Prince William withheld information about his taxes & Duchy of Cornwall finances

None of the Windsors are big on public disclosures, but King Charles arguably disclosed the most information out of his entire family, disclosures about income, staffing and taxes when he was Prince of Wales. Now that Prince William is PoW, he’s “doing things his own way,” which means… nowhere near the kind of disclosures his father used to make. Per ITV:

Prince William has chosen to withhold more information about his finances, as the Prince of Wales, than his father did before him. In the end-of-year accounts for the Duchy of Cornwall, the estate William inherited when he became the heir to the throne, shows that he has withheld the amount of tax he pays on his earnings. The accounts for the last full year – in which Charles was the Prince of Wales – revealed he voluntarily paid £5.9 million in income tax.

While Prince William, as the 25th Duke of Cornwall, still pays income tax in the same way as the 24th Duke (Prince Charles), his office has decided not to reveal the amount as they are not obliged to do so. Tax is paid by the Prince of Wales on his earnings from the Duchy of Cornwall after deducting official expenditure on his family.

The integrated Annual Report released on Wednesday by the Duchy of Cornwall shows that the surplus available to William, Kate and their family was £23.6 million – a small reduction from the year before caused by property management. The surplus pays for the official, charitable and private lives of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their household. Tax is paid at standard UK tax rates once official costs have been deducted from the £23.6 million figure.

Senior royal sources indicated that the amount of income tax William pays is higher than his father, but Kensington Palace declined to say how much tax was paid in 2023/24, nor how much money was left from the surplus on which tax was owed. It meant the report into finances for the Prince of Wales’ office was much less transparent than the one in 2021/22 – the last full year that Prince Charles was entitled to the Duchy of Cornwall money.

William and Kate employ less staff than Charles and Camilla did when they had the Duchy of Cornwall funds. The current Prince and Princess of Wales employ 66 staff – whereas his father used to employ around 100. 67% of William and Kate’s staff are female and 33% are male. Kensington Palace does not have a target for the diversity of their staff but did reveal 14% of their employees are from minority backgrounds. But the most senior team around William and Kate, the management body that reports directly to them, are all white men.

The Executive Committee of the Household is made up of five men: William’s Private Secretary, Ian Patrick, Kate’s Private Secretary, Tom White, Chief Operating Officer, Sean Carney, Head of the private household, James Benbow, and Communications Secretary, Lee Thompson.

[From ITV]

Shock of all shocks, William is secretive and squirrelly. He does not want peasants to know the actual breakdown of his office staff, he doesn’t want people to know his income or who pays for what, and he does not want anyone to know about his tax situation. I find the gender situation in Kensington Palace fascinating – a bunch of white men in “executive” positions, bossing around a staff of mostly younger women. Judging from what we can see of KP’s operations, that’s my assumption, that these are mostly younger, inexperienced female staffers who don’t actually know what the hell they’re doing. The ethnic breakdown… “14% of their employees are from minority backgrounds.” I’m going out on a limb and saying that I bet that 14% is mostly Asian and not Black. Anyway, I’m still waiting for people to mock William’s “obsession with privacy” considering the man won’t even reveal his taxes.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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91 Responses to “Prince William withheld information about his taxes & Duchy of Cornwall finances”

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  1. equality says:

    Nice to be above tax paying laws and employment laws. He pays more taxes than Charles did even though the income was less? Sure, he does.

    • sevenblue says:

      He can literally say anything since no one is gonna ask for proof.

    • seaflower says:

      He could pay 1 cent (pence) more and that would be technically correct.

    • Becks1 says:

      This *may* be true if his official expenditures are less. Like they mention Charles had 100 staff as PoW and William only has 66. So if the surplus is 23 million, and if Charles had that same surplus he might have spent 10 million on official expenses and William is only paying 5 million, then William would be paying more in taxes because he would be paying it on 18 million and Charles paying it on 13 million (more dollar-wise not percentage wise). If William was completely above board and honorable you would think that would be how it would shake out, right?

