A trial in Spain is approaching for the Colombian star Shakira, accused of tax fraud of 14.5 million euros, following the rejection of an appeal by the Spanish justice, announced the latter on Thursday.
A court in Barcelona (north-east) has announced that it has rejected an appeal by the 45-year-old singer who asked for the charges to be dropped, claiming that she did not reside in Spain during the years for which she is accused of fraud, but in the Bahamas.
“The applicant can be considered to have had her habitual residence in Spain”, the court said in a statement, according to which “the documentation provided to prove that the tax residence was in another country does not appear to be sufficient”.
A trial therefore appears closer and closer for the interpreter of the hits “Hips don’t lie”, “Waka Waka” or “Loca”. But the prosecution must still present its indictment while a judge must decide on the formal referral of Shakira to court.
The singer’s lawyers said in a statement that “Shakira’s conduct in tax matters has always been impeccable in all countries in which she has had to pay her taxes”.
She has “no debt to the Spanish tax authorities and proceeded to pay the sums (claimed by the tax authorities) as soon as she learned of the amount”, they added.
The prosecution accuses the singer of tax fraud in the amount of 14.5 million euros for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.
According to the prosecution, she had been living in Spain since 2011, the year 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. .
Her lawyers argue that until 2014, most of her income came from her international tours and that she lived no more than six months a year in Spain, which is the condition for establishing her tax residence in the country. country.
Shakira’s name is among those cited in the Pandora Papers, a vast investigation published at the end of 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, accusing several hundred personalities of having concealed assets in offshore companies, in particular for the purpose of ‘tax evasion.
The international star, who has sold over 60 million records, currently resides in the outskirts of Barcelona, with Gerard Pique and their two children.
