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Shakira has publicly addressed the legal proceedings initiated against her by the Spanish Ministry of Finance. The ministry has levied allegations of tax evasion amounting to 14.5 million euros between 2011 and 2014, during which she was allegedly not a resident of Spain. After pleading guilty, the 47-year-old artist consented to resolve the issue by remitting a fine, thereby avoiding the three-year prison sentence that would have been imposed following the judgment from the Palace of Justice in Barcelona.
Shakira wrote an open letter on El Mundo de España to provide context about her complicated situation as a public figure. This was related to the legal process initiated by the Spanish Treasury and her highly publicized separation from Gerard Piqué.
"In 2023 I lived surrounded by cameras that anxiously waited to show the world how I broke down. No one missed a single detail: the Hacienda trial, the media divorce... it was too juicy a show to let pass by," she began. In her statement, Shakira referred to the "fabricated story" of the Hacienda as part of her defense. She argued that this narrative had conflated and misrepresented two distinct intentions: her desire to establish residency in a country and a separate intention for her relationship with Piqué to thrive within that country. This distinction was crucial in highlighting the complexities of her situation.
In 2011, she frequently traveled to Spain to nurture her budding relationship with footballer Gerard Piqué. Her professional commitments as a footballer for FC Barcelona made it impractical for her to relocate, thus necessitating regular trips to Spain to maintain the relationship.T his represented more difficulties for Shakira, who lived in Miami and had a musical career. "Traveling to Spain created many complications for me, because it forced me to be away from my work centers. Whenever I returned, I did so to make the relationship prosper, not because of a 'vocation to stay,'" said the artist.
The Colombian quickly pointed out that the criterion for determining a presumed residency in Spain was, in her view, founded on "sexist bias." She wrote that if she "had been an American man, had fallen in love with a Spanish woman and had visited her regularly, I find it hard to believe that the Tax Agency would have considered that he had an intention to settle down," she denounced.
Shakira stated that various international organizations and agencies continuously examine her tax affairs; however, only Spain has accused her of tax evasion. "Institutions investigated my finances as little suspicious as the White House or the IRS and approved by other countries of the European Union, and in all that time they never found even the slightest sign of illegality," she wrote, adding that an official of the Spanish Tax Agency was allowed "to criminalize me on a television program even before the trial was held."
Shakira said the agency intends not to punish those who evade taxes "but to show hunting trophies to rebuild a credibility in question." The singer also described her time in Spain as "a financially lost decade," despite her lucrative career, which included over 120 concerts as part of her tour El Dorado.
"I only spent 73 days in Spain, when the minimum established by law to be a tax resident is 183 days," added Shakira. She said, "A person cannot intend to be a tax resident in a place just because the person she is in a relationship with at that time lives there."
Why is Shakira speaking out now?
The singer mentioned that she decided to address the issue now, mainly for her children, Milan and Sasha. "I want to leave them the legacy of a woman who explained her reasons calmly and in her own time, when she considered it necessary, not when she was forced to do so. I need them to know that I made the decisions I made to protect them, to be by their side and to continue with my life, not out of cowardice or guilt," she said.