      That said, I think the line for “official expenditures” is very gray and my guess is that William does everything he can to have as much as possible under that umbrella so thats why they’re not saying “how much from the surplus on which tax was owed” because then we would know the official spending. And if he is spending the same as his father on official expenses, with working significantly less and a much smaller staff……well that might raise some questions.

      • Lady Esther says:

        I took one for the team, downloaded it and read the whole thing…It’s true it is MUCH less transparent that what Charles published…for example, there are no line items for transport (eg how many helicopter trips). No breakouts for specific trips, nothing for clothes (which they have disclosed in the past when Charles was reporting it). Etc.

        Most of the report is a bunch of blah about what they do for “sustainability” and it’s all very vague with no real results. Lots of pretty photographs. This is the way it will be with William in charge – as little information released as possible, because there are zero consequences if he doesn’t. Even Graham Smith of Republic is pretty quiet on the whole thing…despite TWO new helicopters ordered!

        Also, the figure I saw for HOUSEHOLD staff was 89 people, so I’m not sure why they are reporting this 66 number.

        The curious thing I noted was that they have a line item for “nursery”, which increased this year to something like 53 staff (separate from the household staff). So, I imagine that William and Kate offer a nursery to Duchy of Cornwall staff and then fold in their numbers for their own private nannies so that no one calls them out on how many they have….

      • Becks1 says:

        LOL, thank you for your sacrifice, Lady Esther!!

        I wonder if household staff is being separated out from professional staff? But then they have 89 household staff?? that seems like a lot, that’s 30 at each property. And then the nursery staff is separate from that? I agree with you that it sounds like they may offer daycare to their employees and include their nannies in that. Or maybe nursery staff refers to the kids’ staff – their nannies, their chefs, their cleaning staff?

        It’s just wild to me that they get that much public funding a year and just don’t have to disclose where it goes or how much is “official” and how much they pay in taxes.

      • seaflower says:

        @Lady Esther I assumed nursery was for plants/gardens as Anmer has extensive gardens and they need plants propagated somewhere. Their other properties would have some gardening staff as well (although maybe not KP as part of a broader arrangement)..

      • LRB says:

        What I want to know is what tax rate is he paying… he should be paying 45% but I bet he isn’t. I also want to know how much his highest earning employee is earning…a company has to declare how much the top paid director is earning. Lots of things I want to know… but for now it is all secret.

      • Becks1 says:

        @seaflower omg that makes so much more sense than running a daycare at KP 🤣🤣 I bet you’re right, those employees are in charge of the gardens at Adelaide and Anmer.

    • PrincessK says:

      Insiders have said many times that Billy has always been sneaky from the time he was a boy.
      Sneaky is l am sure a polite word for another type of behaviour.
      Harry on the other hand was always kind and thoughtful which his detractors interpret as not intelligent.

    • Christine says:

      If he pays more taxes than Chuck did as PoW, he would release the financials. I don’t believe anything this man claims

    • TheFarmer'sWife says:

      I just can’t with the shovel pics!!! As a garden designer and a farmer, one can learn a lot about a man by how adept they are at using a shovel. You can learn a lot about a father by how he teaches his son to use a shovel. If Chuckles hadn’t been so busy with his side chick, things might have been different for Peggy. I don’t know who taught Harry how to use a shovel, but they did a great job.

  2. SussexWatcher says:

    When will the British people and Commonwealth countries get tired of this? I saw another headline this morning that the Leftover Royals are getting another 45 million £ for MORE KP renovations and 2 new helicopters next year. When will people say enough is enough?!

    • Harla A Brazen Hussy says:

      So the number of working royals has drastically decreased but the cost of them has drastically increased, make it make sense!

      • The Duchess says:

        They’ve all quit because they know British people won’t do a damn thing. Queen Liz isn’t there anymore to get them all in order and it shows.

    • Janey says:

      we are tired of it, believe me. well some of us are and we’re making as much noise as possible both online and in person at royal “events”. The trouble is people are just worn out / apathetic about the Royals and things are so slow to move. I live in hope William will be the last of them.

      • Eleonor says:

        William is just an entitled brat.
        Even Charles has a better pr game.
        I mean Charles !

