Ricky Gervais' 80m fortune

Ricky Gervais is worth $80 million.

The 'Office' creator took to his blog to verify reports he is one of the world's most highly-paid comedians, but insisted he gives a lot of his fortune to "good causes", jokingly claiming he was referring to the UK tax service.

He wrote: "They are of course spot on. I know it sounds a lot, but remember, I donate a lot of this to good causes. The Inland Revenue mainly. The Inland Revenue is the British version of the IRS."

The 49-year-old star - who is behind TV comedy series including 'Extras' and 'An Idiot Abroad' in the UK, as well as star of movies 'The Invention Of Lying' and 'Cemetery Junction' - also joked now the word is out he'll have to share more of his riches.

He said: "I will have to get my family a million lottery scratch cards each for Christmas."

Referring to the currently politically-unstable African nation, he added: "I have decided to use the rest of the money to take over Libya."

Ricky also has a successful career as a stand-up comedian, and recently hosted the Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles for a second time.

His controversial jokes - hinting that famous Scientologists are gay, introducing Bruce Willis as "Ashton Kutcher's dad" and teasing other celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Charlie Sheen- caused a stir among organisers and Hollywood's A-list stars.