Shakira performing live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo Credit: Andres.Arranz
About 10 months after being ordered to stand trial in Spain for allegedly failing to pay €14.5 million (currently $16.14 million) worth of taxes between 2012 and 2014, Shakira is reportedly the subject of a second tax probe in the European nation.
Word of this second investigation just recently entered the media spotlight in an AP report. For reference, the Barranquilla, Colombia-born singer reportedly lived in Spain for multiple years with now-former partner Gerard Piqué; this relationship began in 2011 and ended last year.
And as mentioned, prosecutors in Spain claim that the three-time Grammy winner between 2012 and 2014 opted not to pay over $16 million in due taxes. Shakira has long denied the allegations – maintaining, among other things, that she didn’t reside in Spain for the 183 days necessary to establish “tax residence” during each of the three years in question.
“First of all, I didn’t spend 183 days per year [in Spain] at that time at all,” the 46-year-old spelled out in an interview after rejecting a plea deal. “I was busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world. Second, I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit.”
In any event, Shakira – who reportedly purchased an island in the Bahamas with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters in 2011 – is expected to face a trial for the allegedly unpaid 2012-14 taxes. But a date hasn’t yet been set for this trial, and while prosecutors will reportedly seek an eight-year sentence, the AP and others have noted that Spanish judges can waive tax-related jail sentences less than two years in length for first-time offenders.
Bearing in mind the latter points, a judge has per the AP signed off on a request from state prosecutors to investigate two separate “possible cases of tax fraud by Shakira from 2018.”
It’s unclear at present exactly how much income – and allegedly unpaid taxes – is involved with the newer probe, and Shakira’s PR firm promptly pushed back against the development as well as the associated allegations. The bestselling artist has “always acted in concordance with the law and on the advice of her financial advisers,” Llorente & Cuenca relayed.
Now residing in Miami, Shakira doesn’t appear to have weighed in on the reported investigation in public remarks of her own. But the “Copa Vacía” creator has been active professionally and on social media as of late. Per her team, she’s “focused on her artistic career in Miami and is calm and confident that she will receive a favorable resolution of her fiscal issues.”
