HMRC doesn’t know how much tax billionaires in the UK pay

Despite having more than 150 billionaires in the UK, authorities don’t know how much tax they pay, according to a damning new report.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said they simply don’t know how much tax billionaires contribute, despite the relatively significant sums of money involved.

Now, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is warning HMRC to do more to understand and explain the contribution that the very wealthiest in society make to tax revenue.

PAC suggested using The Sunday Times Rich List and artificial intelligence to dig deeper into wealth and assets.

Last year, the BBC found that sixty of the wealthiest people in the UKcontributed more than £3bn a year in income tax, but PAC says HMRC does not collect information on taxpayers’ wealth and says that it only collects the data needed to administer the tax system as required by UK tax legislation.

The report said: ‘There is much public interest in the amount of tax the wealthy pay. People need to know everyone pays their fair share.’

In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service has worked with researchers to link its data to The Forbes 400, the report said.

The tax authority told the inquiry that the tax gaps – the difference between taxes theoretically owed and those actually paid – for wealthy people and for offshore wealth are particularly difficult to measure.

PAC member Lloyd Hatton said: ‘This report is not concerned with political debate around the redistribution of wealth.

‘Our committee’s role is to help HMRC do its job properly ensuring wealthy people pay the correct tax. While HMRC does deserve some great credit for securing billions more in the tax take from the wealthiest in recent years, there is still a very long way to go before we can reach a true accounting of what is owed.

‘We already know a great deal about billionaires living in the UK, with much information about their tax affairs and wealth in the public domain.’

How many billionaires are in the UK?

Famous figures including Sir Elton John, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Sir Lewis Hamilton, David and Victoria Beckham, and the King are all among the UK’s richest individuals and families.

But this year, the number of billionaires slid to 156 this year from 165 in 2024, but taking the top spot again this year was the Hinduja family.

Gopi Hinduja and his family, which is behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group, were Britain’s richest again after recording a wealth of £35.3 billion.

Is the King a billionaire?

The King’s personal wealth jumped by £30 million to £640 million in the last year, making him as rich as former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy, according to The Sunday Times Rich List -but not a billionaire.

Charles, who acceded to the throne in 2022, ranks joint 238th in the list of the UK’s 350 wealthiest people and families, up 20 places from 258th in 2024.

Calculations by the newspaper’s Rich List suggest the monarch is £140 million richer than David and Victoria Beckham, who are said to be worth £500 million, with former England captain Beckham being Britain’s richest sports star.

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