You know how the British media is completely desperate for any kind of news about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex? It’s true. The British papers employ people to look through incorporation filings in Delaware, that’s how desperate they are to find stories about Meghan and Harry. The British media has a particular interest in Harry and Meghan’s money and businesses. That’s what the “oh no, they incorporated in Delaware” was all about. And now this: the Daily Mirror thinks it’s somehow notable that Harry and Meghan pay property taxes. I sh-t you not.
Prince Harry and wife Meghan are facing a “council tax” bill of £103,995 on their Californian mansion. Documents uncovered by the Sunday Mirror show the 2021-22 charge from Santa Barbara County came in two instalments of £51,978. The fee, double what experts had estimated, is based on the value of the property in swanky Montecito.
The couple, who quit royal duties as part of a move to the US, bought the nine-bed, 13-bathroom home in June 2020 for around £11.5million, with a mortgage thought to be £7.4million. Previous owner Sergey Grishin, a Russian businessman, had paid £17million a decade earlier.
The first instalment of the tax bill was due on December 10, the second on February 1 – with a 10% penalty for any bills not paid by April 11. A source said: “The bill is a huge sum but it’s peanuts in relation to their earnings.”
Local experts say the Tuscan-style mansion, built in 2003 and 80 miles north of LA, is now worth £19.4million. It has a library, gym, cinema room, spa, pool, tennis court, guest house and a playground for children Archie, two, and Lilibet, eight months.
Harry, 37, also faces a huge income tax bill in April now he is resident in the US. His team was approached for comment.
Imagine caring about Harry and Meghan’s property taxes. Imagine that desperation. But I’d like to point out something else: for the British media, it’s somewhat exotic for them to be able to talk about property taxes and income taxes in royal coverage. That’s because the Queen doesn’t pay property taxes and the Prince of Wales is the biggest land-owner and landlord in the UK. I believe that only a handful of royals even pay any kind of tax whatsoever, income or property or capital gains or what have you. Anyway, Harry and Meghan have accountants and this is all their headache, not the Mirror’s headache.
Photos courtesy of AppleTV, Archewell, YouTube.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the draw for the Rugby League World Cup 2021 at Buckingham Palace. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex BACKGRID USA 16 JANUARY 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the draw for the Rugby League World Cup 2021 at Buckingham Palace. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex BACKGRID USA 16 JANUARY 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the draw for the Rugby League World Cup 2021 at Buckingham Palace. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex BACKGRID USA 16 JANUARY 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Gal Gadot arrives at the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 9, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States. Where: Beverly Hills, California, United States When: 10 Feb 2020 Credit: WENN/Avalon **WENN/Avalon**
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- Beverly Hills, CA – Stars pose at the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Los Angeles Tea Party 2019 held at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles. Pictured: Emma Stone BACKGRID USA 5 JANUARY 2019 BYLINE MUST READ: Image Press / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I also pay property taxes, where is my headline?
LOCAL WOMAN ON PROPERTY LADDER, ACTIVELY CONTRIBUTING TO PUBLIC GOODS- And sources say it isn’t the first time!
That comment got A literal LOL from me, Kbeth!
UK Taxpayers must feel pretty stupid paying for a family that Harry has clearly proven can PAY FOR THEMSELVES!
Unless the Sussex’s are doing something they shouldn’t be, how is this even news? Lot’s of people pay their taxes. It’s what normal people do. Such a bizarre story.
Although the Sussex’s don’t seem like the kind of people who would try any kind of tax evasion, I do hope they don’t ever mess up (like normal people do sometimes) because the press will be all over it.
I live in the UK and find doing my own tax returns anxiety inducing, wondering whether I’ve got everything right. I can’t imagine how much worse that would feel knowing theres a small army of sleuths waiting for any tiny mistake.
The only reason this is news is because it gives the RR a reason to mention the cost of their house and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
And it gives them an excuse to mention that they bought their home from…GASP…a Russian businessman.
