By Riley Stuart in London, ABC News
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will not move into Buckingham Palace when renovations costing hundreds of millions of pounds finish next year, breaking almost two centuries of royal tradition.
Charles is the first British monarch to decline using the sprawling 775-room central London complex as their official residence since 1837, when Queen Victoria moved in.
“His Majesty retains huge affection for Buckingham Palace and a deep respect for its role in royal and public life,” a palace spokesperson said, adding that public access to the building could be increased.
The royal couple live at nearby Clarence House, a much less cavernous five-bedroom property, where Charles has lived since 2003.
Buckingham Palace has been undergoing extensive refurbishments over the past decade, which are estimated to have cost around 369 million pounds ($862 million).
It is internationally recognised as the home of the British royals, although Queen Elizabeth II relocated from it during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was at the time described as a temporary move.
“I think King Charles has always felt that Clarence House was his true home,” said Afua Hagan, a journalist and royal commentator.
“I guess as he’s entering his latter years he wants to be able to have that separation. Buckingham Palace remains the office.”
The king and queen’s decision was revealed in Buckingham Palace’s annual financial statement, released on Thursday evening local time.
For the first time, it included details of a monarch’s tax bill and revealed King Charles paid 12.9 million pounds ($30m) into government coffers in the 2024-25 financial year.
The bill would likely mean he is among the United Kingdom’s top 100 taxpayers, although it is significantly less than that of Britain’s wealthiest business executives, and even some of its highest-earning creatives and footballers.
Publicly available documents show Harry Potter author JK Rowling, for example, paid around 47.5 million pounds in tax in the year to January 2026. In the same period, pop star Harry Styles paid 24.7 million pounds.
Under UK law, monarchs are exempt from income tax, capital gains tax, and the country’s inheritance tax, although Queen Elizabeth II began paying the first two of these on her own accord in 1992.
King Charles has continued the precedent set by his mother upon ascending the throne in 2022, and this week voluntarily disclosed his bill.
When he was the Prince of Wales, Charles also released specifics of his tax affairs.
The information released by Buckingham Palace showed Charles had paid more than 30 million pounds in tax since becoming king, and that his bill in the 2023-24 financial year was 11.7 million pounds.
Monarchy’s public funding cut
Royal finances have been subjected to increasing scrutiny in the UK.
Multiple recent scandals involving the king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, have sparked a public outcry and put the family’s dealings under a microscope.
The financial disclosure document released by Buckingham Palace also revealed that the yearly payment of public funds to the royal family, known as the Sovereign Grant, would soon decrease for the first time since its inception in 2012.
The money pays for the monarchy’s official duties and will be a record 137.9 million pounds in the 2026-27 UK financial year, which begins in April. That’s an increase of 5.8 million pounds on what the royals received in 2025-26.
The payment has been substantially increased over much of the past decade to fund the renovations to Buckingham Palace.
However, it has been the subject of a review that concluded on Thursday. From next year until 2032, the annual payment will be cut to 99.9 million pounds.
While it is the first time the payment has been reduced year-on-year, the figure is still the third-highest since the Sovereign Grant was introduced.
The Sovereign Grant is calculated as a percentage of the net profits generated by the Crown Estate, a vast property portfolio belonging to the reigning monarch but managed independently of them.
The Crown Estate’s profits have exploded in the past two years, thanks mainly to massive offshore wind farm deals.
Any money the Crown Estate makes is handed directly to the UK Treasury. In that way, the royal family argues it pays for itself.
“While royal finances can sometimes appear complex, the underlying system is clear in principle, structured in law and refined over time to ensure the monarch can serve with independence, accountability and in the long-term interest of the nation,” said James Chalmers, the Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King.
The Sovereign Grant was introduced to combine multiple, centuries-old methods of funding the monarchy.
Aside from the Sovereign Grant, the royal family have multiple other income streams.
The monarch of the day also receives money they can spend as they wish from a privately managed investment portfolio called the Duchy of Lancaster, which generated a net profit of 24.4 million pounds in 2024-25.
That includes a significant amount of property, as well as things like liquidities and mineral rights. The Prince of Wales has a similar set-up, called the Duchy of Cornwall.
British monarchs also privately own the royal residences of Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle and receive any profits derived from them, such as tourism.
More details of the royal family’s finances are expected to be released later today.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.rnz.co.nz ’
