The Colombian singer Shakira has agreed to pay a fine of 7.25 million euros for a charge of tax evasion in Spain. The singer, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has reached a settlement with the Spanish tax authorities after a long legal dispute. She was accused of not having paid 14.5 million euros in taxes: the agreement provides that she pays 50 percent of the evaded amount, and a further fine of 438 thousand euros to avoid a three-year prison sentence. Previously Shakira, who had declared herself innocent, had rejected an initial plea offer proposed by the prosecution, choosing to go to trial. The prosecution had requested an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of 23.8 million euros.
The accusations concern the period between 2012 and 2014: according to the Spanish authorities in those years the singer would have resided in Spain for at least six months, and therefore would have had to pay taxes in Spain. The singer officially took up Spanish residency in 2015, and in 2019 she moved to Miami, United States, following her separation from Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué.
In a other case, distinct from this one, the Spanish authorities accused the singer of not having paid 5.4 million euros in income taxes and almost 750 thousand euros in property taxes in 2018, which with interest would result in a tax debt of 6, 6 million euros. According to the accusations, the singer directed her profits to companies based in tax havens, rather than declaring them to the Spanish tax authorities. The trial on these charges has not yet begun.