    • Christina says:

      Nothing to do with the commonwealth. As far as I know, we only pay for them when we ask them to visit.

    • Jaded says:

      Commonwealth countries (I’m Canadian) only pay for the royals and staffers they travel with when they grace us with a visit (sarcasm), we don’t fund anything else.

  3. Harla A Brazen Hussy says:

    How much longer are the British taxpayers going to put up with WandK’s obsession with their privacy? Where is the outrage over “we pay, you pose”, that the Sussex’s were constantly subjected to? The hypocrisy and double standards shown by WandK is disgusting and in my mind, shows that neither are fit for their current or future roles.

    • swaz says:

      Don’t expect an outrage 😫 WILLIAM IS PERFECT FOR THE BRITISH MEDIA , HE HAS ALL OF THEM GAGGED 🤣🤣🤣

  4. sevenblue says:

    Who is gonna check him, boo? The media isn’t allowed to write anything negative about him anymore. This is a straight reporting without any opinions pushed to the readers, unlike their H&M articles. I am sure we won’t get any opinion articles about his secrecy. Imagine saying that the leader of the country is paying income tax “voluntarily” while enjoying all the privileges of that life. Also, not surprised about all white men in control. There were some predictions before that the employees from minority backgrounds are probably household staff in charge of cleaning, cooking, etc.

    • Tennyson says:

      I don’t know if things have evolved, but 30 years ago, foreign-born staff counted as diversity, meaning a white Australian or American were counted as diversity…

      • Nic919 says:

        Thinking of Jason Knauf as a diversity hire is hilarious but also likely true.

      • BeanieBean says:

        OMG, that is mind-boggling! And such an incredible peek inside the British mind (it ain’t pretty, folks).

    • Kittenmom says:

      2 Filipino nurses!

  5. Cassie says:

    Digging that hole was Williams biggest achievement of the year .

  6. Amy Bee says:

    If this was Harry and Meghan the press would be screaming about this. But because it’s William we get this muted response.

  7. fishface says:

    66 people ???? Doing what, FFS?

    • amb says:

      Also, please define “minority”.

      For example, it’s possible that people currently nursing hangnails are a numeric minority of the population.

      (A little clarity on “background” would also be helpful.)

    • SarahCS says:

      Quite, yes this is fewer than Charles had but he did a LOT.

      Interestingly the Guardian points out that this is an increase from 50 staff last year. So they hired 16 people and are doing less than ever. I almost want to be impressed.

      • Moondust says:

        And he’s about to do less and less. I’ve read today on the French voici website that William is stepping down from his role of president of the FA and KP confirmed.

    • Miss Scarlett says:

      I’m sure all their housekeepers, groundskeepers, farmers, etc are all lumped into this official total.

  8. Tessa says:

    C and c had more staff since they worked a lot more than huevo and keen. Before Kate got sick they did very little work. And William goes to sports event to work

  9. Tessa says:

    Where s the investigation

  10. Tessa says:

    I thought the keens did not need staff since supposedly they are so hands on and are normal and can do this all them selves

    • BeanieBean says:

      Right? That’s a whole lot of staff for two people who say they want to be ‘normal’.

  11. Brassy Rebel says:

    This is a very undemocratic, opaque system being supported by the taxpayers in a democracy. You could argue that Britain’s constitutional democracy is more democratic than the US system with its non-majoritarian features such as the Senate and Electoral College. But then you have the monarchy which totally skews in the wrong direction. The British monarchy needs abolition, but, at the very least, it cries out for badly needed reform.

  12. sunnyside up says:

    https://www.newsweek.com/prince-william-kate-middleton-diversity-data-meghan-markle-race-1929075
    It’s nice to see that they mention that this happened because of Meghan.

    • Nerd says:

      I believe the commenter above might be correct in the assumption that minorities in their instance, are anyone born outside of the UK, so it isn’t a true sign of the race of the minorities, but their nationalities. So anyone born in the US (Jason Knauf) or Spain (nanny Maria) would meet their requirement of being minorities. Didn’t they also have someone who works for them who purchases the children’s clothes and was from Spain or Italy? Wasn’t Sam the Panther from NZ or Australia? There’s diversity within their personnel, they just don’t look like what most people would consider diverse in this context.

