Prince William’s income and tax payment details recently became public for the first time, triggering more controversy and scrutiny than he may have expected.
Members of the British royal family pay tax voluntarily, a practice that started in 1993 in the face of criticism over the royal family’s alleged lack of accountability. William, the Prince of Wales, had not released information about his own tax payments even though he became the Duke of Cornwall four years ago.
Prince William advised by expert to be more transparent about his money
The recent disclosure revealed he paid £7.76 million (~$10.26 million) in income and capital gains tax in 2024–25 and £8.34 million in 2023-24. His income from the Duchy of Cornwall stands at £21.6 million during 2025-26.
Experts in royal family affairs, however, feel that William’s act of disclosing wealth, income and tax details could have been appreciated had it come earlier.
“I think it was a bit of an own goal by William not to have followed his father’s example about revealing his tax bill until now,” said former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond. “Charles made his (tax bill) public when he was Prince of Wales, so it now looks as if William has been forced to do so.”
The revelation came after controversies had already broken out about his income, including that he was receiving £1.5m a year under a lease signed in 2022 on the Dartmoor Prison site, a prison that has been closed for the past two years due to unsafe levels of radon gas.
Prince William has now decided he would not take that £1.5m-a-year income anymore.
According to Bond, William needs to “read the room” and be more open about his finances. Since his Duchy is professionally run and the books are officially audited, there should be nothing to hide. “He would do himself a favour to be frank about it,” Bond said.
DO YOU THINK PRINCE WILLIAM SHOULD HAVE DISCLOSED THE TAX DETAILS EARLIER?
Originally reported by Sreemanti Sengupta for Reality Tea
