England legend’s son forced to give up 1966 World Cup medal over £200,000 inheritance tax bill
The son of Jack Charlton says he has been forced to leave his father’s 1966 winners’ medal with his mother after being hit with a £200,000 Inheritance Tax bill
The son of England World Cup winner Jack Charlton says he has been forced to leave his father’s 1966 winners’ medal with his mother after being hit with a £200,000 Inheritance Tax bill.
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John Charlton told LBC that the medal had been left to him in his father’s will following the football legend’s death in 2020.
But he said the tax valuation meant he could not afford to keep it in his own name.
“The tax department decided that the value of the medal was £200,000, and in order for me to keep the medal, I would have to pay that,” he said.
“I obviously couldn’t afford that at the time. I still can’t really.”
Charlton said he was forced to hand the medal back to his 93-year-old mother, Pat, so the family could avoid the immediate bill.
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He fears the medal could face repeated tax charges if it is passed down through generations of the family.
“If I inherited it and gave £200,000 to the tax department and then I wanted to give it to my son, he would have to pay the same £200,000,” he said.
“In five generations, we would have to pay the tax department over £1 million.”
Jack Charlton started at centre-back as England beat West Germany 4-2 in the 1966 World Cup final.
He died aged 85 after living with lymphoma and dementia.
John said he wanted to keep the medal in the family, alongside his father’s England shirt and cap, arguing that honours won while representing Britain should receive special protection.
“It’s not just about football medals. It’s about Olympians who have won gold medals, silver medals, bronze medals,” he told Tom Swarbrick.
“Anybody that’s won something on behalf of the country should be tax-free if they want to pass it on to their family.”
He added that selling medals should be treated differently, but said players from the 1966 squad had not enjoyed the wealth associated with modern football.
“The medal itself in gold value probably wouldn’t be any more than £200".