Schumi's pad - 10th April 17:41pm GMT

Abit of an update on Schumacher's house which has been in the process of being built for god knows how many years now.

Known to locals on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland as Schloss Schumi — Castle Schumi — it is a des res built for a man who earned more than £50million a year.

The driver, 38, is putting his feet up after years risking his life in the cockpit of 200mph racing cars and will be spending more time with wife Corinna, also 38, and their children Gina Maria, nine, and Mick, seven.

Neighbours will include rock star Phil Collins, ex-Bond Sir Roger Moore, singers David Bowie and Celine Dion and former British race car ace Sir Jackie Stewart.

The “castle” boasts: close to 7,000sq ft of living space with rooms decorated with Italian marble, the finest exotic woods and terracota tiles from Mexico.

The living room has a log fire big enough to roast a wild boar over and breathtaking views of the lake and private beach.

Dominating the property is a medieval-style tower where Schumi will have his office to oversee his “retirement” work — promotions and advertising deals that his manager Willi Weber said will top up the ex-driver’s pension by £17million this year alone.

There is a “wellness centre” with whirlpool bath, sauna, solarium, steam baths and plunge pool and also a huge trophy room to store the silverware won by racing’s greatest-ever champion.

Entertainment is provided by a cinema with bar and seats for 20. Outside there is a guesthouse for when the eight bedrooms in the main property are full.

So Schumi doesn’t have to nip to the local garage to fill up his fleet of Mercedes, Ferraris, Aston Martins and Bentleys that he can store in the heated, underground garage, he has his own PETROL STATION.

And when driving becomes a drag he has a helipad in the grounds where his personal chopper will be fuelled and ready for take-off.

Schumacher, who has amassed a fortune of £600million in his career, also has a state-of-the-art security system for the grounds and in the house.

This includes heat-seeking sensors, hidden cameras, pressure pads that trigger alarms both in the house and with the local police — and there is a “panic room”, made famous by the Jodie Foster film of the same name.

This secure, armoured space will give Schumi and his family a place to to seal themselves should the unthinkable happen and their lives be put under threat.

Schumi has said about his home: “It was a crazy load of fun to build but it was also stressful. Now Corinna and I are just looking forward to moving in.”

Schumi should know all about stress — at one point it looked like the dream home would remain just that after he fell foul of the intricacies of international labour law.

Inspectors swooped on the site in 2005 and said they found French and German stonemasons and manual workers being paid what were described as “starvation wages”.

There was never a suggestion Schumi knew anything about the situation but it embroiled him in a debate about plans to let eastern and central European workers into Switzerland.

And as he forged onwards with his grand plans — including a kitchen which cost as much as a Ferrari — there came the spectre that he might have to start paying REAL tax in his adopted country.

Schumi left his native Germany for Switzerland for the same reason many other super-rich from around the world opt to live in the Alpine state — low taxes. But during construction came the heart-stopping bid by Left-wing politicians that even bore his name — the Schumi Initiative.

This was a petition to parliament aimed at the 3,000 super-wealthy ex-pats living in Switzerland who are there because the country’s government allows them to negotiate tax bills

Officially listed as “unemployed” Schumacher is understood to pay less than ten per cent of his earnings in tax.

He moved from Germany in 1996 to escape income taxes of 48 per cent, coupled with 53 per cent on investments and an extra five per cent on his total tax bill to fund the rebuilding of East Germany. Swiss Social Democrat MP Suzanne Oberholzer was behind the petition. It failed when first suggested in 2005 but she and others hope to revive it later this year.

She said: “It cannot be right for Michael Schumacher and some 3,000 other foreign, rich inhabitants of Switzerland to be free from normal income tax rules.

“It is unfair to the Swiss people and to the people of neighbouring lands who must shoulder their fair share of financial obligations.

“The ability to negotiate these customised deals should go. He should pay his fair share like everyone else.” Wimbledon legend Boris Becker high-tailed it to Switzerland after being caught cheating on his taxes in his native Germany, fined close to £3million and given a suspended jail sentence.

Under Swiss law different regions, known as cantons, are allowed to set their own tax rates.

Zug, where Becker now lives, has among the lowest. Schumacher’s house is in Waadt where rates are marginally higher. He fled Germany when his accountants learned they could cut him a good deal.

One German newspaper claimed Schumacher now pays just £2million a year in tax, around four per cent of his earnings.

When he moved countries Schumacher told finance magazine Cash: “Switzerland let it be known to me that I could negotiate a sensible tax settlement with them.

“In Germany they are stupid if they cannot make me an offer and then lose all my tax money.”

The Green Party in Switzerland is backing the move to claw back millions in tax from people like Schumacher.

But that is a headache to worry about in the future. Even if he had his money in an account paying just five per cent he would earn £30million a year on it.