Taxman follows man to his grave

JOKES about the taxman chasing people to their graves have come true in Basse-Normandie where a letter has arrived for a man and addressed to the cemetery and even his grave plot number.

The Trésor Public tax authorities had sent a letter to a recently-deceased man at his last known address at Fontenay-sous-Bois outside Paris and it was returned as he had died.

However, the letter was sent again, but this time with the original address scrubbed out and a handwritten address substituted, of his burial plot in Normandy: Cimetière d'Autheuil - tombe 19 - 61190 Autheuil.

The postman opted to deliver the letter to the Autheuil mayor, Béatrice Devédjian, who is trying to find family of the dead man to pass on the letter.

However, the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques denied on Europe1.fr that they had resent the letter. Returned letters would not be resent without checks.