Sting and Mike Ashley among UK's biggest taxpayers - see full list of top 100 names

Sting and Mike Ashley are among the names with links to the North East in the UK's top 100 taxpayers, according to the latest list from the Sunday Times.

Russian-born billionaire Alex Gerko, who founded trading company XTX Markets and is said to be worth £2bn, took the top spot, paying an estimated £487.4m in tax. To put that into perspective, someone earning £30,000 a year will be taxed around £6,000 - meaning that about 81,000 people in the UK are collectively paying the same amount of tax as Gerko himself.

Denise Coates and her family, head of gambling empire Bet365, came second on the list, while Stephen Rubin and his family are in third place as the owners of the Speedo, Kickers and Berghaus brands. Former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley earned the sixth spot, paying £133.5m in tax, while Wallsend-born superstar Sting is down at the 52nd position paying £25m.

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Other notable names on the list include Wetherspoons owner Tim Martin, inventor Sir James Dyson, and Harry Potter author JK Rowling. Gymshark founder Ben Francis, 30, is the youngest person to appear in the top 100 this year, paying £11.6m in taxes.

In total, these 100 people paid £5.181bn in tax, with contributions starting from £10.7m. 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.

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley was sixth on the top taxpayer list (Newcastle Chronicle)

"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."

Here's the full Sunday Times Tax List 2023:

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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