Charles and Camilla’s £250,000 tax cut
PRINCE Charles’s tax bill has been slashed by £250,000, thanks to the new 45p tax rate, it was revealed last night.
Despite enjoying a rise in income, the heir to the throne paid less money to the taxman last year after the 50p rate for top earners was scrapped.
While revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall estate rose by £500,000, his tax bill fell by £250,000.
Charles, who has voluntarily paid income tax on his earnings for the past 20 years, gave £4.18 million to the taxman – down from £4.42 million the previous year.
His private secretary, William Nye, admitted: ‘He has benefited from the 45 per cent tax rate.’
The future King was among the country’s 320,000 top earners to benefit from the tax cut. Labour have vowed to return to the 50p rate if they win next year’s General Election.
PRINCE Charles spent more than £1.2 million on official travel last year – including £250,000 on hiring a private jet to attend Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
The heir to the throne was by far the biggest royal user of private jets and helicopters, covering 46,000 miles on official duties over the past 12 months.
Although his total travel bill was almost double the previous year’s figures, the rise is somewhat artificial because many of his overseas costs in 2012/13 were covered by the countries where he was travelling.
But yesterday’s royal accounts still laid bare some expensive journeys. Charles and Camilla’s official tour of India last autumn, after which they travelled to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka, cost £433,020. Similarly a tour last year to the Middle East, also conducted by private jet, cost £243,180.
‘These trips just could not have been carried out by scheduled flights due to the number of countries visited and the sheer schedule of the engagements that had been packed in,’ an aide said last night.
Questions are also sure to be asked about flights taken by the Duke of York when the accounts are l aid before Parliament.
‘Air Miles Andy’ managed to spend £14,692 on a charter aircraft to take him to Edinburgh and back for off i ci al engagements which, happily for the golf fan, included a trip to The Open at Muirfield.
A surprising addition to the list of high spenders was the Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, who racked up £25,575 on scheduled flights to and from Seoul, South Korea, on what is described only as an ‘FCO visit’.
Overall, travel costs for the Royal Family were down by 7 per cent to £4.2 million. The Queen is hoping to reduce costs further by leasing a helicopter for the next 12 months.