Shakira signed a deal with the Spanish Public Prosecution Service on Monday in the tax fraud case against her, international news agencies report. The Colombian singer agreed to pay a fine worth 50 percent of the fraud – which amounts to more than 7 million euros. She will commute the three-year suspended prison sentence that Shakira could receive for an amount of 438,000 euros. The lawsuit in Barcelona, of which the first hearing took place on Monday, comes to a quick end.
The Spanish Public Prosecution Service accused Shakira of failing to declare more than 14 million euros in income to the tax authorities between 2012 and 2014. The Public Prosecution Service actually wanted to demand a prison sentence of eight years and a fine of 23.5 million euros against her. Shakira previously said she would fight what she considered false accusations. She said she did not have to pay taxes in Spain because she lived in the Bahamas between 2012 and 2014. But according to the Spanish Public Prosecution Service, she spent more than half of her time in Spain during those years, which means she is considered a resident of the country. She was then with the Spanish former professional footballer Gerard Piqué.
There is also another tax fraud case against the 46-year-old singer. In it, the Public Prosecution Service accuses her of evading more than 6 million euros in taxes through letterbox companies in tax havens. One of those companies is Amsterdam-based Geneurope Holding, which is said to have managed the singer’s intellectual property rights. The Spanish Public Prosecution Service opened an investigation after Shakira reported significantly lower income in 2018 than in previous years.
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