L84Tea, so they decided to do something so utterly unpatriotic a year or more before the war in Ukraine broke out? The fiends!!! 🙄🤣🙄🤣😈😎
Russian Businessman took a huge L on the deal, too.
Deering24, LOL. They really are fiends and more proof they are chronically breaking royal protocol. They were not suppose to pay a Russian businessman for the 500 bathroomed mansion-protocol is Russian businessman gives it to them at no charge for the chance to say, “Hello, nice meeting you.”.
Correction: Russian businessman pays them sale price to buy his mansion for the chance to say, “Hello, nice meeting you”.
Every time I see an article about the cost of their home I want to scream, “Yeah, we get it. Meghan and Harry are poor. They don’t live in a palace, or have a hundred acre second house in the country. They have to bum rides on friends small planes to go cross country because they don’t have their own helicopter. I mean, Harry had to get a second job to pay the rent…”
And property taxes are even easier than income taxes. You get a letter every year with your assessed taxes for your property. You pay it in one or two installments. Or, for a fee of a few hundred dollars a year, many mortgage companies will make prorated payments for property taxes and homeowners insurance, so you don’t even need to cut a check. They just add the prorated payments to your monthly mortgage payment.
And if you disagree with your county’s assessment of your tax bill, they include instructions on how to file a request for re-assessment with your tax bill. Ordinary folks don’t even need to get a lawyer involved unless you had some kind of drawn-out disagreement with your county.
Thank gawd they don’t have access to their INCOME!!!! Though I wouldn’t put it past any one of these sniveling snakes to call the IRS and pretend to be one of them.
Please, for the sake of your sanity you royal ratttsssss, give it up!!!
@Chergui: I’m not picking on you as I know what you’re saying but that’s a problem when even when people who like or support the Sussexes have to hope they “never” falter or make mistakes. Why should people of color be under such a great (and impossible) burden while others can just blithely announce they’re going on tour to the warm Caribbean on the day Russia invades Ukraine or rape teens and carry on? The White royals can stumble or even commit crimes for God’s sake, while M & H must ALWAYS dot their “I”s and cross their “T”s. I just think that we all have to watch what unspoken pressure we put on people of color. Let’s give them some grace.
(Agan, not scolding Chergui as that wasn’t their point, but we all have to guard against internalizing the endless criticism placed on POC or those who love them by expecting more from them.)
If Harry and Meghan have a mortgage the taxes are built into the payments. The mortgage company pays the property taxes out of the money Harry & Meghan have paid to them. Therefore there generally can be no “tax evasion” as far as the property taxes are concerned. Property taxes are straightforward and easy to calculate. This non-story shows how out of touch these UK reporters are.
Yep, pretty much what you said. We bought our home in the early 2000’s with a 20 year mortgage. Property taxes were included with the mortgage payment. We refinanced two times (when rates were dropping almost as fast as horsesh*t from the British Media). The 2nd refinancing they removed the property tax payment. That may have been due to our paying additional to principal on a regular basis.
LOL @ needing experts to calculate property tax. There are friggin calculators for that and real estate sites that show it. Plus, tax records are easy to look up. What’s up with this malarkey of ‘documents’? D@mn, my state is in the top ten of highest property tax rates and California is 16th in lowest according to this site. Members of the BM are experts on talking out of their @sses.
https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/property-taxes-by-state
I work in property taxes in California. An impound account (where the taxes are divvied up and collected with the mortgage) isn’t always required and usually isn’t used for the high end homes. They pay accountants to basically do the same thing, though. Their taxes will go up no more than 2% next year (new valuations out in July) and it will probably result in a new article about how their tax bills are RISING, I’m sure.
Is the BM trying to start something with regards to royals and taxes? This has already lead to comments about RF members and not paying various taxes others are subject to.
