Colombian singer Shakira, who is due to be tried in the coming months for fraud between 2012 and 2014, has started new proceedings for tax irregularities in 2018. Thursday the Superior Court of Catalonia in a press release.
Accused of having subtracted 14.5 million euros from the Spanish tax authorities between 2012 and 2014, the star will be judged, probably from November, by a court in Barcelona. The prosecution accuses the singer with more than 60 million albums sold of not having declared a large part of her income from her tours abroad during the period 2012-2014 when she lived in Spain more than 183 days a year, threshold from which it is mandatory to declare her tax residence in the country.
According to the prosecution, Shakira had lived in Spain since 2011, the year in which her relationship with FC Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique was made public, but had maintained her tax residence in the Bahamas islands, considered a tax haven, until 2015. The prosecution requires against her more than eight years in prison and a fine of around 24 million euros.
The 46-year-old artist, famous for her international hits such as Hips don’t Lie, Whenever, Wherever and Waka Waka, has always denied these accusations and said she was constantly on the move because of her profession. In an interview with ELLE magazine in September, the singer felt that she “owed nothing” to the tax authorities and that “these accusations are false. The tax authorities saw that I was in a relationship with a Spanish citizen and started salivating. It is clear that they wanted this money at all costs,” she added. The singer will be judged from next November 20 at the Hearing of Barcelona, according to the Spanish daily El País.
Shakira’s name was cited in the Pandora Papers, a long investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2021. Like Elton John, Claudia Schiffer and Ringo Starr, Shakira is suspected of having concealed assets in offshore companies, in particular for the purposes of tax evasion.
The Colombian’s private life came to the fore in June 2022 when she separated from former Barça footballer Gerard Pique, with whom she had been in a relationship for more than ten years and with whom she had two children. After reaching an agreement on custody of their children, Shakira moved with them to Miami. “I moved to Barcelona to give my children stability, the very one we are now looking for in another place in the world, close to family, friends and the sea,” she wrote in April on Instagram, when announcing her departure from Spain.
