💰 Duchy of Cornwall paid Prince William £22.9M, Telegraph says

The headline number is a modest one by the standards of the estate that produces it. The Telegraph reported on 6 July 2025 that the Duchy of Cornwall, which it described as a £1.3 billion property empire, provided Prince William with a private income of almost £23 million a year. Its more precise figure: he received £22.9 million from the estate in the latest year, down from £23.6 million the year before.

That earlier £23.6 million is the figure the royal accounts gave for his first full year after inheriting the estate from his father, the Guardian reported on 23 July 2024. The Telegraph added that the Duchy declined to say how much tax the heir to the throne paid, only that it was at the "highest rate". A year later, the accounts would say more.

What the income pays for

The Duchy's own account is that the revenues pass to the Prince, who "chooses to use them to fund his public, charitable and private activities", according to its FAQ page as archived on 12 March 2023. The Guardian reported in July 2024 that aides described the surplus as meeting the official, charitable and private costs of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children.

What the documents read here do not give is a split for William. For his father the picture was clearer. The Prince of Wales's own annual review for 2017-18 said over 51 per cent of his after-tax Duchy income went on official and charitable duties, and that staff costs made up £5.418 million of £8.523 million. The Guardian reported in 2023 that Charles had put the public and charitable share at 49% to 51% in recent years, and that the royals have never given a detailed account of how Duchy money is spent, calling the arrangements "private financial arrangements".

"There is little transparency."

Margaret Hodge, Labour MP who led the 2013 Commons inquiry into the Duchy, quoted by The Guardian, 5 April 2023

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the Guardian's income figures at the time, which it described as "speculative". That was before William's tax figures were published.

The tax: voluntary, and not itemised

The BBC reported on 25 June 2026 that the annual royal accounts show William paid £8.34m in tax for 2023-24 and £7.76m for 2024-25. Both he and the King made the decision to publish their figures personally, their offices told the BBC. The tax on William's Duchy income is voluntary, as the Duchy's FAQ states.

"Prince William pays income tax at the highest rate on any net surplus after those costs have been met. Those costs are independently audited to ensure that any deductions are appropriate,"

Ian Patrick, the Prince's private secretary, quoted by BBC News, 25 June 2026

The BBC noted the new figures do not break down how the tax was calculated. Tax Policy Associates founder Dan Neidle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the King's disclosure was "highly opaque" because the expenses deducted are unknown. His comment was about the King's figures; the Prince's are published in the same accounts, on the same basis. The tax for 2025-26 is still being audited and will be published next year, the BBC reported.

Corporation tax (UK tax on company profits) is a separate argument. The Duchy says it is a private estate with Crown exemption, not a corporation, and that if it paid corporation tax too, the Prince would effectively be taxed twice. Republic told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee that the Duchy is a legal entity operating as a commercial enterprise and should pay. A 2011 First-tier Tribunal ruling found the Duchy is a public authority under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004; the Guardian reported in 2012 that accountants said the ruling could expose it to corporation tax, though one tax specialist called it "persuasive, but not binding on other courts". Clarence House strongly denied any tax avoidance then, and the Guardian noted there was no suggestion any law had been breached. HMRC (the UK tax agency) said it would evaluate the information.

How the estate is run

The ceremony is old and the paperwork is older. The Duchy was created by Edward III in 1337 and, under that charter, the Duke receives the annual income but is not entitled to proceeds from selling capital assets, the Duchy says. The Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall (Accounts) Act 1838 requires annual accounts of receipts and disbursements to go to the Treasury and then to both Houses of Parliament, for the Duchy of Cornwall by 30 June after the year-end. The Duchy says the Treasury must approve all property transactions of £500,000 or more, and that the accounts are audited by independent external auditors rather than the National Audit Office, because it is a private estate.

The estate is now being reshaped. The Times reported on 17 May 2026 that the Duchy plans to sell about a fifth of its land over ten years and invest £500 million, including about £160 million in housing, according to its chief executive Will Bax. Bax rejected accusations the Duchy had been "overly commercial" with tenants, saying: "I don't think that was true."

The scrutiny has already produced changes. The Telegraph reported that after a Channel 4 Dispatches and Sunday Times investigation, the Duchy waived rent charges worth more than £10,000 a year for lifeboat stations, school playing fields and village halls, though it would keep taking rent from government departments. One of those is the £1.5 million a year the Ministry of Justice pays for HMP Dartmoor, empty since July 2024 after radon was found. The BBC reported that William has stopped personally benefiting from that rent and that the Princetown Community Fund will make at least £250,000 available locally.

So the receipts, in order: roughly £23 million in, millions out in voluntary tax, a trail of audited costs and a ledger the public can see only in outline. MissesSlay notes that the most transparent line item so far is the one that is voluntary.