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Mohamed Salah has had to hand over £14.5million to the Treasury in the past year, according to the newly-published Sunday Times Tax List.
The Liverpool forward is ranked second among the highest tax-paying footballers in the UK, with his £400,000-a-week basic salary, plus an estimated £10m in bonuses and additional payments, resulting in a tax bill of £14.5m.
Only Manchester City striker Erling Haaland paid more in terms of footballers. The Norwegian is the highest-ranked football star in the list after contributing £16.9m in the past 12 months, fuelled by a basic wage of more than £500,000 per week and at least £10m in image rights and bonuses.
It’s the first time two footballers have broken into the overall Sunday Times Tax List top 100, which covers the highest taxpayers across music, finance, business and the arts. Haaland sits 72nd in the main list, with Salah at number 81.
The list has been released as millions of people met the January self-assessment deadline and ranks the top 100 people paying the most UK tax.
The 100 wealthy individuals or families paid a total of £5.758 billion in tax.
The eighth edition of the Tax List features figures from the worlds of music and arts, high finance and the high street, as well as billionaire aristocrats and rags-to-riches entrepreneurs.
For the first time, gambling founders Fred and Peter Done of Betfred top the rankings, with an estimated contribution of £400.1 million, up from £273.4 million a year ago. The brothers founded the company in 1967, and it is headquartered in Warrington, Cheshire.
Former One Direction star Harry Styles is a new entry at number 54, paying £24.7 million.
Other familiar names on the list include Harry Potter author JK Rowling (number 36, £47.5 million or £130,000 a day), stadium-filling musician Ed Sheeran (number 64, £19.9 million) and heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua (number 100, £11 million).
Robert Watts, who compiled The Sunday Times Tax List, said: “The Sunday Times Tax List features household names as well as some of our economy’s hidden heroes, quietly successful entrepreneurs who have set up companies employing hundreds of people and plugging vast sums into the public finances. This is an increasingly diverse list with Premier League footballers and world-famous pop stars lining up alongside aristocrats and business owners selling pies, pillows and baby milk.
“This year there’s been a big jump in the amount of tax we’ve identified — largely because of higher corporation tax rates. All of the 100 individuals and families who appear delivered at least £11 million to the Exchequer over the past year. Fourteen of the entries paid at least £100 million.”
A hundred individuals and families paid £5.758 billion — up from £4.985 billion a year ago.
Each of the individuals or families had to have paid £11 million to warrant a place on the Tax List — £500,000 more than in 2025.
In total, the top 100 paid 15.5 per cent more than a year ago. Forty-five of the year’s 100 were found to be paying more than last year, thirty paid less, and two paid the same. The main reason for this tax increase is that corporation tax jumped from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in 2023-24, and a higher tax rate on dividends.
Six taxpayers on the list have left the UK in the past year, and a further eight have been based offshore for longer. This includes Nik Storonsky, Malcolm Healey, and Eddie Hearn. If these people were still based in the UK, they’d be liable for personal tax as well as business taxes.
Construction is the best-represented sector of the economy, accounting for ten of the entries. Eight are from the world of finance, including a new entry from Russian-born Nik Storonksy, founder of banking service group Revolut.
Twenty-one entries were London-based, with a further 11 from the southeast. Fourteen came from the northwest, 11 from Yorkshire and Humber, 9 from Scotland, 8 from the West Midlands, 7 from the southwest, and 6 each from the East Midlands and east of England. There are 4 from Wales, 2 from Northern Ireland, and 1 from the northeast.
Watts added: “One in nine of the people who make the Tax List are no longer listed as resident here in the UK, instead choosing to live in Monaco, Dubai, Switzerland, Cyprus, Portugal, the United States or the Channel Islands.
“Clearly, the Tax Listers who have moved offshore are still delivering huge sums to HM Treasury through their businesses, but the Chancellor would no doubt be raising even more money from these people had they chosen to stay put and remain liable for personal tax here.
“It’s hard to see how an exodus of the super-rich from these shores is anything to cheer for those who care about the future of our public finances.” – WalesOnline
Online Reporter