London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Tax List finds Russian-born billionaire has overtaken Bet356 family as UK's top taxpayer

Tax List finds Russian-born billionaire has overtaken Bet356 family as UK's top taxpayer

The UK's new top taxpayer, according to The Sunday Times Tax List, is not Nadhim Zahawi but a little-known City billionaire. The list shows a leap in the amounts being paid by the UK's top ten taxpayers - and raises questions about how taxes will fund public services in the future.

A Russian-born City billionaire is the UK's top taxpayer, according to a closely watched list.

Alex Gerko, the founder of XTX Markets who has British citizenship, was deemed to have stumped up £487.4m in the last tax year by the Sunday Times Tax List.

The sum is the equivalent of around £55,639 an hour, the report said, as it revealed a shake-up at the top of the rankings.

The founder of online gambling firm Bet365, Denise Coates, and her family were shifted into second place for the first time in the list's history.

They were said to have paid £460.2m to UK coffers on the back of their earnings.

The top ten taxpayers, main area of interest, and estimated sum:

• Alex Gerko (financial trading) £487.4m

• Denise, John and Peter Coates (gambling) £460.2m

• Stephen Rubin and family (sportswear) £392.3m

• Sir Chris Hohn (hedge fund) £263m

• Fred and Peter Done and family (gambling) £136.8m

• Mike Ashley (sports equipment and fashion) £133.5m

• Tim Martin (pubs) £123.2m

• Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan and family (food) £120.7m

• Tom Morris and family (retail) £112.2m

• Ian and Richard Livingstone (property) £104m

Denise Coates and her family have headed the list for the past three years


Other big names in the top 100 include Sting, the Duke of Westminster and Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

Those making the list were liable for a total of almost £5.2bn of UK tax last year - with the top ten responsible for delivering £2.3bn alone - a rise of nearly 14% on the total reported 12 months ago.

The sums are calculated based on publicly available filings and can include corporation tax, dividend tax, capital gains tax, income tax and payroll tax payments, along with any gambling and alcohol duties.

Who is Alex Gerko?


Mr Gerko - unlike many of the others making the top 100 - is not a household name.

He owns 75% of algorithm-led trading firm XTX which, according to Bloomberg, paid out a dividend of £1.3bn last March.

Mr Gerko has many charitable interests and those have reportedly included support for Ukraine-linked causes in the wake of Russia's invasion.

The new rankings were released as a whiff of tax-related scandal hangs over Westminster, with Nadhim Zahawi under pressure to quit as the Tory party chairman.

He is facing an investigation into whether he breached the ministerial code over an HMRC tax settlement, estimated to have been worth £4.8m, while he was chancellor.

Pressure on his position has grown since the boss of HMRC told MPs there are "no penalties for innocent errors".

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is also under pressure on the issue of tax. He is facing pressure from critics on multiple fronts, with Tory backbenchers keen on tax cuts and others urging him to make the wealthiest pay more to help ease the budget deficit and pay striking public sector workers more.

In a speech today he appeared to rule out any immediate tax cuts while talking up Britain's economic prospects.

List raises questions about funding public services


Robert Watts, the list's author, said: "You will find celebrities on the Tax List but many of the entries are people who quietly run largely unheralded businesses that have been creating jobs and paying millions of tax for decades or even centuries.

"So-called 'unicorn' tech firms may dominate the headlines, but they often aren't cash cows for the Treasury because they don't employ large numbers of people or show big profits.

"It's the long-established retailers, pub groups and other bricks-and-mortar businesses that often contribute more.

"There lies the challenge for the chancellor and his successors. As our economy inevitably shifts further and further online, how do we continue to fund the public services we all want?"

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×