‘Saw I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate’: Shakira Claims Spanish Tax Authorities are Greedy Witch-hunters Who Only Want to Milk Her Pique Relationship For Millions
Shakira has got legal troubles, a whole lot of them. On one end she is fighting a custody battle for her kids, Milan and Sasha, against her former cheating partner, Gerard Pique. On the other hand, she faces up to eight years in jail for the allegations of six counts of tax fraud by Spanish Tax Authorities.
As of now, the Spanish Tax Authorities are trying their best to increase Shakira’s sentence for the six counts of tax fraud that amount to up to 14.5 million euros (£12.2m) as much as possible. In addition to eight years in prison, they want the Columbian-born singer to pay a fine of 23 million euros (£19.2m).
Spanish Authorities went full Sherlock Holmes
The precise accusation against the 45-year-old singer is that, from 2012 to 2014, she pretended to live abroad so that she could avoid paying taxes, when according to them, she had officially moved to Barcelona in 2011 to live with her beau, Pique. Shakira was, however, officially a resident of the Bahamas during those years and registered for tax in Spain in 2015.
The tax inspectors claim that they have carried out a thorough investigation on the mom of two. From her go-to hairdressers in Barcelona to her social media handle, everything was scourged to prove that she spent most of her time, for those 3 years, in Spain. Post investigation, it was claimed that the Hips Don’t Lie singer spent 242 days in Spain in 2012, 212 days in 2013, and 243 days in Spain in 2014.
Shakira calls out Spanish prosecutors’ deliberate witchhunt
Shakira slammed the Spanish prosecutors for their witchhunt, in an interview with Elle Magazine. The singer said,
“While Gerard and I were dating, I was on a world tour. I spent more than 240 days outside of Spain, so there was no way I qualified as a resident. The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It’s clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what.”
Shakira claimed that she was constantly working abroad during that period but the Spanish Authorities kept alleging that she was resident in Spain and “still came after me, with their eyes on the prize”. The singer was offered an out-of-court settlement in the form of a plea deal but she decided to take the matter to court instead as “a matter of principle,” because she claims to have done nothing wrong or illegal.
Only time will tell what the outcome will be in both of Shakira’s court cases.
