Shakira once again has a new open front with the Treasury. A court in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) has opened a second criminal case against the Colombian singer as a result of a complaint by the Prosecutor’s Office, which accuses her of two tax crimes in the 2018 fiscal year: the first, for defrauding the Treasury in the declaration of income and the second, for a crime in wealth tax.
According to Voz Pópuli, the investigative court number two of Esplugues has taken over the investigation. This is the second case against the Colombian singer after the Treasury already accused her before the Prosecutor’s Office of defrauding 14.5 million euros in the fiscal years of 2012, 2014 and 2014, cause for which she will be tried from next November 20.
In that first case, the Prosecutor’s Office asks for Shakira eight years and two months in prison and a fine of 23.7 million euros. The Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses her of six crimes against the Public Treasury that would have resulted in a total fraud of 14.5 million euros corresponding to the fiscal years of 2012, 2013 and 2014. It considers that the artist would have pretended that she did not reside in Spain in order not to pay taxes in this country, thus avoiding the payment of personal income tax and wealth tax.
Shakira paid the 14.5 million that the Tax Agency demanded plus another three million in interest, with the aim of settling the legal proceedings, but that gesture was not enough. The Prosecutor’s Office considers that the singer spent in Spain more than 183 days of each cited calendar year, the limit set by law for a person to be considered a tax resident and therefore for them to pay taxes in Spain. In 2015 Shakira changed her tax residence from the Bahamas to Spain and since then she has paid taxes here.
