If what cathole posted below was true, the British aristocracy wouldn't have had their wealth decimated by inheritance taxes enacted generations ago. They could simply place their estates and wealth into a trust.
""The head of the family, the Queen, has an astonishing net worth of £365m according to the Sunday Times.
Owing to our Sovereign's “unique constitutional position,” she is “not legally liable to pay inheritance tax,” Hilesh Chavda a lawyer with Spencer West told Express.co.uk.
But there are caveats, Laura Harper a specialist in inheritance tax at Kingsley Napley told Express.co.uk: “Only the reigning sovereign is exempt from inheritance tax and only to the extent that their personally held wealth passes to the next sovereign.
“As such, if the queen were to leave her personally held estate to Charles, inheritance tax would not apply to her estate. ”Inheritance tax exemptions only apply to the Queen as reigning monarch, this means the rest of her family will be subject to death duties."
In 1993 a deal was agreed between the royals and the Government that the Queen would pay inheritance tax on certain parts of her estate."
The key point here is you're referring to the queen's **PERSONAL wealth, which is distinctly different from the royal estates being held in trusts.
I will freely admit that I'm not the most well versed on this topic as I'm not British, but upon a bit of further research I'll clarify where I was wrong.
British royals ARE exempt from the estate tax as well apparently, so I was wrong on that part. However, I was still correct about the trusts. The Duchy of Cornwall and Duchy of Lancaster (The 2 Royal estates from which the lifestyle of the British Royal Family are funded) are held in the types of trusts I mentioned.
The queen did indeed have a personal net worth of 365 million pounds (I'm American, I have a dollar key instead of a pound or Euro key), but the overwhelming majority of the $30 Billion royal estate mentioned in OP's article is held in some form of trust, either the British equivalent of a dynasty trust or a public trust (Which basically means it's treated as a national monument, kind of like the White House).
For example, the previous mentioned Duchies are also mentioned in this article as having a value of $750 Million and $1 Billion respectively. These estates can never be taxed as per the estate tax, since technically, the state owns them and the beneficiary is whoever the current Monarch/Crown Prince/Princess is.
That's how most of the Royal Estate works. Buckingham palace for example, is generally considered to be worth $1-4 Billion by itself, but it's also held in a public trust since it's a national monument with the beneficiary being the reigning monarch.
If what cathole posted below was true, the British aristocracy wouldn't have had their wealth decimated by inheritance taxes enacted generations ago. They could simply place their estates and wealth into a trust.
""The head of the family, the Queen, has an astonishing net worth of £365m according to the Sunday Times.
Owing to our Sovereign's “unique constitutional position,” she is “not legally liable to pay inheritance tax,” Hilesh Chavda a lawyer with Spencer West told Express.co.uk.
But there are caveats, Laura Harper a specialist in inheritance tax at Kingsley Napley told Express.co.uk: “Only the reigning sovereign is exempt from inheritance tax and only to the extent that their personally held wealth passes to the next sovereign.
“As such, if the queen were to leave her personally held estate to Charles, inheritance tax would not apply to her estate. ”Inheritance tax exemptions only apply to the Queen as reigning monarch, this means the rest of her family will be subject to death duties."
In 1993 a deal was agreed between the royals and the Government that the Queen would pay inheritance tax on certain parts of her estate."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1508459/Royal-family-inheritance-tax-queen-evg
The key point here is you're referring to the queen's **PERSONAL wealth, which is distinctly different from the royal estates being held in trusts.
I will freely admit that I'm not the most well versed on this topic as I'm not British, but upon a bit of further research I'll clarify where I was wrong.
British royals ARE exempt from the estate tax as well apparently, so I was wrong on that part. However, I was still correct about the trusts. The Duchy of Cornwall and Duchy of Lancaster (The 2 Royal estates from which the lifestyle of the British Royal Family are funded) are held in the types of trusts I mentioned.
The queen did indeed have a personal net worth of 365 million pounds (I'm American, I have a dollar key instead of a pound or Euro key), but the overwhelming majority of the $30 Billion royal estate mentioned in OP's article is held in some form of trust, either the British equivalent of a dynasty trust or a public trust (Which basically means it's treated as a national monument, kind of like the White House).
For example, the previous mentioned Duchies are also mentioned in this article as having a value of $750 Million and $1 Billion respectively. These estates can never be taxed as per the estate tax, since technically, the state owns them and the beneficiary is whoever the current Monarch/Crown Prince/Princess is.
That's how most of the Royal Estate works. Buckingham palace for example, is generally considered to be worth $1-4 Billion by itself, but it's also held in a public trust since it's a national monument with the beneficiary being the reigning monarch.
Good God almighty.