{"id":400475,"date":"2026-01-31T11:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/400475\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:18:14","slug":"two-northern-ireland-families-named-among-top-uk-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/400475\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Northern Ireland families named among top UK taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Barnett and family, along with Harold Montgomery and family, are at number 58 and 96 respectively in the Sunday Times Tax List today.<\/p>\n

\"JD<\/p>\n

JD Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin (PA)<\/p>\n

And Wetherspoon’s chairman Tim Martin, who was educated in Northern Ireland, is at number eight in the Tax List, paying a total of \u00a3199.7m last year. <\/p>\n

Mr Barnett\u2019s fourth-generation family business, W&R Barnett, has interests spanning grain, animal feed, packaging, oils and molasses. The family tax contribution in the 2026 list is given as \u00a323m.<\/p>\n

The business saw pre-tax profits grow to nearly \u00a367m in the year to July 31 2024 compared to \u00a361.9m in the previous period. <\/p>\n

Harold Montgomery and his family\u2019s tax contribution is estimated by Sunday Times at \u00a311.8m, due to the success of its logistics business employing more than 2,000 people. <\/p>\n

The business includes Montgomery Transport, though the business sold off its trailer company, Montracon, to Martin Group last year. <\/p>\n

The Tax List, which is published in full tomorrow, identifies Fred and Peter Done of gambling giant Betfred at number one in the list, contributing more than \u00a3400m in 12 months. <\/p>\n

New entries for 2026 include popstar Harry Styles, footballers Mo Salah and Erling Haaland, and hedge funder Chris Rokos.<\/p>\n

Other well-known names on the list include Harry Potter author JK Rowling, musician Ed Sheeran and boxer Anthony Joshua.<\/p>\n

The 100 wealthy individuals or families revealed in the eighth edition of the list paid a total of \u00a35.758bn of tax.<\/p>\n

Robert Watts, who compiled The Sunday Times Tax List, said: \u201cThe Sunday Times Tax List features household names as well as some of our economy\u2019s hidden heroes, quietly successful entrepreneurs who have set up companies employing hundreds of people and plugging vast sums into the public finances.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year there\u2019s been a big jump in the amount of tax we\u2019ve identified \u2014 largely because of higher corporation tax rates. All of the 100 individuals and families who appear delivered at least \u00a311m to the Exchequer over the past year.<\/p>\n

“Fourteen of the entries paid at least \u00a3100m.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"William<\/p>\n

William Barnett of W&R Barnett and family are identified as NI’s biggest taxpayer, adding \u00a323m to the public purse<\/p>\n

News Catch Up – Friday 30 January<\/p>\n

In total, the top 100 paid 15.5% more tax than a year ago, while 45 paid more, 30 paid less, and two paid the same.<\/p>\n

According to the Sunday Times, the main reason is the jump in corporation tax from 19% to 25% in 2023-24, and a higher tax rate on dividends.<\/p>\n

Mr Watts added: \u201cOne 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tax List rankings include corporation tax, dividend tax, capital gains tax, income tax and some payroll taxes as well as gambling and alcohol duties, according to the most recently filed company accounts. These are calculated in proportion with ownership of the company in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Barnett and family, along with Harold Montgomery and family, are at number 58 and 96 respectively in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,1335,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-400475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-margaret-canning","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}