‘Out of control’ royal budget to double to £100m in three years, files show

THE royal family’s funding is set to double to around £100 million per year, it has been revealed.

The sovereign grant, which funds the official functions of the royals, will be around £99.9m in 2027/28 – a 222% increase on the grant over fifteen years, up from £31m in 2012.

In 2024/25, the sovereign grant was worth £51.8m.

The bulk of the rise will come from royal family being given 20.5% of the Crown Estate profits, up from 12%.

The news comes as the royal family published King Charles’s tax returns, showing that “His Majesty’s tax payable for 2024-25 was £12.9m”.

Since Charles became King following the death of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022 he has paid more than £30m in tax, while his son William has made payments of more than £20m in tax since becoming the Prince of Wales.

READ MORE: What the SNP’s new anti-Ed Miliband crusade tells us about direction of the party

However, campaigners have said that the £100m figure for the sovereign grant understates the true cost of the royals, with “swathes of extra costs” pushing the annual bill to well over half a billion pounds once security, lost revenues from Duchy estates, and major refurbishments such as Buckingham Palace are included.

Republic has also challenged Charles to declare his full income and set out exactly how his tax is calculated.

Chief executive Graham Smith said: “Another hike for Charles, more spin and gloss and more misdirection on taxes. This is the way with royal reporting, the more they reveal the more questions are raised.

“If Charles doesn’t say what his income is, we have no idea if he is paying the top rate of tax, as he should be. The report talks about Charles’s total tax bill, but is it including VAT, as they have done in previous years?”

(Image: Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA Wire)

James Chalmers, keeper of the privy purse, said: “When Prince of Wales, His Majesty disclosed his tax, and he has asked that we make public his combined income and capital gains tax payments as king.

“Today I can share with you that His Majesty’s tax payable for 2024-25 was £12.9m. If annual media league tables are to be believed on such matters, that places His Majesty among the top 100 taxpayers in the country for that year.

“I can also share with you that His Majesty’s tax payable for 2023-24 was £11.7m and the total amount of tax payable by His Majesty since accession to the throne is more than £30m – all of this, remember, on a voluntary basis.”

However, Republic says these claims raise more questions than they answer.

The King’s private income streams include investments, trading profits, private estates such as Balmoral and Sandringham, and the Duchy of Lancaster, which provided him with £25.2m in 2025‑26 as an “independent source of income” traditionally known as the privy purse.

Charles voluntarily pays income tax on his private income, capital gains tax on relevant assets, and inheritance tax under arrangements first agreed by the late Queen in 1993.

Republic argues that this “voluntary” model is precisely the problem, leaving it “impossible to judge if he is paying the correct rate of tax”.

Smith said: “The royals continue to ignore other huge costs, including the loss of assets and profits from the Duchies, which means the bill for the taxpayer is well over half a billion pounds. Despite ongoing concerns about the huge cost of the royals, the grant will remain hugely inflated on its initial level of £31m in 2012.

“If that had risen by inflation the grant would stand at £45m, not £100m.”

READ MORE: Gritters deployed as Scottish roads melt in 52C heat and heatwave warning grows

The campaign group also points to the £369m publicly funded refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, arguing that “the government agreed to spent £369m on refurbishing Buckingham Palace, and now Charles doesn’t want to use it”.

The King and Queen will not live at Buckingham Palace once the refurbishment work to make the landmark fit for purpose has been completed.

“But he’ll keep it under lock and key for when he does. Clearly the palace needs to be fully open to the public all year round,” Smith said, concluding: “Royal finances are out of control, and parliament needs to act to slash the annual budget to below £10m.”