As a person who doesn’t read the DM comments, is there any question from the commentators about why the royal family is exempt from property taxes when they have pointed out that Harry is paying his fair assessment?
I don’t read DM or their comments but have seen comments on Twitter about the article.
Well the Mirror is definitely a left leaning paper so highlighting the Prince Harry can pay his taxes might be the start of something…. fingers crossed.
Yeah, but “See, Harry pays his taxes” doesn’t seem to be the view of the above article. It’s more of a “Harry and Meghan are FACING tax bills” or at least that’s what I’m getting. There was also the needless bit about “If they don’t pay, they’ll get 10% penalties” added onto bill. What the hell is that? At any rate, if you want your royals to pay taxes, write about THAT – leave M&H out it, and bring the burden on taxpayers into it. Simple. Yeah, that was no benign article, that was sheer desperation by the BM.
I’m waiting for twitter to blow up on how Harry pays his way in the world while his family is still running the most successful and long lasting welfare scam ever.
This is where my thinking is going. Do they realise that by highlighting these sort of things in relation to H&M its also indirectly telling people that the rest of the BRF don’t pay for ANYTHING?
Is it on purpose or inadvertent? Either way I’m here for it.
As a person who works in property taxes this is hilarious to me.
All of this is standard – the first and second half installments, late penalties, etc.
But I’m seeing that ownership of residential property isn’t taxed the same way in the UK? So maybe they’re just completely ignorant and they think this is news, beyond being desperate to write filler articles about the Sussexes.
I know right? This is not news. This is what you do if you’re a property owner in CA. For those who don’t know, CA property taxes are due in installments: One in the fall and one in the spring. Every homeowner in California does this. This is not a big deal. They are really reaching to make this a thing.
@Nicole
Same here in Texas
We get a statement with amount due, payment installments (if necessary) due dates penalties, blah blah blah. It’s really very self explanatory.
Our mortgage company pays the taxes for us. We also own an adjoining half acre and they pay that as well, then send us a nice easy to read statement with breakdown. We know when they pay because a) we’re hyper vigilant about keeping an eye on it and b) they send us said statement.
So much desperation, lordamercy
Same here in Ohio except they are due in January and July. I don’t know how this works in the UK or even in CA but Ohio’s property taxes are based on square footage and lot size plus assessments for county improvements ( county metro parks, libraries etc) not how many bathrooms you have. The RRs are really obsessed with the whole bathroom thing. Sad, really.
We pay one payment annually in GA, and both our primary residence and our vacation home (lake house a few hours east) are rolled in with the mortgages-we literally see a nice neat statement when it gets paid each year. We’re renovating the lake property and will have to file for our taxes to be adjusted once the new value is identified. I WANT AN ARTICLE ABOUT MY TAX PROCESSES DAMMIT.
Local GA woman contributes to infrastructure and schools in small town on the GA/SC Border: FILM AT 11!
Actually they bought that house at the right time. I believe it had been sitting on the market for awhile and they got a great price. Since their purchase, real estate has skyrocketed in Santa Barbara mainly because of Covid and people leaving cities to work remotely in smaller towns. And their property taxes will stay based on their original price not the much larger appraisal price they could get now.
They are so pathetic. It’s painfully clear that gutter British media and their mediocre Royal Family have no leaks or insider knowledge of the Sussexes’ personal life or business deals. They should report on where the $12 million came from for Prince Pedo
It had to come from somewhere. The rapist prince has no money and no prospects.
I think this story didn’t go the way Salty Isle wanted because Meghan and Harry are paying their bills. If they would have wrote the opposite, they knew a lawsuit would be coming.
“The Queen doesn’t pay property taxes and the Prince of Wales is the biggest land-owner and landlord in the UK.”
That part, right there.
Those freeloaders over on Salt-Shutter Island have NOTHING to say about Harry and Meghan other than “Oh sh*t they are RICH!” Bunch of losers.
