Swedish royal finances and taxes revealed

Recently, the Swedish Royal Family’s tax report was revealed. The Swedish newspaper Expressen was able to take a look at the financial situation of each member of the Swedish Royal Family.

Swedes are, in general, very open about their income and financial situation. It is, for example, possible to know how much your neighbour earns each year. Therefore, much is known about the Royal Family’s financial situation and taxes. All members of the Royal Family follow the same tax rules as other citizens in Sweden. However, part of the income of the King and his children is appanage which means that it is not taxed.

The Swedish Royal Family have several investments and the Chief Financial Officer at the Court, Jan Lindman is responsible for the investments. He stated: “The King, the Queen and their children have a financial fortune consisting of money they have inherited. That wealth consists of shares and bonds that generate dividends and capital gains and that is the basis of their normal income.”

This time it is Princess Madeleine who has the largest yield on her investments. In 2016 the Princess earned 2,233,347 SEK or almost 230,000 euro capital surplus on her investments. Her Royal Highness paid 670,004 SEK or 70,865 euros to the Swedish state as taxes. Her sister Crown Princess Victoria followed Madeleine closely. She received 2,024,265 SEK or 210,000 euros excess capacity on her investments. A part of it, 600,884 SEK or 63,555 she payed as taxes to the Swedish state. Prince Carl Philip did not do half as well as his sisters. Even though the Prince earned around 800,000 euros in 2015 on his investments, he received 810,176 SEK or 84,000 euros as returns on investments in 2016. Prince Carl Philip has other sources of income (for example his business Bernadotte & Kylberg) and out of those sources he earned 689,958 SEK or 72,975 euros. “The capital surplus is due to the sale of shares, for example, and it is natural that it goes up and down through the years,” said the Chief Financial Officer at the Court.

Princess Sofia did not have any investments nor did she earn any money from passive businesses so she did not pay any taxes either. Prince Daniel does not own a large amount of inherited family capital with which he can invest. However, Prince Daniel has his own capital and has made some own investments in 2016. He earned a surplus of 278,962 SEK in 2016. Chris O’Neill, the husband of Princess Madeleine, doesn’t file his taxes in Sweden as he isn’t a Swedish citizen. Therefore, he was not mentioned in the report.

His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf earned an excess capacity of 6,829,024 SEK which is much is less than the 23 million SEK of last year. Her Majesty the Queen also has some investments with her private capital and received 187,415 SEK on her investments. Their Majesties paid 2,22,985 SEK and 56,224 SEK to the Swedish State as taxes, respectively.

Everyone is able to read the financial report of the Royal Family and the Royal Court. The court publishes the report each year. The Swedish Royal Family is, therefore, one of the most transparent royal houses when it comes to finances and seeing what has been done with the taxpayers’ money.