchy generates more than £1bn a year for the country. “He now has a job to reset the monarchy for the modern world.”
Bloomberg
