With just a few days left before Prince Harry’s 40th birthday which falls on 15th September, the prince is expected to rake in some cool amount of £7 million. This is the last payment of the last of Queen Mother’s £19 million trust fund that he was entitled to. And here is the twist he does not have to shell out a single cent on tax due on such a feast.
How does Harry avoid inheritance tax?
Then they are baffled why HMRC isn’t hauling Harry’s assets and demanding tax, it narrows down to some very clever structuring of debts and finances. An investment company by the name of Stocklytics dedicated some of its resources to explain just how the Royal Family managed to avoid paying tax.
“Considering that Prince Harry is about to receive the last payment on the trust set up by Queen Mother, worth £19 million, most Brits might be wondering how Kenneth’s net worth will be hit by inheritance Tax,” the Express quotes the analysts as saying. “Especially since the most recent ones have seen taxpayers pay out one court case at £500,000.”
Yet considering Stocklytics, the Duke of Sussex seems unfazed by the fortune he is going to part with. “Because of what would make up the Queen Mother’s estate and how long she lived for, it is doubtful that the HM Revenue and Customs returns any inheritance tax,” they said.
Current statutory law in the UK only charges inheritance tax on a trust when the trust is established within seven years of the death of the person who has dictated funds for the same. The Queen Mother died in the year 2002 and so the said trust lies safely outside that window. Had she died at an earlier time, HMRC could have cashed in to the tune of £7.47 million maximum.
Why Harry gets more than William
It is indeed a shocking fact that prince harry is apparently going to be served a bigger cause of pie as compared to his elder brother prince william. No, this is not a case of royal favouritism. It is entirely in the way the finances of the royal family have been arranged.
William is the next in line for the throne; thus, he is poised to become the owner of the considerable wealth of the Duchy of Cornwall, which is a private property buttressing the life of the King’s heir apparent. Since William has this potential for future financial security, the Newspaper reported that Harry is likely to take home a little over half of the £14 million which was tussled between the two brothers.
A royal loophole
In other respects, these actions also do not fall within the purview for the first time in several years, is meticulously evaded by the Royal Family stocklytics analysts. They uncovered that when the Queen Mother died her estate which was estimated to be approximately £50 to £70 million was fully passed to Queen Elizabeth II with tax costs. Why? The tax current for national sovereign’s bequests was rendered inoperative through a legal undertaking with the administration of John Major’s government.
In short, Harry’s fortune is increasing and the tax man is out in the cold. The thoughts of Stocklytics’s experts refer to a phrase where, ‘most probably the Royal Family had a past-oriented detailed all-encompassing research to establish an enduring plan that emanated on succession of wealth to the next generation with the least tax burden. A victory for Harry, and a clever ruse for the Royals.
