Published on 6/26/2026
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Last update: 20:16 (Mecca time)
King Charles III has become the first British king in history to reveal the amount of taxes he has paid since assuming the throne in 2022, which amounted to about 30 million pounds sterling (about 39.6 million dollars).
Buckingham Palace, which published the king’s documents on Thursday, said that this step comes within the framework of its “commitment to transparency” in light of increasing public scrutiny of the royal family’s financial affairs.
Agence France-Presse reviewed the sources of funding for the British Royal Family, starting from the sovereign grant and ending with private income estimated at tens of millions.
What is a sovereign grant?
The Sovereign Grant is an annual sum allocated by the British Treasury to cover official royal duties.
This grant is also used to manage and maintain official royal residences, support staff, official travel, and host official events such as annual garden parties and investiture ceremonies.
In the 2025/26 fiscal year, the sovereign grant rose to £132.1 million (about $174.4 million), compared to £86.3 million (about $113.9 million) in the previous four tax years.
Buckingham Palace stated that half of the allocations for the fiscal year 2025/2026, or approximately 67.5 million pounds sterling (about 89.1 million dollars), “were allocated to the preservation and protection of the inhabited royal palaces, which are considered among the most prominent heritage monuments in the country.”
The costs of the king’s employees amounted to 33.7 million dollars, while the cost of a flight that the king took, accompanied by Queen Camilla, to Rome in 2025, amounted to a huge amount of 126,946 pounds sterling (about 167,569 dollars).
This grant does not cover all royal expenses. For example, security costs are financed separately.
How is it calculated?
The Sovereign Grant was introduced in 2012, replacing the centuries-old “civil list system”, which was considered too complex.
It is a single payment linked to the profits of the property management company known as the Crown Estate, which is transferred directly to the public purse.
The grant was set at 12% of Crown property profits two years ago, which had risen significantly, mainly due to windfall revenues from leasing seabed rights to offshore wind project developers.
The sovereign grant for the years 2026/27 will rise to 137.9 million pounds sterling (about 182 million dollars), to include the last large tranche of 40.3 million pounds sterling (about 53.2 million dollars) for the 10-year Buckingham Palace restoration project.
However, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Thursday that during the five years between 2027 and 2032, the grant will be restored to £99.9 million (about $131.9 million) annually.
It is noteworthy that the sovereign grant is exempt from taxes because it is public funds used to perform official tasks.
What is a Crown Property Corporation?
Crown Properties manages a huge real estate portfolio, currently worth £16.7 billion (about $22 billion), which includes luxury properties in London, country estates, coastal properties, Windsor Estate, and seabed exploitation rights around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It is an independent commercial enterprise that operates separately from the government and the royal family. This institution is not considered the private property of the King and may not be sold.
In the year ending in March 2025, the institution achieved net profits of 1.1 billion pounds sterling (about 1.45 billion dollars). However, these profits fell to 487 million pounds sterling (about 642.8 million dollars) in the tax year ending in March of this year, mainly due to lower fees from offshore wind projects.
What about private income?
In the period 2025/2026, the King received about 25.2 million pounds sterling (about 33.3 million dollars) in private income from the “Duchy of Lancaster” wallet, while the Prince of Wales received 21.6 million pounds sterling (about 28.5 million dollars) from the “Duchy of Cornwall” wallet.
These two historic estates are the main sources of private income for the King and the Crown Prince. They are large and diversified investment portfolios of land, real estate, and investments, managed as modern companies, and generate their profits through leasing agricultural land, managing commercial and residential real estate, and acquiring financial assets.
Both estates are kept in trust for future generations and cannot be permanently sold.
Their earnings fund personal expenses and some official duties, separately from support from taxpayers, such as the Sovereign Grant.
The law does not require the King and his Crown Prince to pay taxes on their private income, but they do so voluntarily, following the example of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Personal wealth
Members of the royal family have personal wealth, mostly from personal investment portfolios and inheritances, as the King owns two estates, Balmoral and Sandringham, which he inherited from his mother, Elizabeth.
Unlike most members of the public, assets that pass directly from one property to another are exempt from inheritance tax under a long-standing government agreement.
