Spanish Court Returns Millions to Shakira: She Beats the Tax Penalty Rap

Madrid, Spain: Colombian star Shakira, who in the past clashed with the Spanish tax authorities, won a victory after the Spanish courts overturned a tax penalty and ordered the return of more than $64 million.  The National Court, a jurisdiction in Madrid specializing in complex financial matters, ordered in mid-April “the annulment of the settlement carried out and the consequent return of the amounts paid plus legal interest” for the 2011 fiscal year, according to a document accessed on Monday.  The total sum that will have to be reimbursed to the global star will exceed 55 million euros (more than 64 million dollars), according to the document. 

Shakira, who went so far as to compare the Spanish Tax Agency to the Inquisition, celebrated the decision, which in her opinion “has put things in their place”.  “There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself was never able to prove otherwise, simply because it wasn’t true,” the 49-year-old artist wrote in a statement.  “I have been treated as guilty, every step of the process has been leaked, distorted and amplified, and my name and public figure have been used to send a threatening message to the rest of the contributors,” the singer said.  Shakira said she hopes the ruling will set a “precedent” for “thousands of anonymous citizens” who are “crushed by a system that presumes their guilt.” 

183 Days

The core of Shakira’s conflicts with the Spanish Tax Agency had mainly to do with the artist’s tax residency, who in 2011 began a relationship with the then FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué.  But at that time, the performer of worldwide hits such as “Hips don’t lie”, “Waka Waka” and “Dai Dai”, the latter being the official song of the 2026 North American World Cup, was constantly traveling around the world because of her career.  Shakira has always maintained that she settled permanently in Barcelona at the end of 2014, before moving her tax residence from the Bahamas to Spain in 2015, just before the birth of her second child. 

But the Spanish tax authorities did not see it the same way and accused her of not having paid her taxes in Spain in 2012, 2013 and 2014, despite having resided in the country for more than 183 days a year during those years, the threshold from which a person is considered a tax resident.  In 2023, the singer reached a last-minute agreement with the prosecution, thus avoiding a trial for the alleged tax crimes during those years that promised to expose her private life.  According to the ruling made public this Monday, “the Administration has not demonstrated that the plaintiff had remained in Spain” in 2011 “for more than 183 days”.  “It doesn’t matter whether the Bahamas was a tax haven in 2011 or not,” she adds.

TV Series

The amount to be refunded includes income tax (totaling over €24 million), the fine imposed for a “very serious” infraction (almost €25 million), the 2011 wealth tax (€2.6 million), and the corresponding fine (€2.7 million). Interest must be added to this sum.  The tax authorities had also initiated proceedings for the year 2018, and the artist had to pay 6.6 million euros in regularization for “irregularities” in her 2018 income tax return. 

This case, full of twists and turns, inspired a series titled “Celeste”, starring a Spanish tax inspector who investigates the possible tax evasion of an international Latin music star.  Shakira will perform in concert in Spain for the first time since 2018, with twelve dates scheduled in Madrid, between September 18 and October 11.  Besides Shakira, several other celebrities have had problems with the Spanish tax authorities, such as footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who were also fined several million euros.

Shakira claims that the Spanish tax authorities kept everything she earned in Spain.

The woman from Barranquilla stated that the fine she had to pay to the Spanish tax authorities far exceeds the total earnings she obtained during her years in Spain.

Colombian star Shakira claimed that everything she earned while living in Spain was taken by the Spanish Tax Agency, an institution she compared to the Inquisition, in a letter published in the newspaper El Mundo. “Everything I earned during those years was kept by the Spanish State,” wrote the world-famous artist, who reached an agreement to plead guilty to tax fraud and pay a multimillion-euro fine in exchange for avoiding a trial in Spain for evading the payment of some 14.5 million euros in taxes in Spain between 2012 and 2014.  “The Spanish State kept a sum greater than my total earnings from those years. It may seem incomprehensible, but for me, the Spanish decade was a financially lost decade, and not because I didn’t work hard, as everyone knows,” Shakira asserted in the letter.  The singer of hits like “Hips don’t lie” and “Waka Waka” lashed out at the Tax Agency, “a state institution (that) seemed more interested in publicly burning me at the stake than in listening to my reasons.” 

“Things are not solved by burning a public figure at the stake every year as if it were an Inquisition trial,” she insisted.  Just as she did before the Spanish courts, the singer denied having resided in the country for more days than stipulated by law for tax purposes before 2015, despite having begun her relationship with Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué in 2011. “Whenever I returned” to Spain during those years, “it was so that the relationship could flourish, not out of any intention of staying,” Shakira stated.  She also denounced a “sexist prejudice” against her, stating that “if the singer had been an American man, had fallen in love with a Spanish woman and visited her regularly, I find it hard to believe that the Tax Agency would have considered that he intended to establish roots in Spain.” The Colombian artist emphasized that she reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to avoid trial, thinking of her children. “I made the decisions I made to protect them, to be by their side, and to continue with my life,” she wrote.

The Colombian singer reached a last-minute agreement that allowed her to avoid the private scrutiny that would have resulted from a trial to reconstruct her activities in Barcelona between 2012 and 2014. However, to achieve this, she had to plead guilty to tax fraud and accept a fine of more than €7.3 million (approximately $8 million), representing 50% of the total amount of the fraud, according to the agreement. The plea bargain also included a three-year prison sentence, which was suspended upon payment of €432,000, bringing the total amount Shakira would have to pay to almost €7.8 million. 

“I had two options: keep fighting until the end, mortgaging my peace of mind and that of my children, stop making songs, albums and tours, without being able to enjoy my career, or make a deal, close and leave this chapter of my life behind looking ahead,” the artist said at the time.  Following the settlement, Spanish courts dismissed another case against Shakira in May for tax fraud related to her 2018 tax return, thus ending her criminal proceedings in Spain. After separating from Piqué in 2022, Shakira moved to Miami with her two sons.

A Living Hell | The Pain of Deceit and Betrayal

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the Colombian artist gave details of how she has gradually recovered from the breakup with the father of her children.  “The suffering I felt was probably the greatest I have ever experienced in my entire life, and at times it prevented me from functioning, as if someone had punched a hole in my chest. The feeling was so real. Physically, I felt as if I had that hole and that people could see right through me,” she recounted.  The actress described this difficult period of her personal life as “hell,” and her main refuge for overcoming it was through music. The result was several songs that express pain and anger, such as “Te felicito” with Rauw Alejandro, “Monotonía,” the bachata with Ozuna, “Music Session #53” with the Argentinian producer Bizarrap, and “TQG” with her compatriot Karol G.  Shakira explained that she “had the need to express myself through my art, my visions, my music, transferring all that pain, all those acute emotions to a space outside of myself.” However, the complicated legal case in which Spanish prosecutors accused her of alleged tax evasion affected the artist’s popularity.  She recalled that, “when it rains, it pours. It was crazy how many things I had to deal with at the same time.”