Bet365 founder Denise Coates has topped the table of the UK’s biggest taxpayers – for a second year running.
Ms Coates and her family – who run the Stoke-on-Trent betting business – paid £573m in tax last year, according to the annual Sunday Times Tax List.
The Coates family, which includes Denise’s father Peter and brother John, are reportedly worth £7.166 billion.
Glenn Gordon and family, who are behind the William Grant spirits firm, came second in this year’s list with a £436.4 million tax liability.
Taking third place on the Top 50 list are Fred and Peter Done – the brothers behind bookmakers Betfred – with a tax bill of £191.3m while vacuum cleaner mogul Sir James Dyson came in sixth place with £115m, which is around £12m more in tax than the previous year.
Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley climbed one place to 12th, despite his tax liabilities dropping by £8.8m to £46m.
Meanwhile, Sir Philip Green dropped out of the top 50 list as his Arcadia retail empire fell into administration.
Sir Philip and his wife, Lady Tina Green, were 23rd in last year’s list with a £44.4m tax bill.
Elsewhere, Harry Potter author JK Rowling fell from 19th to 23rd in this year’s rankings, with her tax liabilities dropping from £48.6m to £34.8m.
And musician Ed Sheeran is the most high-profile new entry to the tax list, ranking 32nd with tax payments of £28.2 million.
(Image: PA)
To be in with a chance of making this year’s ranking, the wealthy needed to contribute at least £13.1m. This is a 36 per cent drop from £20.4m the year before.
The list, which mostly covers business and personal tax exposure to the end of 2019, shows how the amount of tax taken from Britain’s super-rich fell sharply – even before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.
Robert Watts, compiler of the tax list, said: “These worrying numbers show the tax taken from many of Britain’s super-rich has fallen sharply, largely because their businesses have seen a downturn.”
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The annual survey examines the taxes due on business profits, share sales, dividend income, and, where known, personal income through salaries.
This year’s top 50 were liable for around £3.18 billion of tax this year, up 27 per cent from £2.5 billion last year.
But this is due to tax paid on £982.5m of dividends to shareholders in the William Grant whisky conglomerate, and a change in the list’s methodology, which now counts gambling duties paid by betting businesses.
If it was not for these two factors, this year’s total tax liability of the top 50 would be £700 million less – and below last year’s figure of £2.5 billion.
