Head of Bet365 gambling firm Denise Coates tops list of UK’s biggest taxpayers
Denise Coates, head of gambling empire Bet365, was Britain’s biggest taxpayer last year, according to the Sunday Times Tax List.
The Coates family paid an estimated £481.7m, topping the annual ranking of billionaires’ tax payments for the third consecutive year. While the family’s tax payment was down from £573m in 2020, it was still almost £200m more that paid by hedge fund manager Chris Rokos in second-place with a £300m payment to the exchequer.
The total tax paid by the top 50 taxpayers rose by £510m to £3.7bn up from £3.2bn the previous year. The minimum amount of tax paid needed to make the top 50 rose to £15.2m, up 16% on the previous year.
“This is a stronger Tax List than last year’s – which will be good news for the chancellor,” Robert Watts, compiler of the list, said. “The total take is up by more than £500m”
However, the IPPR thinktank, which is campaigning for a wealth tax, said the list provides“an insight into the UK’s broken tax system” which allows “the richest people in the country to pay little to no tax at all”.
“Only one name from the top 10 of last year’s [Sunday Times] Rich List appear among those thought to be the top 10 taxpayers,” George Dibb, head of the IPPR’s centre for economic justice, said. “Our tax system, which supports the NHS and welfare safety net, should ensure that those with the broadest shoulders bear the biggest burden. But today it’s just too easy for some of the richest people in the country to pay little to no tax at all.
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Dibb pointed out that of the top 10 richest people in the UK, only the Weston family (the 10th richest with £11bn) appear on the tax list. The richest person in the UK according to the Sunday Times’ rich list is Sir Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born businessman who
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