On Thursday, both King Charles and Prince William released summaries of their tax returns. They “voluntarily” pay income tax, but neither had specified what they paid in taxes since QEII died in 2022. When he became Prince of Wales, William actually changed his father’s habit of disclosing information about the Duchy of Cornwall’s profits and taxable income. Well, it’s taken three-plus years and a lot of pitiful emotional-support polls, but now William has revealed how much he’s paid in income tax.
Prince William is richer than the King with a net worth via the Duchy of Cornwall of £1.2billion – and has paid more than £20 million in tax since becoming Prince of Wales, it has been revealed.
It emerged as accounts were published for the Sovereign Grant – the funding from the Treasury that is used by the royal household to pay for official duties – as well as the King’s personal fortune from the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall, which Prince William inherited when he became Prince of Wales.
The figures showed for the first time that future king William is richer than his father, with a net worth via the Duchy of £1.2billion. The prince received a private income of £21.6 million in 2025-26, the latest Duchy accounts showed.In contrast, Charles was listed in the Sunday Times Rich List as having a personal fortune of £640 million – an increase of £30 million from the previous year.
In a bid to be more transparent with the way the royal family is funded, the King and William have revealed their private tax payments. Figures show William contributed £7.76m in income and capital gains tax in 2024-25, and £8.34m in 2023-24.
It comes as it has been revealed that William has decided he will no longer personally benefit from the controversial £1.5million annual rent generated by the abandoned Dartmoor Prison. William has asked for the sum to be removed from the multimillion-pound income he receives as heir to the throne from the Duchy of Cornwall from 2026-27 onwards, with the money spent on regenerating the local community instead.
In 2024 it emerged the duchy signed a £37million deal in 2022, before Charles became King and William the Prince of Wales, to lease Dartmoor Prison to the Ministry of Justice, paying £1.5 million a year over 25 years, and a deal with the Ministry of Defence to allow the armed forces to train on Dartmoor land. But the category C prison in Devon has been empty since July 2024 after high levels of radon, a toxic gas that occurs naturally in soil and rocks and can cause lung cancer, were recorded in prisoners’ accommodation.
A community-led regeneration fund will be launched next year to offer social, economic and environmental benefits to Princetown, the isolated rural community next to the prison.
First of all, I’m glad William is no longer profiting from the Dartmoor prison situation. Second of all, William is not “worth” £1.2 billion. The Duchy of Cornwall, a feudal real-estate empire of slums, farms, seabeds, coastlines and parking lots, is worth that much. It’s not William’s personal piggy bank, even if he thinks it is. Even if he thinks he can just sell off duchy land and tuck the profits away god-knows-where. I hope Parliament continues to pull at the Windsors’ financial strings too, because most of these duchy holdings should be government-owned or publicly owned.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace’s social media. Screencaps courtesy of YouTube and AppleTV+.