I love that they have absolutely nothing on the Sussexes to exploit….NOTHING!! Bet they wish they could go back and pressure the queen and Charles to accept their half in, half out deal right about now!!😂
In fact, there seems to be a fair amount of nonsense about this right now, e.g. “Take the poll… should Harry and Meghan be allowed to come back as part-time Royals”. Hard to keep up with the bullsh**.
Are you kidding me? That must be the work of British journalists and reporters who purchased 2nd homes on the assumption that they would be writing about H & M for decades! Now, mortgage payments for these Rota rats are becoming harder to make without the Sussexes. Pity.
What they mean is “Pleeeease can Harry and Meghan come ack as part time royals? Pretty please? We are so bored!
*waves hand* I pay property taxes too!!! Talk about me, British press! (I mean actually please don’t lol.)
My favorite is the line about approaching Harry’s team for comment. What do they expect his people to say (not that they would respond to the Mirror, but still) – “yes, the Duke intends to comply with all laws regarding taxes because he is not a freeloading grifter.”
Omg, Becks1, please, please let the Sussex’s spokesperson put out that exact comment! “Yes, the Duke intends to comply with all laws regarding taxes because he is not a freeloading grifter “. How I wish that you were the Sussex’s spokesperson!
Yes, please @ Becks1!!! Call Harry and Meghans spokesperson and give them THAT to comment with!!!
At least they PAY tax they don’t TAKE tax-payer unlike some despots we know
Yes. And the Sussexes can name Archie and Lili as dependants on their tax returns and get credit.
DO YOU THINK THEY WILL FILE A FORM 1099-MISC?
MAYBE THEY WILL ITEMIZE INSTEAD OF TAKING THE STANDARD DEDUCTION FOR MARRIED FILING JOINTLY!!!!
Haha LaraW!
It’s official – H&M can make anything exciting, even taxes.
😂
It’s interesting that the number of bathrooms and the price of the house seem to be declining. Anyway, I’m not sure what the Mirror is trying to do here. There’s no shame in paying taxes in fact, I would think the press would be eager to not report on this given the Royals barely pay any taxes and showing that Harry and Meghan do, would lead the public to ask questions about the Royal Family’s funding and why they aren’t taxed more.
Yes, the real story is how many bathrooms does that place really have!!? And are all of those full baths or does it include half baths??
I would love to see a compare and contrast articles that take Royal earnings and current tax rates to show what the BRF are not paying every year and then compare it to what the Sussex’s are paying if they are going to write these articles, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Especially since they will soon be paying for a third Royal residence for the Cambridge’s.
So, who are these “experts” that underestimated by half H&M’s property tax bill?
Why didn’t they check the zillow listing? It tells you what the taxes are for any property.
seems like a story about royals paying taxes might not be sending the message the tabloid thinks.
They really are scraping the dregs of this barrell. Do they realize that all they do with these kinds of reports is emphaize that the royals don’t pay taxes? Anyway, it’s funny to see their desperation for Sussex news. They really killed their golden goose.
Ha! Old story. I had a friend who did financial exposé articles back in the 90s. He was approached by the Republican operatives pushing the Whitewater story. I remember sitting at a bar with him telling the sad story of turning down this chance to break into the national glossy magazines. “It was a bog standard real estate deal gone wrong. No wrongdoing except for ignorance.” In fact, the Clintons did the right things, their partner ended up going to jail – for cheating the Clintons! But there was an uproar and endless hearings and a special prosecutor over it. All describing perfectly normal business practices as if they were shady.
It’s amazing how often you find out that “scandals” are just someone you don’t like doing what everyone does.
Lol all day. Yes, they pay taxes instead of sponging off the people’s government, ahem.
What I took from this article is that M&H got a great deal on their home and that’s it’s value is appreciating nicely! A great investment for their family ❤️
“ Documents uncovered by the Sunday Mirror ”
What the hell? They write this as though it was some great investigative digging to find this information out. It’s public information available on county tax website. Geez.
