Taxing times for Queen Fabiola

Queen Fabiola has fallen victim to Europe’s austerity drive, with the government vowing to slash her yearly stipend by nearly €500,000 after accusations that she was trying to dodge taxes, writes the Independent’s Charlotte McDonald-Gibson. It emerged last week that the 84-year-old planned to set up a private fund that would shield some of her fortune from inheritance tax by channelling it to relatives in Spain. Although legal, her plans did not go down well in a country facing tough austerity measures and higher taxes. Justice minister Annemie Turtelboom said: “Nobody should stand above the crisis. It is all hands on deck.” Prime minister Elio Di Rupo confirmed at the weekend that Queen Fabiola’s stipend would be cut “effective right from 2013”. His office said her allowance should not be greater than that of Prince Philippe, the son of King Albert II and the heir to the throne. This would leave Queen Fabiola worse off by €498,000 a year. The royal family currently gets about €15 million a year to carry out its ceremonial duties, with Queen Fabiola getting €1.42 million. Di Rupo said he wanted a political agreement to introduce “more transparency, so that we are aware of how the stipends of the royal family are handled”. Spanish-born Fabiola – the widow of King Baudouin, who died in 1993 – defended herself against charges of tax dodging, insisting last week that the money in question was private funds rather than public money. She said her yearly stipend mostly went on “housekeeping, of which the biggest part is staff wages”.