Prince’s pay is up, but tax bill drops
PRINCE Charles has benefited from the new 45p tax rate for top earners – paying less to the Inland Revenue despite his income going up.
Last year the heir to the throne saw his ‘ pay packet’ from the Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate which provides funding for the Prince of Wales, rise by £500,000.
But, according to accounts released yesterday, in 2013/2014 he paid £4.1 million in tax – a fall of almost £250,000 on his previous bill.
His private secretary, William Nye, said: ‘He has benefited from the 45 per cent tax rate.’
Last year, Charles’s total income and funding, which includes money from taxpayers towards travel on official duties, went up by 7.3 per cent to £21,678,000.
The prince’s official expenditure last year was £12.1 million. He also used £2.1 million of his income from the Duchy on his personal expendi- ture – down by £250,000 on the previous year – which covers everything from the cost of his food and wife Camilla’s dresses to supporting his two sons. The 50p tax rate for high earners, which is claimed to have brought unprecedented levels of tax avoidance with minimal gain, was slashed by George Osborne in his April 2012 budget and brought in last April.
At the time it was said the cut would affect 328,000 top earners with incomes above £150,000 a year. Only yesterday was it confirmed that the future king was one of them.
A Clarence House spokesman told the Mail last night: ‘The prince has voluntarily paid income tax for more than 20 years. He pays whatever rate the Government sets.’
‘He then chooses to spend well over half of his income after tax in support of his official and charitable work.’ Unfortunately for Charles, Labour has vowed to re-introduce the 50p top rate if it wins the next election. Ed Miliband has repeatedly branded the decision to cut the rate from 50p to 45p as a ‘tax cut for millionaires’.
While the prince has been lauded for his decision pay income tax voluntarily, questions have frequently been raised about the amount of expenditure he has been able to write-off as taxable expenses on official duties – which amounted to more than £10 million last year.
Yesterday’s accounts, released, unusually, on the same day as those of the Queen, also revealed that Charles employed 127.6 (including parttime) staff, including 1.3 butlers and three chauffeurs as well as 2.5 valets and dressers.
The prince and Camilla conducted 665 official engagements and entertained 9,493 guests. Staff costs were £6.2 million and £326,000 was spent on official entertaining and receptions.