Denise, Peter, and John Coates co-owners of Bet365 are reported to be the highest paying taxpayers, the second year running.The Sunday Times reported Bet365 paid £573million and over £200 million generated from corporation and payroll taxes, the rest generated from salary and dividend taxes.The estimated tax paid would be enough to pay annual state pensions for over 67,000 people.
Denise Coates
Denise Coates founded Bet365 in 2000, and her family is estimated to be worth £7.166bn and employ over 5,000 staff. They were the biggest taxpayer across 12 months from 2018-2019 handing over £276million. This year they hit the top of the list of highest paying tax for the second year running with Fred Done, owner of Betfred third on the list.The second-largest taxpayer in 2020 is Glenn Gordon, his distillery business netted the family £3.186bn paying a huge £436.4million in taxes.As mentioned above Fred Done comes third on the list, he and his brother Peter contributed £191m in taxes in 2020.
Decline in Taxes
The latest tax figures released by the Sunday Times saw a dramatic decline in the wealthiest business owners’ contributions due to the pandemic. A fall of a third in contributions saw figures fall from £20.4m last year to £13.1 this year – a drop of 36% in the twelve-month period.The compiler of the Tax list Robert Watts said, “These worrying numbers show the tax take from many of Britain’s super-rich has fallen sharply – largely because their businesses have seen a downturn.“These numbers illustrate that when some wealthy people prosper our public finances do feel a benefit. After the pandemic has passed the Chancellor will need to maximise income from these individuals without driving them or their business away from the UK.”