{"id":733320,"date":"2026-01-31T15:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/733320\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T15:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T15:48:18","slug":"who-are-the-uks-biggest-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/733320\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the UK\u2019s biggest taxpayers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">JK Rowling, Mo Salah and Harry Styles were among the UK\u2019s 100 biggest taxpayers, according to the annual Sunday Times Tax List.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">The rankings were topped for the first time by the billionaire brothers behind gambling giant Betfred, surpassing musicians, entrepreneurs and sporting stars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Fred and Peter Done, who founded the Warrington-based business in 1967, made an estimated \u00a3400.1 million tax contribution over the past year, according to the list.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">It came after their tax bill jumped by almost half from \u00a3273.4 million a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">The list showed that the top 100 taxpayers paid a total of \u00a35.758 billion worth of tax, up from \u00a34.985 billion a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Many on the list, including the Done brothers, paid more tax after changes to corporation tax rates and other taxes by the Labour Government in a bid to support higher welfare spending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Robert Watts, who compiled the list, said: \u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"Manchester City\u2019s Erling Haaland smiles and clenches his fists during a home match\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" class=\"yf-lglytj loader\"\/> Manchester City\u2019s Erling Haaland was on the list for the first time (Mike Egerton\/PA)  \u00b7 Mike Egerton    <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">\u201cThis year there\u2019s been a big jump in the amount of tax we\u2019ve identified \u2013 largely because of higher corporation tax rates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Financial trading entrepreneur Alex Gerko was second on the list with \u00a3331.4 million in tax, followed by hedge fund boss Chris Rokos, who paid \u00a3330 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Elsewhere, former One Direction member-turned-solo artist Styles was among new entries to the list, paying \u00a324.7 million in tax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Two footballers also joined the list for the first time, with Manchester City\u2019s Erling Haaland appearing at number 72 on the list with an estimated tax payment of \u00a316.9 million and Liverpool\u2019s Salah believed to have a bill of \u00a314.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"JK Rowling \" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"463\" width=\"640\" class=\"yf-lglytj loader\"\/> JK Rowling paid more than \u00a347 million in tax last year, according to the list (Yui Mok\/PA)  \u00b7 Yui Mok    <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Other well-known figures on the list included Harry Potter author Rowling, at 36 with a bill of \u00a347.5 million, and musician Ed Sheeran, at 64 with a \u00a319.9 million tax payment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Six taxpayers feature on the list despite leaving the UK over the past year, amid reports of wealthy individuals moving to avoid higher taxes under Labour or due to the removal of non-dom status.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">These included Revolut founder Nik Storonsky, Wren Kitchens founder Malcolm Healey and sports promoter Eddie Hearn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Mr Watts said: \u201cOne 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 Morocco, Dubai, Switzerland, Cyprus, Portugal, the United States and the Channel Islands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">\u201cClearly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JK Rowling, Mo Salah and Harry Styles were among the UK\u2019s 100 biggest taxpayers, according to the annual&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,217678,77,1103,12416,11764,179,886,217657,58797,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-733320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-corporation-tax-rates","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-erling-haaland","12":"tag-harry-styles","13":"tag-jk-rowling","14":"tag-liverpool","15":"tag-manchester-city","16":"tag-robert-watts","17":"tag-taxpayers","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115990502074616683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}