On Friday (7.29), Spanish prosecutors in the ongoing criminal tax fraud case against Shakira told the court that the Colombian superstar should face an eight-year and two-month sentence and a 20,000,000 euro fine if convicted of tax fraud.
The international superstar singer is being charged with failing to pay the Spanish government $14.5 million euros in taxes between the years 2012 and 2014 and after being offered a plea deal, Shakira decided to move forward with a trial.
Though a trial date’s yet to be confirmed, a formal statement sent to BBC by Shakira’s publicist said the singer is “fully confident of her innocence” and called the case a “violation of her rights.”
Dating back to 2018, the tax fraud charges stem from the allegation that Shakira spent more than half a year in Spain between 2012 and 2014. According to Spain’s tax law, anyone residing in the country for over six months is considered a resident and therefore must pay taxes, however, the musician claims that she did not live most of the year in Spain during that time, though she did purchase a house in Barcelona in May 2012, according to documents viewed by Reuters.
Since the tax fraud allegations were made in 2018, Shakira stated that she paid the 17.2 million euros she owed the Spanish government, yet Gerard Piqué, Shakira’s ex-husband, faced a 2 million euro fine in 2019 for evading taxes between 2008 and 2010.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Serenity – Own Work