Stump up £20,000!
Jennifer Foulds • Published 15 Jul 2010 09:30
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Couple face huge tax demand by authorities in France
A RHU couple are making a desperate bid for help after being pursued by the French tax authorities for more than £20,000.
Mike and Win Wakeling have become entangled in a complex five-year battle where they are being chased for cash which the French say they are owed in capital gains tax.
The grandparents moved to France six years ago to make a new life but say they were effectively forced home following the nightmare.
The original sum was around £10,000 following the sale of a property in France - but the pair claim the French authorities doubled the amount without warning because the flabbergasted couple dared to oppose it.
They also claim a woman at the French tax office said the French were "sick" of British people with "all their money" coming to France and not toeing the line and that she was happy to "make an example" of them.
Mike, 61, and Win, 73, are adamant that they do not owe a penny to the French authorities and were bewildered and "hurt" when the UK Inland Revenue contacted them to inform them it would be recovering the cash on France's behalf.
Now they say they do not know where else to turn and are worried what the future holds.
Mike, who is a businessman in the town, said: "Debt recovery is set up for criminal activities, not for a couple who tried to make a new life in France and that is what drove us home in the end.
"When I wake up it is the first thing I think about and it is always there like a cloud hanging over all of the time."
Gillian Barclay, who works at the town's Chamber of Commerce and Argyll Voluntary Action, is Win's daughter. She is worried sick over what is happening and does not understand how the situation has got to this stage.
She said: "My parents are not young people, they do not have much money, and this matter has got to a desperate stage for two innocent individuals who now find their health suffering as a result."
Gillian has started a campaign in a bid to end the battle and has set up a Facebook site against the "persecution."
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