Becker's tax payments `under investigation'

The German tax authorities declined to comment yesterday on a newspaper report that tax inspectors had searched Boris Becker's home and removed several documents.

The daily newspaper Bild said four tax inspectors had arrived at Becker's house in Munich on Thursday morning with a search warrant. They were admitted to the house, although Becker was on holiday in Florida, the paper said.

Munich tax authorities said they never commented on measures undertaken as part of their investigations, and Becker's Munich-based manager was unavailable for comment.

Bild said the investigators were probing the period between 1990 and 1993, when Becker lived in Monte Carlo.

The report was published on the same day as a television station released extracts of an interview with Becker, in which he indicated he would leave Germany when his three-year-old son was of school age to allow him to lead a more normal life.

"My son Noah won't go to school in Germany," Becker said. He added that a move was not imminent, saying: "I'll pay my taxes in Germany next year."

Germany has seen a series of high-profile tax cases involving well-known personalities over the past couple of years. Peter Graf, father of Steffi Graf, is on trial charged with evading 19 million marks (pounds 7.3m) of tax on his daughter's earnings between 1989 and 1993.