  13. JENNIFER says:

    So William is upholding his grandmother’s 1960s policy that no Black or Brown people will get jobs as household staff, not clerks?
    Very much not a racist family.

  14. Becks1 says:

    Are household staff considered personal or official expenses? I say that because I wonder if part of the reason for the opacity is that they have a much larger household staff than the public knows about, if William is staying regularly at KP – it would have full time regular staff. Or maybe they just don’t want people to know how many household staff they have in general. Its hard to sell the “hands on” story if you have multiple nannies and multiple chefs etc.

    • Brassy Rebel says:

      My guess is they don’t want anyone to know how many “households” they have, although we can all surmise that William keeps a separate household.

      • Wagiman says:

        Exactly. And where is the outcry about KP supposedly empty since they moved to Adelaide?

        SO weird that never gets a mention /s

      • sunnyside up says:

        There are quite a few royals living at KP is currently the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank and their two sons. (wiki) How much time they actually spend there is a different matter.

      • Wagiman says:

        Sunnyside up, I was referring to the Wails 20 room or whatever apartment in KP. Given that it’s supposedly empty, since the wails supposedly all live in Adelaide, where’s the outrage? How many millions did that reno cost? No one peeps about it.

    • Lady Esther says:

      Part of the confusion is the terminology. The BRF term “household” staff as including both private staff (housecleaners, valets, butlers, chauffeurs…) and “work” staff (private secretaries, communications secretaries, accountants, etc). It’s all called “The Royal Household” staff for XYZ royal. Then they can blur the lines between public and private staff…

      For example, as I’ve said before what we would consider private staff, like chefs, housecleaners and the like are paid for under the “Household Staff”, which is of course deducted from the income of the various Duchies or Sovereign Grants (if the royal is a “working royal”). They follow the Royals around the various Royal properties so they are all staffed 24/7 in case a royal shows up. So it’s all fudged and smudged so that British taxpayers don’t realize how much they’re being bilked for…

      • Becks1 says:

        So all their staff, from the nanny to the chef to the housekeeper to the gardener to the person who does their laundry – would be considered “royal household staff” and be considered an official expense?? So the official duchy funds would cover that and not be taxed.

        What on earth do William and Kate pay for out of their personal funds? The kids’ tuitions?

      • Lady Esther says:

        Yes, Becks1. I remember when one of the Duchy of Cornwall reports (back when they used to break out things like number of helicopter trips) specifically noted that they were redefining for Charles, Camilla, William and Kate (this was even BEFORE the Queen died) trips among their various properties by heli as “professional” and therefore expensed, no matter if it was for professional or personal reasons. That’s the level of detail that used to be disclosed.

        I’m not an accountant but I imagine William and Kate find some way to expense their kids’ tuitions…Charitable activities (donation to the schools)? R&D for the future of the UK, haha?

        Vacations clearly can be expensed if they’re on Duchy property (hence the publicity around their visiting that house where Diana and Charles used to go, with all the family on bikes).

        If nothing is being disclosed you can be very sure that every single thing they do is expensed regardless of the actual purpose….and what they pay for themselves may be…erm…groceries? Unless they’re hosting other aristos for a weekend shooting party and they’ll expense that under “fundraising for the Royal Foundation”….

      • Becks1 says:

        Yes! I remember when they used to break out the helicopter rides between personal and professional. And then people could see at KP if the royals getting on the helicopter were dressed for work or in casual clothes and I think some people were legitimately tracking that and comparing it to the year end reports. Then they built that huge hedge so it couldn’t be tracked anymore and then just said all helicopter trips were professional so it didn’t matter.

        It really looks bad that William is being so much more secretive than his father but are we really surprised?

    • Nic919 says:

      You can pretty much guarantee that KP, Anmer and Adelaide are fully staffed with separate staff for each location. There could also be another location that we have not been advised of.

      It’s a bad look that the future king is far more opaque than his father.

