Gerard Depardieu moves to tiny tax haven in Belgium just 800 YARDS from border where a third of people are French citizens dodging Hollande's high taxes



Actor is fleeing looming tax of 75% on all earnings over one million euros

A third of the population of the Belgian village of Nechin is already French

French film star Gerard Depardieu has moved into his new 'tax exile' mansion in Belgium - just 800 yards from the border with France.

The 64-year-old actor's lavish home in the village of Nechin - on a street known as Millionaire's Row - is less than two minutes drive from the French town of Roubaix.

Depardieu is the latest wealthy Frenchman fleeing a looming new tax of 75 per cent on all earnings over one million euros - about £850,000.

Adieu: Legendary French film star Gerard Depardieu has moved into his new 'tax exile' mansion in Belgium - just 800 yards from the border with France

Around a third of the 2,000-strong population of Nechin was already French, the village mayor Daniel Senesael said.

He added: 'He has moved in already and he is very welcome here.

'He enjoys our countryside and our easygoing, rural way of life. And of course he also enjoys our lower taxes.'

France's Le Point news magazine said: 'Nechin may be less glamorous than London, Geneva, Brussels and its climate is less pleasant than Monaco, but it has become a tax haven for rich families from northern France.'

Among Depardieu's neighbours will be members of the Mulliez family, who own the Auchan supermarket chain.

The actor's Asterix movies co-star Christian Clavier has already moved to London, before the socialists came to power in May.

And France's richest man Bernard Arnault revealed this summer that he had applied for Belgian citizenship, although he insisted he was not trying to dodge tax.

France's economy minister Pierre Moscovici hit out this week at repeated warnings in the world's media that France's richest people were fleeing overseas.

He told a conference of business leaders in Paris: 'I am troubled to read in the papers that the exile has begun, and that companies are fleeing.

Location: The 64-year-old actor's lavish new home in Belgian the village of Nechin - on a street known as Millionaire's Row - is less than two minutes drive from the French town of Roubaix

Exiles: Around a third of the 2,000-strong population of Nechin is French with many fleeing a looming new tax of 75 per cent on all earnings over one million euros

'I also lament attacks on the government's economic policies that are in vogue in France and abroad. Le French-bashing is terrible.'

His comments also came after Laurence Parisot - head of MEDEF, the French equivalent of the UK's Confederation of British Industry - warned last month that left-wing economic policies risked turning France into 'the poor man of Europe'.

She said: 'Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It's becoming really dramatic.

'Ten years ago, Germany was the poor man of Europe and if we don't act now, that title will soon be ours.'

Paris estate agents said in September that France's luxury property market had hit a 'selling panic' as the super-rich rushed to flee a new 75 per cent tax on all earning over one million euros.

Estate agent Daniel Feau said: 'It's nearly a general panic. Some 400 to 500 residences worth more than one million euros have come onto the Paris market since May.'

Movie role: The much-loved star played Obelix in the Asterix movies

And British estate agent Sotherby's said its French offices sold more than 100 properties over 1.7 million euros between April and June this year - a marked increase on the same period in 2011.

Another report earlier this year by British estate agent Knight Frank said the tax plans had sent French interest in luxury London homes rocketing.

Inquiries from wealthy French for London homes worth more than five million pounds soared by 30 per cent in the first three months of this year, the statistcs showed.

Prime minister David Cameron angered the French in June when he told the B20 business summit in Mexico: 'If the French go ahead with a 75 per cent top rate of tax we will roll out the red carpet and welcome more French businesses to Britain.

'And they can pay tax in Britain and pay for our health service and schools and everything else.'

The comments left one French politician so offended he suggested Mr Cameron must have been 'drunk' when he made them.

Gallic MP Claude Bartolone, a staunch ally of President Hollande, said: 'I hope that it was an after-dinner remark and that he didn't have all his wits about him when he said these things.'



France's European Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve insisted there was no 'exodus', adding: 'What I can answer to this statement from the British prime minister is that French bosses are patriots.

'There is a range of measures we will take in favour of business, measures that will support investment and encourage business to stay in France.'



