City profiles

“The rich are often castigated for not coughing up their fair share in tax,” said Robert Watts in The Sunday Times. “Plenty of them do.” The top 50 British taxpayers contributed £2bn to the Exchequer last year. Here are the biggest payers.

Stephen Rubin and family Tax liability: £181.6m; 2018 wealth: £2.82bn JD Sports is just one of the big sportswear brands controlled by the country’s largest taxpayer, whose Pentland Group also owns Berghaus, Ellesse, Boxfresh, Speedo and Mitre. Stephen Rubin (pictured), 81, originally hoped to become a Liberal MP, but, after a drubbing in the 1959 election, joined the family shoe business and built an empire. He now pays “a tad more than the £19,300 or so of income tax a backbench MP stumps up annually”.

Denise, John and Peter Coates Tax: £156m; wealth: £5.75bn “Just under £6m an hour” was wagered at Bet365 in 2017-18, and that meant “jackpot” for HMRC too. Famously the best-paid woman in the world (she earned £220m last year), Denise Coates founded the firm in 2000 and “harnessed the internet to create a betting superpower”.

James Dyson Tax: £127.8m; wealth: £9.5bn “The world’s most successful vacuum cleaner salesman.”

Bruno Schroder and family Tax: £114.3m; wealth £5.2bn At 86, Sir Bruno is the longest-serving director of any FTSE company, having served 55 years at the fund manager Schroders, which is 47.93% owned by the family.