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Tax disclosure and palace plans
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will not move into Buckingham Palace once its refurbishment has finished, the palace said in a press release Thursday, with the decision tied to the end of the Reservicing Program.
“King Charles III and Queen Camilla will not move into Buckingham Palace once its refurbishment has finished, the palace said in a press release Thursday”
The palace said the Reservicing Program completion means "The King and Queen will not make Buckingham Palace a personal residence," and it framed Buckingham Palace as "the ceremonial centre of Royal life, the primary workplace of the Royal Household and a national heritage asset with increased opportunities for public access."
The palace also disclosed King Charles’s tax payments in the Sovereign Grant Report, saying his tax bill was 11.7 million pounds in 2023-24 and 12.9 million pounds in 2024-25.
The refurbishment began in April 2017 and is due to be completed in April 2027, while the Sovereign Grant Report is set to be released Friday.
The BBC reported the King disclosed he paid £12.9m in tax for 2024-2025, placing him in the top 100 of UK taxpayers, and said the King and Queen Camilla will continue to live in Clarence House rather than move into Buckingham Palace.
Why transparency now
The Washington Post said the disclosure broke with a centuries-old tradition of royal financial privacy and described it as part of an effort by Buckingham Palace to contain fallout from damaging revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s finances.
The Washington Post reported that the gesture of transparency was partly intended to contain the damage from revelations about the finances of the king’s disgraced and demoted brother, the former Prince Andrew, now simply Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The BBC said the publication of how much tax the King and Prince William voluntarily pay was a personal decision made by both men, and it described the move as increasing transparency and aimed to "encourage wider understanding of our accountability."
In a separate account, ABC News quoted a Buckingham Palace spokesperson saying it "will remain a working home but we are seeking to widen public access precisely to maximise the national benefit of a publicly-funded building."
The Morning Call reported that the king made the personal decision to reveal his tax payments as part of a drive to "encourage wider understanding and accountability," citing palace sources.
Sovereign Grant and scrutiny
The Guardian reported that the core sovereign grant would be reduced to £99.9m for 2027-28, up from £51.8m in 2024-25, after a review by the royal trustees including the UK prime minister Keir Starmer, the chancellor Rachel Reeves, and James Chalmers.
The Guardian also said Charles and Camilla made their decision not to move to Buckingham Palace after "careful consideration and to greatly increase opportunities for public access," and it reported they will remain at Clarence House for the duration of his reign.
ABC News said the Sovereign Grant Report will detail how public funding supported the royal family and the "maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces for the 2025-2026 financial year," and it said the report includes the amount of taxes Charles paid in the two years since ascending the throne in May 2023.
The BBC reported that the accounts show the main source of annual public funding for the Royal Household, the Sovereign Grant, is rising to just under £100m for the year 2027-28, and it said the King paid £11.7m in tax for 2023-24.
The Guardian quoted James Chalmers saying, "[Buckingham Palace] is and will remain monarchy HQ, the crown jewel of our national buildings," while the BBC described the tax disclosure as the first time a monarch revealed their tax bill.