I am imagining some hack royal reporter at these tabloids spamming the reporters who cover business/finance, asking them constantly for more ideas/information on the US tax system, all in a quest to write more Sussex stories.
Also loved the line that it was “double what experts had expected.” Property tax records are public. There is literally no way you wouldn’t have known what the property taxes were. You can see them on Zillow or Redfin. They go up every year, so I guess they might not know what the latest annual assessment is. But c’mon.
LMAO. Were the “experts” using an abacus Ouija board?
At least, this time around, whoever wrote this story acknowledged Montecito isn’t 5 minutes from LA.
Props to Kaiser & the LOL comment about the British Media having an exotic moment/experience talking about a royal paying property taxes. LOL. It is probably a very befuddling experience for them. So confused…they have to try to make it like a bad thing? Queenie/Andrew paying out a huge 12 mil$ + settlement for him raping an underage girl has been mollified inthe BM for the Queen’s reputation. Harry & Meghan paying $100,000 in something in 2 installments for property tax is an actual story a paper was willing to put out?
Ha the desperation. These people have no shame. I wonder what the next article will be? Electric bills?
I think we’ve covered everything…lawn care, weed farm, bird sanctuary now property tax lol.
No no— they have yet to dig into the treasure trove of information on how many parking tickets have been issued in Los Angeles and why residents in Montecito are up in arms about it.
I am eagerly awaiting a cutting edge expose on the day the rubbish is collected lol
BREAKING NEWS: SUSSEXES DON’T SEPARATE GLASS FROM ALUMINUM IN THEIR RECYCLING BINS.
(Because Santa Barbara accepts mixed recycling. And yes, I did look through Santa Barbara County’s Recycling Resource Guide to confirm.)
Now, now. Feeding chickens can’t be cheap—especially if Meghan does it, right? 🙄
Where’s my headline?
I filed my taxes, and owe NY (like every year, thanks NY).
I also paid my property tax and school tax!
I love how they pretend to be so knowledgeable about H&M’s life in America yet fail to know the basics of American life. We’re taxed. A lot. For a lot of different things.
So in this case, Harry and Meghan are just like us!
Same here, but in Maine. Every. single. year. Damn state.
Property taxes? How gauche!
I wonder if this is a prelude to an even bigger article from the Mirror down the road. When the British monarch dies, their heir does not have to pay any inheritance taxes. So when QEII passes away, Charles will be inheriting hundreds of millions without paying a penny on it. I can imagine the Mirror writing a snarky article about how the Sussexes managed to pay their own property tax, so why shouldn’t Chuck be paying inheritance tax?
Yeah, this is a ridiculous story. Everyone in the real world pays their property taxes in two installments. That’s the way the system is set up. Not just for exiled royals. This is pretty pathetic for the BM. Like the drought/lawn watering story. They miss them so much.
My parents lived in NJ for decades and they paid their’s quarterly. My mom always dropped it off at town hall on the last possible day at the end of business.
Yep, in New Jersey, it’s quarterly. Unfortunately. 🙄🙄
Property taxes are based on the number of bathrooms in your home. That’s why the number needed to be mentioned here.
I’m sorry, I just had a hysterical image of a trend in real estate where houses have no bathrooms in order to lower the property tax. And then counties subsequently holding city hall debates on whether outhouses count as bathroom, should there a tax for having chamberpots…
It quickly went downhill from there.
LOL!
Key word here being Harry and Meghan pay their own taxes with their own money that they make. The Windsors are living off the tax payers and living really large off them. Think about Brit’s, think about it
I think the British press is almost offended that the Sussexes pay their taxes and totally approve of the British taxpayer footing the bill for the many castles, taxes and renovations, for the Cambridges. This is so foreign to American values, including our sense of fair play and fiscal responsibility.
Oh Shoot this reminds me i have to pay my council tax bill for this month today, Where is my News paper headline ?
