# British Monarchy and taxes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-monarchy-and-taxes/723106 "2015-06-22T01:00:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-monarchy-and-taxes/723106/1 "2015-06-22T01:00:14Z")
From a family relationship pov, how far from the throne does a royal have to be before he or she has to work for an income instead of being tax subsidised? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-monarchy-and-taxes/723106/2 "2015-06-22T02:14:48Z")
The Queen has her own properties and income, so in theory she could live on that without needing to “work for a living” or be “tax subsidised”. As for other royals, according to Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > By 2002 there were eight recipients of parliamentary annuities (all children or cousins of the Queen) receiving a combined total of £1.5 million annually. Between 1993 and 2012 the Queen voluntarily refunded the cost of these annuities to the Treasury.[18] The Sovereign Grant Act 2011 abolished all of these other than that received by the Duke of Edinburgh. > **[Finances of the British royal family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_the_British_Royal_Family)** > > The finances of the British royal family come from a number of sources. The British government supports the monarch and some of his family financially by means of the Sovereign Grant, which is intended to meet the costs of the sovereign's official expenditures. This includes the costs of the upkeep of the various royal residences, staffing, travel and state visits, public engagements, and official entertainment. Other sources of income include revenues from the Duchies of Lancaster and C The K... ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-monarchy-and-taxes/723106/3 "2015-06-22T02:32:57Z")
That’s up to the Queen. The only people who receive a direct subvention from the taxpayers are (a) the Queen, who gets a “sovereign grant” (36.1 million pounds sterling in 2013/14) and the Duke of Edinburgh, who gets a parliamentary annuity of 359,000 pounds. In addition to the sovereign grant, the monarch is supported by the income from the Duchy of Lancaster (a portfolio of land, property and assets) and by the revenues of her personal estate, but these are comparatively modest compared to the sovereign grant. The Prince of Wales has his own revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall, another (larger) portfolio of land and assets). These support not only him and his wife but also the Cambridges and Prince Harry. Other members of the royal family get (or don’t get) money out of this pot if the Queen decides to give it to them. In general, it goes to royals who carry out engagements or discharge functions on behalf of the Queen. But direct cash payments aren’t the only way that lesser royals can be supported; they can, for instance, be given residential accommodation for free, or at below market rates. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-monarchy-and-taxes/723106/4 "2015-06-22T08:39:06Z")
In addition, the money supplied to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh aren’t for their personal use, but are to meet costs accrued by their responsibilities. To consider it anything like a salary (I know it’s not a word OP used) would be akin to including the costs of running the Presidency to Obama’s salary. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-monarchy-and-taxes/723106/5 "2015-06-22T08:46:16Z")
Technically, only the Queen and Prince Phillip get money from taxpayers. It’s called the civil list, though it’s not really a list any more. The others get their money either from the Queen, in which case it’s either a gift or money earned for performing duties (or at least it’s supposed to be the latter) or from their landholdings; those are supposed to be taxable but Charles, at least, uses some dodges like charity status to legally avoid some tax. Anyone can get money from landholdings if they own the land, so it’s not exactly the same as getting money from taxpayers for being a royal. They don’t need to work for a living but then neither do many landowners. Several of the Queen’s family members do have paying jobs anyway. Andrew was a fairly senior military figure until he retired (and he really did fight in the Falklands War), Harry is still in the army, Wills was a helicopter pilot, Anne’s children both have fairly normal jobs, and Edward runs a media company. So you only have to go to her own children before you find people in normal paying jobs, although the income from them will be dwarfed by whatever they get from trusts, lands etc, and all the adult titled ones - titles other than Prince or Princess - have some landholdings.