It’s been revealed that Harry Styles is among Britain’s biggest tax payers.
The Sunday Times published its list of the Top 100 taxpayers in the UK yesterday and in amongst the usual suspects – famous footballers, sundry businessmen and bond traders, JK Rowling – there is the ex-One Directioneer who has in the last year contributed some £24.7 million to HMRC’s coffers, making him one of the highest new entries on the list.
Styles – who turned 32 this week released his new album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, next month – comes in at Number 54, ahead of the other big pop name in the 100, Ed Sheeran, whose tax bill of some £19.9 million puts him at Number 64 in this particular chart.
So who is at Number One? Well, it is Peter and Fred Done, the brothers behind BetFred. They paid £400.1 million in tax last year. A fair old whack, you could say.
The list is compiled by Robert Watts, who said: “This is an increasingly diverse list, with Premier League footballers and world-famous pop stars lining up alongside aristocrats and business owners selling pies, pillows and baby milk.”
“This year there’s been a big jump in the amount of tax we’ve identified – largely because of higher corporation tax rates.”
There are some names in the 100 who have since left the UK due to the government’s abolition of non-dom status. Watts commented on those individuals, pithily: “One in nine of the people who make the tax list are no longer listed as resident here in the UK, instead choosing to live in Dubai, Switzerland, the United States and the Channel Islands.
“Clearly, the tax listers who have moved offshore are still delivering huge sums to HM Treasury through their businesses, but the Chancellor would no doubt be raising even more money from these people had they chosen to stay put and remain liable for personal tax here.”
