With four days left before the January self assessment deadline, there are at least 50 UK-based taxpayers who have paid in excess of £12m each to HMRC in the past year, according to a listing by the Sunday Times
The paper’s top tax list covers 50 individuals who between them were liable for nearly £2bn of UK tax last year. Heading the table is retail entrepreneur and octogenarian Stephen Rubin, owner of JD Sports via the Pentland Group, who paid £181.6m, or £497,570 a day, on wealth of £2.8bn. The calculation is based on corporation tax paid by Rubin’s Pentland Group, and the family’s share of J D Sports.
Second is Denise Coates, who heads up the Bet365 gambling operations, and who is reckoned to have paid some £156m in tax on an estimated £5.75bn. Next up is Sir James Dyson and family, who contributed £127.8m from £9.5bn, with financier Bruno Schroder in fourth place paying £114.3m.
Also featuring on the list are hedge fund manager Sir Chris Hohn, estimated to have paid £64.8m of tax, and fund management pioneer Peter Hargreaves, who hand over £35.6m. It also includes Patrick McKenna, founder of Ingenious Media, which has advised many of the super-rich on tax schemes and which is listed as paying £22.2m, made up of £2.6m of tax owed and £19.6m of charges associated with court battles with HMRC.
The paper acknowledges that its list is not comprehensive, as some of the UK’s well -heeled sportspeople, celebrities and entrepreneurs are based abroad and not liable to UK tax, and its analysis is based solely on publicly available figures. It noted that only 28 of the 145 billionaires identified in its rich list are on the top 50 tax list, along with 18 of the 855 millionaires.
Pat Sweet
