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Daily Record

World

Levi Winchester & Nicola Croal

UK's top 100 biggest taxpayers revealed as billionaire trader claims top spot

Alex Gerko Peter Coates Tim Martin United Kingdom bet365 Ben Francis Denise Coates John Martin John Murphy Chris Hohn

The 100 highest taxpayers in Britain have been revealed with Russian-born billionaire Alex Gerko claiming the top spot from betting tycoon Denise Coates. Gerko, 42, who established trading company XTX Markets in 2015, paid roughly £487.4 million in tax, up from the £117.4 million he paid the previous year when he ranked in tenth place.

Gerko has been a British citizen since 2016 and is now said to be worth £2 billion after he began his career trading shares at Deutsche Bank, the Mirror reports. He has knocked Denise Coats who is founder and joint chief executive of gambling empire Bet365 alongside her brother John and father Peter Coates off the top spot for the biggest taxpayer.

The Coates family who are worth a collective £8.6billion came in second this year, having forked out £460.2 million in taxes. In third place was Stephen Rubin and his family who own sport and fashion brands Speedo, Kickers and Berghaus and paid £392.3 million this tax year.

Ben Francis, 30, the founder and CEO of athletic and leisure brand Gymshark, is the youngest person to appear on the list with the his tax payments coming in at £11.6 million. Other notable names on the record include Sports Direct founder and retail tycoon Mike Ashley who came in at sixth placing having paid £133.5 million in taxes.

Next was Tim Martin, Wetherspoons founder, paying £123.2 million in UK tax. The pub chain chairman told The Sunday Times it was "vitally important" more companies announced all the tax they paid.

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Bet365 founder Denise Coats has fallen to second place (PA)

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."

In total, the 100 wealthy individuals and families who made the Sunday Times Tax list were accountable for a staggering total of £5.181 billion in tax.

Each person or family who ranked contributed at least £10.7 million either through their business or personally. The fifth edition of the Tax List was issued as millions of people raced to meet the self-assessment deadline.

Ben Francis, 30 who is the founder of GymShark was the youngest person to appear on the list (@BenFrancis/Instagram)

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?”

J.K Rowling paid £15m (Getty Images for Warner Bros.)

He praised Gerko for his 'extraordinary' story as he said: “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.”