Addison Lee founder owes £20.5m in tax after UK tribunal ruling
Guardian AU Business
•Thu, 17 Sep 2026 21:04:24 GMT
📰 What Happened
The founder of Addison Lee, Sir John Griffin, owes £20.5m in tax after a London tribunal rejected his claim that he should be treated as a non-domiciled resident. The 84-year-old businessman argued he should keep his Irish tax status because of his strong ties to Ireland. He told the court he was 'besotted with Ireland' and believed he had always been Irish.
HMRC challenged his non-dom status on tax returns from 2013 to 2020. That status would have let him avoid UK tax on foreign earnings kept outside the country. The tribunal ruled that by April 2013, Griffin had settled in England 'in every meaningful sense'. It noted he had raised his family in Hertfordshire and built his taxi empire in London. The judges said his emotional attachment to Ireland never turned into a real plan to make it his permanent home.
🔍 The Backstory
Griffin was born to Irish parents in 1942 and moved to London at age nine. He founded Addison Lee in 1975 and built it into one of the UK's top taxi companies. In 2013 he sold the business to the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, for a reported £300m. The sale is the period behind the tax bill now owed.
Non-dom status is a long-running UK tax rule that lets people with strong ties to another country avoid UK tax on foreign income kept abroad. Griffin had spent just eight nights in Ireland in 2015, one of the years he claimed to be domiciled there. The tribunal called that 'inconsistent with someone seriously preparing for permanent relocation'. The UK government scrapped non-dom status in April 2025, making Griffin's case a final chapter in a long-standing tax system.
🎯 Why It Matters
This case shows how strictly the UK now applies its domicile rules, even to high-profile businessmen. The £20.5m bill adds to the government's push to close the tax gap, and it signals that long-used tax advantages like non-dom status are under real scrutiny.
The founder of Addison Lee, Sir John Griffin, owes £20.5m in tax after a London tribunal rejected his claim that he should be treated as a non-domiciled resident. The 84-year-old businessman argued he should keep his Irish tax status because of his strong ties to Ireland. He told the court he was 'besotted with Ireland' and believed he had always been Irish.
HMRC challenged his non-dom status on tax returns from 2013 to 2020. That status would have let him avoid UK tax on foreign earnings kept outside the country. The tribunal ruled that by April 2013, Griffin had settled in England 'in every meaningful sense'. It noted he had raised his family in Hertfordshire and built his taxi empire in London. The judges said his emotional attachment to Ireland never turned into a real plan to make it his permanent home.
Griffin was born to Irish parents in 1942 and moved to London at age nine. He founded Addison Lee in 1975 and built it into one of the UK's top taxi companies. In 2013 he sold the business to the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, for a reported £300m. The sale is the period behind the tax bill now owed.
Non-dom status is a long-running UK tax rule that lets people with strong ties to another country avoid UK tax on foreign income kept abroad. Griffin had spent just eight nights in Ireland in 2015, one of the years he claimed to be domiciled there. The tribunal called that 'inconsistent with someone seriously preparing for permanent relocation'. The UK government scrapped non-dom status in April 2025, making Griffin's case a final chapter in a long-standing tax system.
This case shows how strictly the UK now applies its domicile rules, even to high-profile businessmen. The £20.5m bill adds to the government's push to close the tax gap, and it signals that long-used tax advantages like non-dom status are under real scrutiny.