  15. Jais says:

    William is gonna do what willaim wants to do. And who’s gonna do a thing about it? Say a thing a bout it? The tabloids? They’re too busy crying about Meghan and Harry. Convenient.

    • sunnyside up says:

      They have to fill their pages with something and Harry and Meghan get more clicks, especially from their detractors.

  16. Eurydice says:

    Well, we’ve seen that if William isn’t absolutely required to do something, he just won’t do it.

  17. Tessa says:

    I remember how the queen has Kensington residence for the keens renovated anticipation of William working full time. Kate demanded and got a new kitchen. Then William up and announced he wanted to be an air ambulance pilot . So no full time royal work. What a farce

  18. Noor says:

    William also got away without filing the the duchy financial report for 2022/2023 if i am not wrong. That he took over half way from Charles should not be an excuse.

    • sunnyside up says:

      There should be two separate reports with complete information about the assets at the time of the handover.

  19. Aimee says:

    This morning the New York Post claimed his annual “salary” is $30 million and some guy in the comments said “I bet he’d give it all back to have Kate cancer free.” I laughed out loud.

  20. Lulu says:

    2 new helicopters? Did Kate get custody of the one they have in her divorce?

  21. Over it says:

    Maybe wank can’t disclose his actual expenditures because he gave Carole and Mike a huge chunk as part of their shut up and keep my secrets deal . That along with giving the green light for them to be allowed back into the royal court. Whatever they know about wank must be nuclear

    • Lady Esther says:

      Ding ding ding! I think we have a winner….for sure, a big separation settlement was agreed upon and it couldn’t be described in any detail in the official reports…this is far more significant than clothes or helicopter rides being expensed!

      Although IIRC Charles’ divorce payout from Diana came from QEII, therefore the monarch…so if William pulled the same deal it wouldn’t be in the Duchy accounts, we’d have to look elsewhere…

      • Becks1 says:

        From what I have read, I dont think Charles was allowed to use Duchy funds for the divorce separation, hence why he had to borrow from his mother. but if William isn’t reporting his expenditures then maybe that’s where his “personal” money went – a nice payout to the Middletons.

      • Nic919 says:

        The queen lent Charles the money for the separation agreement. Charles was not allowed to take any duchy money for it. And separation agreements have to be filed with the court so they can’t lie about the money.

        That said, it doesn’t rule out a payout to the Middletons classified in some kind of squirrelly way.

    • Interested Gawker says:

      One wonders what portion funds go to KP’s ongoing social media nefariousness. Running those embiggening and anti H&M bot farms can’t be entirely from the various British media’s coffers.

      • SarahCS says:

        Bot farms that they can then claim as a business expense and offset against their tax liability.

  22. Proud Mary says:

    I am still bitter over the way the Sussexes were treated by this rotten family when they were working royals. I can’t forget how each year, the sovereign grant report made giant headlines because the Firm wanted the world to know that it’s budget had increased because Harry married a black woman. The public meltdown over the frogmore renovations happened after the SG report was released. Fast forward to today, not one peep is heard about the SG report, and William is telling the plebs to go and pound sand because, privacy. Do the plebs care how much he spends on his gas gosling copter? On renovations? Wardrobes? Travel? Of course not. He’s not Meghan.

  23. Digital Unicorn says:

    Given the alleged rumours of financial shenanigans at the Royal Foundation yeah of course he ain’t gonna tell us how much tax he didn’t pay. That superinjuction(s) he has against the press don’t just cover up any mistresses.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      It was also confirmed today that they would received an additional £45million for complete the reno’s at Buckingham Palace – maybe William can pay for that, all he needs to do is cut Waity’s beauty, clothes and wiglet budget.

      • Kat says:

        If Waity has reduced her public duties to just about nothing, she wont be be needing her expensive clothes, beauty and hair allowance .

  24. Hypocrisy says:

    But the tourism they bring makes every pound spent worth it… or so we are told.

  25. Lady Esther says:

    Another interesting thing from a communications perspective about William’s annual report…is how little he (and Kate) are featured. It’s almost as if the Duchy has nothing to do with him and they are downplaying the connection between the Duchy and how it’s primarily supposed to fund the Prince of Wales?

