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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Levi Winchester

UK's biggest taxpayers revealed as £8billion betting boss loses crown - see full list

The 100 biggest taxpayers in the UK have been revealed - with Russian-born billionaire Alex Gerko taking the top spot from betting tycoon Denise Coates.

Gerko, 42, who founded trading company XTX Markets in 2015, paid an estimated £487.4million in tax.

This is up from the £117.4million he paid the previous year, when he ranked in tenth place.

Math whizz Gerko, who has been a British citizen since 2016, is said to be worth £2billion now and began his career trading shares at Deutsche Bank.

He knocks Denise Coates, head of gambling empire Bet365, her brother John and father Peter Coates - worth a collective £8.6billion - off the top spot for biggest taxpayer, according to the Sunday Times Tax List.

The Coates family were the second biggest taxpayers this year, down from first place in 2022, having forked out £460.2million.

Alex Gerko paid an estimated £487.4million in tax (@AlexanderGerko/Twitter)
Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin paid £123.2million (PA)

In third place was Stephen Rubin and family, owners of sport and fashion brands Speedo, Kickers and Berghaus, who paid £392.3million in tax.

Ben Francis, the chief executive of athletics and leisure brand Gymshark, is the youngest person to appear with his contribution to the public finances standing at £11.6 million.

Other notable names on the list include retail tycoon and Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley who paid £133.5million and came in sixth place.

JK Rowling paid £15million (Getty Images for Warner Bros.)
Sting paid £25million (AFP/Getty Images)

Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin was next in seventh place, paying £123.2million in UK tax.

The pub chain chairman told The Sunday Times it was "vitally important" that more companies reported all the tax they paid.

He added: "Without this perspective people may become more cynical about free enterprise, which is the vital engine of prosperity, and thereby freedom, for democratic societies."

Ben Francis is the youngest person to appear (@BenFrancis/Instagram)
Mike Ashley paid £133.5million (PA)

In total, the 100 wealthy individuals or families who appear in the Sunday Times Tax List were liable for a total of £5.181 billion in tax.

Each person or family who ranked paid at least £10.7million either personally or through their businesses.

The fifth edition of the Tax List was released as millions of people race to meet the self-assessment deadline.

Tom Morris and family paid £112.2m (Internet Unknown)

Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Tax List, said: “You will find celebrities on the Tax List but many of the entries are people who quietly run largely unheralded businesses that have been creating jobs and paying millions of tax for decades or even centuries.

“So-called ‘unicorn’ tech firms may dominate the headlines, but they often aren’t cash cows for the Treasury because they don’t employ large numbers of people or show big profits. It’s the long-established retailers, pub groups and other bricks-and-mortar businesses that often contribute more.

“There lies the challenge for the chancellor and his successors. As our economy inevitably shifts further and further online, how do we continue to fund the public services we all want?”

He added: “Alex Gerko’s story is an extraordinary read. This was a man who could have been one of Russia’s greatest wealth creators — instead he is creating jobs and paying his tax here.

“Enticing the super-rich to London doesn’t always pay dividends for the public finances. In his case it certainly has.”

