Shakira, already facing a looming trial in Spain on tax fraud charges, will be the focus of another investigation on additional allegations of tax fraud.
In Sept. 2022, Shakira was ordered to stand trial after allegedly failing to pay €14.5 million (about $13.9 million) in income tax between 2012 and 2014. Before that trial even began, officials near Barcelona announced Thursday that it would investigate additional tax fraud that occurred in 2018, the Associated Press reports.
The court did not specify how much money Shakira potentially owes in regard to the 2018 investigation.
The tax fraud charges stem from the claim that Shakira spent more than half the year in Spain every year between 2012 and 2014; Shakira listed her residence as the Bahamas during her time in Spain. Spanish tax law stipulates that anyone living in the country for more than six months is considered a resident and must pay taxes.
Shakira, who faces up to eight years in prison if convicted in the first trial, has previously denied all the allegations, calling them “false accusations” and reiterating that she “didn’t spend 183 days per year” in Spain those years because she was “busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world.”
“I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So as of today, I owe zero to them,” Shakira told Elle in Oct. 2022.
“And finally, I was advised by one of the four biggest tax specialist firms in the world, PricewaterhouseCoopers, so I was confident that I was doing things correctly and transparently from day one. However, even without evidence to support these fictional claims, as they usually do, they’ve resorted to a salacious press campaign to try to sway people and apply pressure in the media along with the threat of reputational damage in order to coerce settlement agreements. It is well known that the Spanish tax authorities do this often not only with celebrities like me (or [Cristiano] Ronaldo, Neymar, [Xabi] Alonso, and many more), it also happens unjustly to the regular taxpayer. It’s just their style. But I’m confident that I have enough proof to support my case and that justice will prevail in my favor.”
Shakira had the chance to avoid going to trial when she was offered a plea deal in early 2022, but she declined.
