Today marks Shakira’s trial in Barcelona for tax fraud. Spanish prosecutors are requesting that the Grammy-winning singer spend more than eight years in prison.
The 46-year-old is accused of cheating the Spanish government out of 14.5 million euros ($15.7 million) on earnings from 2012 to 2014. The singer disputes these accusations, claiming that she came to Spain permanently only in 2015.
The singer, whose hit songs include “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Whenever, Wherever,” and the 2010 World Cup anthem “Waka Waka,” is at the center of the case because of the amount of time she spent in Spain between 2012 and 2014.
Authorities in Spain claim that Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, also known as the Queen of Latin Pop, should have paid taxes in Spain as she lived there for more than half of that time.
They claim that although she kept her formal tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015, she relocated to Spain after her relationship with former FC Barcelona star defender Gerard Pique became public in 2011.
Shakira “used a set of companies” situated in tax havens “with the intention of not paying” tax in Spain, according to the prosecution’s accusation.
The musician is facing charges that could result in an eight years and two months prison sentence as well as a fine of around 24 million euros ($24 million).
According to Shakira’s attorneys, she lived a “nomadic life” up until 2014, making the majority of her income from foreign tours. She then made a permanent transfer to Barcelona just before her second son was born in January 2015.
“I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So, as of today, I owe zero to them,” the singer said in an interview published in Elle magazine in 2022.
After a decade-long relationship, Shakira confirmed her breakup with Pique in June 2022, bringing an end to one of the most well-known celebrity couples in the world. In April, she and their two sons, Milan and Sasha, relocated to Miami.
At a court in Barcelona, her well-known trial is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT). It is anticipated to last until December 14 and the court will hear testimony from about 120 witnesses.
The singer may ask the court for permission to skip the remaining sessions, even though it is anticipated that she would testify during the trial’s opening session.
Her personal life will probably come to light during the trial because Spanish prosecutors conducted a thorough investigation to support their allegations.
To substantiate their allegation, they spoke with her neighbors, monitored her social media accounts, verified her payments at hair salons, and even examined records from the clinic she visited while pregnant.
Finances
Questions about Shakira’s finances have been raised before.
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In October 2021, the Latina diva was mentioned in one of the biggest-ever financial document dumps, dubbed the “Pandora Papers,” which exposed the riches and tax evasion tactics of the world’s wealthiest people. In her instance, the leak concerned her residency in the Bahamas.
Football players Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the celebrities whom Spain has taken tough measures against in recent years for underpaying their taxes.
After being found guilty of evasion, both players were given prison terms that were reduced for first-time offenders.
In 2016, Pique, Shakira’s ex-partner, was found guilty of tax fraud and subsequently mandated to pay 2.1 million euros to the tax agency.
At the Latin Grammy trophies on Thursday in Seville, southern Spain, the singer took home three trophies, including best pop song and song of the year for her work on “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” which she co-wrote with Argentine DJ Bizarrap.
In addition to making fun of her ex-partner Pique, the song also mentions having a “debt to the tax office.” Nearly 1.5 billion listens have been made to it on YouTube and Spotify.
