Top contributor was Moscow-born financial trader Alex Gerko, 44, who handed over a record £664.5 million. The personal wealth of the founder of XTX Markets has been previously estimated at £8.5billion.
However, despite a 3% rise in the total, two-thirds of the Sunday Times list paid less tax than in 2022, possibly due to prolonged high inflation and businesses reporting lower profits.
To make the top 100, people had to pay at least £10million to HM Treasury – a £700,000 fall from the previous minimum amount.
Former F1 chief executive Ecclestone, 93, is a new entry in second place after he paid £650million in tax and penalties to avoid jail.
He had failed to declare more than £400million held in a trust in Singapore when asked by tax authorities in 2015.
Bet365 boss Denise Coates, 56, the country’s richest woman with a self-made fortune, chipped in with £375.9million. Among those paying significantly more tax than before were Sheeran, 32, and Rowling, 58.
Shape of You singer Sheeran – the youngest individual taxpayer listed – paid himself more than £80million and toured extensively over the past year. His estimated £39.6million contribution ranked 32nd on the list, one place behind the Harry Potter creator whose bill was calculated at £40million.
Akshata Murty, the wife of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, paid £4.8million according to the newspaper’s number-crunching. As that was less than the £10million entry threshold, she did not appear on the list.
Ms Murty, the daughter of an Indian IT billionaire, agreed in 2022 to pay UK taxes on all her earnings after it was revealed that she held “non-dom” status and consequently did not pay UK levies on her overseas income.
List compiler Robert Watts told the BBC it was possible that some people had slipped through his net.
Mr Watts explained: “Tax returns aren’t made public, but this is the best of what we feel we can do, looking at…public documents.”
He added that some of the individuals and families included on the index had volunteered their tax information to the newspaper.
