Queen Fabiola of Belgium “has been accused of avoiding death duties of 70 per cent by using a foundation to channel funds to her relatives.” The country of Belgium has paid Queen Fabiola an annual public stipend since 1993, the year that her husband Kind Baudouin passed away. Unfortunately, this incident came at a difficult time considering the current financial state of most European countries. Like most European countries, Belgium has started to cut public spending and royalty within those European nations have been criticized for their lavish public spending. The Queen insisted that she was not placing publicly funded stipend within the foundation. She argued that fund “would only include her private money.” She claimed that the only expenses that were covered by the stipend were housekeeping expenses, including salaries.
See Bruno Waterfield, Belgian Monarchy Rocked By Queen Fabiola Tax Row, The Telegraph, Jan. 11, 2013.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
