Bet365 family top UK taxpayers in 2020

Bet365 owners Denise, John and Peter Coates were the top taxpayers in the UK last year having paid more than £573m in tax, according to the annual Sunday Times Tax List. The Stoke-headquartered firm topped the list of taxpayers after the newspaper valued the Coates family’s worth at more than £7.1bn. The Gordon family, which produces alcoholic drinks including Grant’s whiskey, was second on the list, paying £436.4m in tax during the same period. Betfred co-founders Fred and Peter Done rounded out the top three, incurring a tax liability of £191.3m during 2020. The wealth of the two Done brothers is estimated at £3.1bn for 2020.

Other entries in the annual feature include Selfridges and Primark owners the Weston family and sporting goods manufacturer Stephen Rubin, whose business interests include high street store JD Sports. Billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson, whose high-performance vacuum cleaner business will move to Singapore later this year, also incurred a triple-digit tax liability during 2020. The amount of taxable revenue generated by the UK’s top 50 taxpayers is up by more than £680m when compared to 2019, with total tax paid equalling £3.18bn. It is understood tax liabilities for the super-rich have shrunk dramatically during the pandemic, down more than a third (36%) in the past 12 months. Of the individuals and families included within the list, just 17 are paying more tax this year than they did in 2019.