LOCAL RESIDENT ALMOST FORGETS TO PAY COUNCIL TAX—SAVED BY CELEBRITY GOSSIP SITE.
I’m gonna be walking around all day narrating my mundane life like a breathless tabloid:) Much more exciting!
@LaraW”, I can’t compete where I don’t compare. Dead. lol
p.s. I would not be surprised to see this as a Fail headline at some point in time.
Who’d think something as tedious as tax season would get this much ink. This article is framed so poorly and it’s deliberate to make it seem like this particular tax was imposed on the Sussexes as a penalty. Everyone in the state has to pay property taxes by this date, we get 2 bills a year and you can either pay it all at once or at the due dates in April and December. This applies to every property owner in the state. Also, yes taxes are based on the sale price of the home but, based on personal experience, they will charge higher taxes if the assessor thinks the market value of the home is worth more than the sale price. We bought a condo privately and the our local assessor thought it was worth a few 100k more than the sale price and we negotiated it down to a slightly lower assessed value to reduce our property taxes. The Sussexes got a good deal on their home so the taxes may be assessed higher than the actual sale price and what was initially estimated. Also, while to us their home is really expensive, they live in a neighborhood with homes costing 20 million and upwards. Instead of focusing on the Sussexes paying property and income taxes like the majority of us, I’m more interested in billionaires and corporations that barely pay any taxes. They should focus on that.
Cali’s Prop 13 passed 40 years ago limits assessment increases.
What “experts” are they talking to? Typical BRF reporting where virtually every single piece of information is unsourced.
Typical rage-generation provocation over “mansion” where H&M live, without comparison to 1,000 room Windsor Castle, KP, BP, Clarence House, without calling attention to allowances QEII gets ‘working’ from Balmoral and Sandringham. To be generous, maybe they’re just trying to translate info so British readers can understand – “council tax.”
The funny part is that other states love to cite CA property taxes as incentives to draw Californians to their state. This article is so missing some great opportunities to point out that Harry & Meghan would be better off in Texas hanging out with Elon Musk.
Next on 11 Investigates…the Sussexes buy groceries, pay takes and put toilet paper in all 17 of their bathrooms. Ed what has your reporting shown on this? 🤦🏻♀️
@Liz, I was thinking something very similar : “Breaking News! – Hardworking California couple pays property taxes on-time!!! – Details at 6pm…”
I’m envisioning a line of maids in proper doily dresses loading toilet paper for 52 bathrooms daintily into carts.
But…but…do they buy the expensive designer paper or the inexpensive stuff? Imagine the hay the Mirror would make of that. 🤣🙄
They 100% mentioned the Russian businessman previous owner in an attempt to link the Sussexes to shady Russian oligarchs, which is RICH considering the rest of the family’s opaque finances and questionable relationships. Please go down that road, british tabloids, I promise it will not work out for you or the rest of the royals.
Is that why they mentioned the Russian former owner? I actually thought it was an indirect way to link (blame) them for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you know like Meghan liking avocados was somehow linked to a murder.
I was wondering how they were going to start blaming Meghan for that…
maybe they are eager to learn how financially independent and wealthy royals manage their real estate? they want to write about how proud they are of H&M’s new role as homeowners and businesspeople? they need a loan from the Sussexes to pay their rent? honestly, one of these theories must be it, right?
Blast it—do they have 13 bathrooms or 14?!?! Can’t the BM get anything right?!?🤣🤣🤣🤮😎
This is ridiculous. The BM is continuing the narrative of how dare this “you know what” afford this lifestyle. She’s suppose to be in the gutter. How can we feel good about ourselves if she’s proving that she is smart and rich?
If I were the Sussexes, I would ask for a restraining order against the BM. British media are stalkers.
My property taxes are in my mortgage payment-so I don’t have to worry about at the end of the year-when most people buy a home their property taxes are included and sent to the taxpayer’s office each year-please no slobbering and crying-none story.