Shakira has said she settled her $15million Spanish tax fraud case “to protect” her children, “to be by their side” and “get on with her life”.
The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ star has addressed her legal battle with Spanish authorities, who accused her of tax evasion between 2012 and 2014 when she was allegedly a resident of the country. The singer denied any wrongdoing, explaining that she agreed to settle to protect her two young sons, 11-year-old Milan and 9-year-old Sasha.
“Some technicians from the Spanish Tax Agency presented a children’s and moralistic story in which I was a singer who avoided fulfilling her tax obligations and they were the representatives of justice and decency,” the Colombian wrote in a letter published by El Mundo. “The reality was very different: I always fulfilled my obligations.
“My finances were investigated by institutions as unsuspecting as the White House or the IRS and approved by other European Union countries, and at all that time they never found the slightest sign of illegality, while the Spanish Tax Agency allowed me to be criminalised on a television programme before even the trial was held.”
She added that she “paid much more” taxes than she should have and that “the Spanish State was left with a sum of more than all of my profits of those years”.
“I made the decisions I made to protect [my children], to be by their side and get on with my life. Not for cowardice or guilt. I want you to understand that my love for Spain and my dear Spanish friends and family is still ongoing, but not everything is the same.”
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She was hit with the first set of allegations back in 2021 when Barcelona prosecutors claimed Shakira should have been paying taxes as she was living in Spain for a substantial period between 2012 and 2014.
The second wave of allegations came in September 2023. The Columbian pop icon was again charged with tax evasion in Spain – this time, the prosecutors claimed she had failed to pay €6.7million (£5.8 million) in tax on her income in 2018.
Last November, Shakira came to an agreement with the Spanish authorities after agreeing to pay the resounding debt to avoid potential prison time.
Since then, she has released her twelfth studio album, ‘Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran’. In a four-star review, NME said: “With a career that spans four decades, she continues to push the envelope for Latin pop music and make the genre a global event […] With this vulnerable yet versatile collection, Shakira shows there are no limits to the art of her catharsis through song.”