The Spanish government has charged Shakira with another count of tax evasion, claiming that she met the criteria for living in Barcelona in 2018 and should have paid income tax there. Prosecutors are seeking $7.1 million in unpaid taxes from the singer, plus whatever criminal penalties she might be found liable for. Shakira now lives in Miami, Florida, but is due in court in Spain on Nov. 20 on a separate tax evasion charge.
Shakira was in a relationship with Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué from 2011 to June of 2022, and during that time they spent at least some of their time in Spain. The Spanish government has recently been auditing that time, arguing that Shakira had her permanent personal residence in Barcelona but avoided paying income taxes to the country. According to a report by The Associated Press, the prosecutors even say that she used an offshore shell company to avoid paying taxes. This allegation stems from a 2017 bombshell called the “Paradise Papers” – a massive document leaked to European journalists which traced the paper trails of rich people using offshore investments to avoid taxes.
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The Spanish government has been investigating Shakira’s finances since then, first making a case that Shakira lived in Spain from 2012 to 2014 with Piqué and avoided income tax. Shakira argued that her primary residence was in the Bahamas at that time. Her attorneys also argued that her investments detailed in the Paradise Papers were completely legal.
In 2021, a Spanish judge ruled that there was enough “evidence of criminality” to put Shakira on trial for tax fraud. For about a year, Shakira’s legal team tried to reach a deal with prosecutors before announcing that they would go to trial instead and try to prove her innocent. Prosecutors claimed that Shakira avoided paying $14.5 million in taxes in that first case, so things may really begin to add up with the new charges.
The controversy was not helped in 2021 when another document leak shows Shakira submitting new applications for offshore companies in 2019. At the time, her representatives claimed that this paperwork was part of the process for dissolving her existing investment companies, not establishing new ones. Still, the whole case has put a lot of renewed attention on the practice of off-shore investment.
Shakira is due in court on Nov. 20, 2023 in Barcelona for the first case against her. It is unclear when the new charges will move forward. Shakira has reportedly been informed by local authorities in Miami.