    For example, unlike with the reports I remember with Charles, there are hardly any photos of William. A few with William and Kate. No personal message from the Duke of Cornwall in his hereditary role as guardian of the Duchy of Cornwall or as POW. No mentions of all the POW is doing for and with the Duchy, no passion projects like with Charles, nothing. In the previous reports Charles was front and center, as if to justify the vast wealth he controlled but also a vanity thing…With William, nothing. Silence. It’s as if the Duchy of Cornwall is this independent thing that simply exists, garnering and throwing off vast amounts of cash and gobbling more and more assets, but it’s got nothing to do with William personally, see?

    Bizarre and odd…

    • Nanea says:

      But what about “ending homelessness”, with that project that is completely and most assuredly Bulliam’s idea, despite being planned *and* started by Charles years ago, the handful of houses that are to be built in Nansledan? Empty promises?

    • SarahCS says:

      Also Charles actually did GAF about all of his ‘work’ and the causes he supported. I[‘m sure he annoyed the professionals who actually ran things but he did get involved and took it all seriously.

  26. QuiteContrary says:

    “his office has decided not to reveal the amount as they are not obliged to do so.”

    How is that possible? Why do they get the green light to grift off of British taxpayers without any transparency?

  27. Libra says:

    William and Kate need to be protected at all costs. Nothing negative about them will get published for fear of consequences ( loss of access). Why is this? Does no one wonder what is being hid that is so secretive? Has any other royal been given this type of protection? William has not progressed out of the toddler phase; “I’ll do whatever I want and you can’t make me”. Yet the tabloid press praises him (and Kate) just for breathing.

    • Unblinkered says:

      So, answering your question, ‘has any other royal been given this level of protection’ – no.
      I’ve come to believe that whatever went down with KM, and what’s gone down in the past with her, has been so horrific that everyone now walks on eggshells around the two of them. We have to assume that if any of it became public knowledge the scandal could finish the monarchy.
      Whether in time something will emerge in the European press about her we’ll see, but the UK media must be being lent on from the highest level.

  28. Nanea says:

    The two new helicopters have been mentioned several times here in posts.

    The RF owns US-built Sikorski helis, despite the British forces using different types that are exclusively bought from the Airbus consortium — as the UK is still involved with Airbus as one of the owner countries, for now.

    So it’s the same problem as before: not only do the taxpayers have to pay more per unit* than for comparable ones provided by Airbus (no volume discount), but their pilots will have to spend time in the US for specialized training.

    * New Sikorski helis are between $ 15 and $ 27 million, depending on size and security specifications. There are smaller, cheaper ones, but I’ve never seen the RF use those.

    And there’s a small problem with spare parts: until those parts have arrived from the US, the helicopter can’t be used. Airbus of course stores the most commonly needed parts on the biggest airbases around the consortium’s owner countries.

    In the meantime a replacement will have to be leased from somewhere, running up an unnecessary extra tab for the taxpayers.

  29. bisynaptic says:

    Their staff is 2/3 female, but all the people at the top are male.

    William is training the British public to accept a monarchy that is regressing to its pre-Victorian state: very little of both charity and accountability. Will the public accept this?

  30. Anonymous says:

    So he made 30 million dollars the first year Charles became king. My guess: it ALL goes into his personal piggy bank. Unsure if he even shares with the wife and kids. He is a greedy, selfish, useless waste of space. Cannot stand him.

  31. Henny Penny says:

    So the guy who’s living off the public dole isn’t required to fully disclose his financial statements, but instead they talk about the finances of the guy supporting himself and his family in California? Make it make sense.

  32. Cottage Cat says:

    I’m wondering just how much influence the Middletons have over William’s finances…

  33. Kittenmom says:

    But none of the Whales’ 66 person staff live in Adelaide cottage. Isn’t that family so down to earth and relatable? 😹

  34. Monc says:

    I remember when William was about 13-14… he and Harry were greeting people at some event and a woman cried out “”your Mother will live on in your looks…”

    That didn’t quite happen….