Government urged to tax Royals fully
A Labour think-tank has urged the government to make the Royal Family pay inheritance and other taxes as ordinary citizens do.
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And the Fabian Society wants the Queen and her relatives to produce fully transparent accounts of all their private and public income.
Since 1993, the Queen had voluntarily paid income and capital gains tax but that does not go far enough, according to the society.
In its document The Future of the Monarchy, the Fabian Society said funding of the whole Royal Family should become transparent with full accounts provided by a new Head of State Office.
And the whole Royal Family should pay tax on private income and wealth.
This would include for the first time inheritance tax on private properties such as Balmoral and Sandringham Castles.
The status of ownership of other Royal assets such as works of art should be clarified as part of the accounting and tax review, the report said.
The whole income of the Royal Family – public and private – should be consolidated into a single publicly accountable revenue stream subject to a vote in Parliament.
The report also says that the Monarch should be allowed to retire, Catholics should be allowed to succeed to the Throne, the Sovereign should not remain head of the Church of England, heirs to the Throne should not longer require the consent of the Queen to marry, and the oldest child regardless of sex should succeed to the Monarchy.