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Comment by drstewart | Hacker News Reader

Is there an estimate of how much the Crown Estate will pay in estate taxes when the Queen passes?

This question is not made in good faith and I think you know it.

The Crown Estate is not the personal property of the monarch, it's essentially just government assets. Who is the Crown Estate going to pay taxes to, itself?

Here is a better discussion of the details around the queen's estate tax exemption: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a3...

>The Crown Estate is not the personal property of the monarch, it's essentially just government assets. Who is the Crown Estate going to pay taxes to, itself?

Pretty ingenious way to allow "families to pass wealth from generation to generation, indefinitely, without estate taxes at each death". The UK should do something about that. I hear significant estate taxes are important to a democracy to prevent the rise of a noble class.

Good thing then that the UK is a parliamentary monarchy. Having a noble class is kind of built into that system.

The Crown Estate does not do this. It is not familial wealth. It arose as a settlement absolving the monarch from personal responsibility for the nation’s finances.

The monarch does does receive a percentage of profits from those Crown Estate assets though.[1]. I understand that some of this goes to the upkeep of royal palaces but it does invite the question of how many palaces one family needs? Especially when the Queen actually owns Balmoral and Sandringham Castles i.e they are not part of the Crown Estate.[3]

I'm curious if anyone knows how or why The Duchy of Lancaster[2] was not included in the The Crown Estate?

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-57559653

[2] https://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/duchy-of-la...

[3] https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/royals/queen-elizabeth-ne...

The UK has inheritance tax for literally everyone except one person passing that estate to her direct inheritors. This is why bringing it up is derailing.

(and yes obviously the hereditary monarchy and peerages do not belong in the modern era let alone the 21st century, but changing that in a not especially democratic country is hard)

I think it's all technically government property already?

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