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Adolf Hitler owed the equivalent of £1.75million in unpaid taxes, a TV documentary team found.

The evil dictator and author of Mein Kampf falsified his returns and ­pretended to live on a modest income while stashing cash in secret bank accounts.

Hitler had numerous money-making schemes and even copyrighted his own image, which earned him royalties for every stamp sold that featured his face.

Much of this was hidden from Germany’s tax authorities after his rise to power. Income ­included cash for speeches and ­public appearances, ­ according to Channel 5’s The Hunt For Hitler’s Missing Millions.

The programme ­estimates that by 1938 Hitler – often ­pictured saluting with his hand out – owed 400,000 marks in back tax, worth £1.75million now.

A will he signed hours ­before he shot himself in a Berlin bunker in April 1945 hid the fact he was a billionaire.

After the war the Allies ­thought at first he was worth only £500,000 in today’s money.

But a 1938 will revealed his relatives would have received the modern ­equivalent of £120million from his ­luxury ­properties and art collection.

In his book Hitler’s Fortune, Dr Chris Whetton estimates the dictator’s wealth at its peak was likely to have been ­1.1 billion reichsmarks, £3.6billion today.

Dr Whetton says in the programme: “He felt paying taxes was beneath him.”

Large sections of Hitler’s tax returns from 1925 to 1933 were blank.

Dr Whetton added: “The tax authorities always wanted to know what happened to the ­collections and admission fees for the ­meetings he spoke at and he would say, ‘I don’t know. It doesn’t come to me. It goes to the National Socialist Party.’”

When Hitler became German leader he was exempt from tax and ordered his book Mein Kampf – My Struggle – to be given free to every newlywed couple.

Dr Whetton said: “The state bought the books to present to every married couple and Hitler reaped the profits.”

At its peak Mein Kampf earned him one million reichsmarks a year without paying a pfennig in tax.

Dr Whetton said: “By the time we get to 1944 he’s ­definitely in the billions of ­reichsmarks... which wouldn’t have been far off billions of euros today. He loved money. He just wasn’t prepared to do much work for it.”

(Image: PA)

Hitler kept a fortune stashed in bank ­accounts that were controlled by ­business ­manager Max Amann. These are not mentioned in his will.

US agents in 1944 found one holding the foreign royalties from his book. It would be worth £210million today.

Dr Whetton said: “Only Amann saw the books. When it was near the end of an ­accounting period Amann personally brought the ­account books to wherever Hitler was.”

Amann died in 1957 taking the secret of Hitler’s money to his grave.

British Intelligence officer Hermann Rothman, who discovered the 1945 ­will, said: “I think that document was for ­consumption by the German people. He wanted to show he had very little.”

The Hunt For Hitler’s Missing Millions, Channel 5, 8pm, Friday.