Pure joy. . . as Dyson’s profits rise by £50m

SIR James Dyson’s move into making air purifiers and robot vacuum cleaners helped lift his empire’s profits by £51 million to £750 million last year.

A 26 per cent increase in sales – which hit £4.4 billion – meant Dyson’s companies paid £99 million tax in the UK last year. That represented a rise of £8 million on the amount his firms contributed to the Exchequer in 2017.

The billionaire inventor announced in January that he was moving the company’s head office to low-tax Singapore.

But in a boost for Britain, the firm said last night that its Wiltshire-based company Dyson James Group Limited (DJGL), which channels a significant proportion of the firm’s global profits, would remain in Britain and pay taxes here. A Dyson spokesman said: ‘Dyson James Group remains, and will remain, a British company.’ He added that the move to Singapore ‘will not impact the level of tax paid in the UK’.

Last year, DJGL received £80 million of tax breaks from the Government for research and development. In Britain, it is investing in new laboratories and a robotics programme.

However, more than 90 per cent of the firm’s sales come from outside the UK. Asia is Dyson’s largest and fastestgrowing market and its manufacturing base.

Dyson has been scaling up recruitment in Singapore and he has also bought two multimillion-pound properties, including the city state’s most expensive penthouse.

The tycoon, who has a net worth of £4.6 billion according to Forbes magazine, is thought to be the UK’s thirdbiggest taxpayer after JD Sports owner Stephen Rubin and the Coates family, who own gambling firm Bet365.

The company has insisted its move to Singapore was aimed at tapping into the Asian market and was not a response to Brexit or the prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn administration.