Spain Charges Shakira with Tax Evasion for Second Time

Lebanese-Colombian superstar Shakira was accused Tuesday by prosecutors in Spain of skirting $7.1 million in taxes on her 2018 income — weeks before the Grammy winner faces a separate tax fraud trial in Barcelona.

The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer omitted nearly $14 million of her earnings from the 2018 fiscal year and deducted $5.8 million in false expenses, “thus managing to reduce the amount to be paid to the State Administration of the Tax Agency,” according to the complaint.

Shakira, whose full legal name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, allegedly used an offshore tax haven to commit tax evasion, according to Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo.

She has been notified of the charges in Miami, where she lives, according to the statement.

No trial date has been set.

Shakira, 46, has been linked to the country since she began dating the now-retired Barcelona FC star Gerard Piqué.

The couple, who have two children, lived together in Barcelona until last year when they ended their 11-year relationship.

She is due in a Barcelona court on November 20 on six counts of tax fraud for allegedly failing to pay roughly $15.4 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014.

Prosecutors allege that Shakira spent more than half of her time in Spain and therefore should have paid the country’s income taxes.

Her official residence during that time was in the Bahamas, she claims.

She left for Miami in April — one year following her split from Piqué.

Ahead of her decampment to the US, Shakira slammed the Spanish Treasury for using “unacceptable methods to damage her reputation and force her to come to a settlement agreement,” which she made clear at the time she wouldn’t do.

If found guilty on all six tax fraud counts at the November trial, she faces up to eight years in prison, according to El Mundo.

Spanish tax authorities have cracked down on celebrities who made their living in the country in past years. 

They found Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo guilty of tax evasion in 2017 and 2019, respectively. 

Both soccer stars avoided prison time thanks to a provision that allows Spanish judges to waive sentences under two years for first-time offenders, though they were both ordered to pay a fine if they wanted their prison sentences thrown out.

Messi, who joined Inter Miami this year, was ordered to pay $287,000 to waive his 21-month sentence after he was found guilty on three counts of tax fraud when he failed to pay the Spanish Treasury $4.6 million from 2007 to 2009.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, forked over a staggering $21.6 million to have his 23-month sentence suspended for committing four counts of tax fraud between 2011 and 2014  when he failed to pay Spain $16.7 million in taxes.