A London-based Russian-born billionaire has become the UK’s highest taxpayer with a nearly £490mln bill.
Alan Gerko, who accumulated much of his wealth via his robot trading firm XTX Markets, valued at £5bn, renounced his Russian citizenship last year.
According to the Sunday Times Tax List, the 43-year-old paid more tax last year than Bet365 founder Denise Coates, sportswear tycoon Stephen Rubin and hedge fund billionaire Sir Chris Hohn.
Other top payers include Harry Potter author JK Rowling, Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin, Sting and the Duke of Westminster.
The top 10 taxpayers handed over £2.3bn to the Treasury, an increase of nearly 14% compared to a year earlier.
Gerko is a maths graduate of Moscow State University and the New Economic School, beginning his finance career as a Moscow-based researcher at Deutsche Bank in 2004.
He then moved to the UK in 2006, where he joined hedge fund GSA Capital in 2009 before founding XTX Markets.
XTX generates revenues of more than £1.4bn and employs algorithmic trading strategies to provide liquidity to businesses, exchanges and trading venues.