Sunday Times Tax List 2023 in full

  1. Alex Gerko - £487.4m
  2. Denise, John and Peter Coates - £460.2m
  3. Stephen Rubin and family - £392.3m
  4. Sir Chris Hohn - £263m
  5. Fred and Peter Done and family - £136.8m
  6. Mike Ashley - £133.5m
  7. Tim Martin - £123.2m
  8. Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan and family - £120.7m
  9. Tom Morris and family - £112.2m
  10. Ian and Richard Livingstone - £104m
  11. Dame Mary and Douglas Perkins and family - £100.9m
  12. Sir James Dyson and family - £93m
  13. Lady Philomena Clark and family - £92.7m
  14. Leonie Schroder and family - £88.7m
  15. John Bloor - £86.4m
  16. Glenn Gordon and family - £81.6m
  17. Will Adderley and family - £69.8m
  18. The Marshall family - £60.3m
  19. Kathy and John Murphy and family - £59.8m
  20. Peter Kelly - £59.6m
  21. Caspar and Sebastian MacDonald-Hall and family - £59m
  22. The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family - £57.5m
  23. Lord Bamford and family - £54.7m
  24. Henry Moser - £53.8m
  25. Bernard Lewis and family - £52.6m
  26. James and John Martin and family - £50.2m
  27. The Thomson family - £48.6m
  28. Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson - £47.3m
  29. Greg Skinner - £45.6m
  30. Suneil Setiya - £45.6m
  31. Fawn and India Rose James - £44.5m
  32. Malcolm Healey - £42.7m
  33. Nigel Spokes and family - £42.7m
  34. The Lazari family - £40.7m
  35. John Timpson and family - £40.3m
  36. Henry Engelhardt and Diane Briere De L'Isle - £39.7m
  37. Earl Cadogan and family - £38.1m
  38. James Wates and family - £37m
  39. Peter and Fiona Cruddas - £36m
  40. Baroness Howard de Walden and family - £33m
  41. Will Roseff - £32.9m
  42. Mark Samworth and family - £32.3m
  43. Peter Hargreaves - £31.5m
  44. Chris and Sarah Dawson - £30.5m
  45. The Shepherd family - £29.9m
  46. Lord Edmiston - £29.7m
  47. Joe Hemani - £29.2m
  48. Chris Sheppard and family - £29.1m
  49. Andrew Brown - £29.1m
  50. Paul Day and family - £28.1m
  51. Chris Oglesby and family - £27.3m
  52. Sting - £25m
  53. Daren Whitaker - £23.9m
  54. Simon Orange - £23.9m
  55. The Warburton family - £23.8m
  56. Barry and Eddie Hearn and family - £23.4m
  57. Steve Morgan - £23.1m
  58. Surinder Kandola - £22.9m
  59. Douglas and Iain Anderson - £21.5m
  60. Michael Kirkland and family - £21.4m
  61. The Gibbon family - £20.9m
  62. David McMurtry - £20.2m
  63. William Barnett and family - £19.7m
  64. Clinton McCarthy and family - £19.6m
  65. Joanne Conway and family - £19.6m
  66. Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora - £19.5m
  67. Patrick Flannery and family - £19.3m
  68. Mark Coombs - £18.5m
  69. Andrew Vincent - £18.5m
  70. Mark Hunter - £18.5m
  71. The Bailey family - £18.4m
  72. The Tordoff family - £17.4m
  73. Brian and Alan Stannah and family - £17.2m
  74. Douglas Park and family - £16.9m
  75. Martin Hughes - £16.6m
  76. Gordon Sanders - £16.4m
  77. Peter Dawson and family - £15.9m
  78. Freddie Linnett and the Murphy family £15.5m
  79. James Watt - £15.5m
  80. Martin Dickie - £15.2m
  81. JK Rowling - £15m
  82. Karin Mortstedt and family - £15m
  83. Frank Hester - £14.3m
  84. Rupert Martin - £14.2m
  85. Garry Newman - £13.7m
  86. Chrissie Rucker and Nick Wheeler - £13.5m
  87. Tim and Polly Gredley and family - £13.2m
  88. Alastair Campbell and family - £13.1m
  89. Richard Dick and family - £12.4m
  90. Andrew Nisbet and family - £11.6m
  91. Lord Iliffe and family - £11.6m
  92. Douglas Woolf and family - £11.6m
  93. Ben Francis - £11.6m
  94. David Wernick and family - £11.4m
  95. John Coulter and Ann Jones - £11.1m
  96. Martin and Caroline Bell - £11m
  97. Lisa and Tony Wilkinson and family £10.8m
  98. Trevor Senior - £10.7m
  99. Robert Fenwick - £10.7m
  100. Alexander Marr and family - £10.7m

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