Shakira’s fight with Spain’s tax agency is set to head to the country’s highest court after authorities challenged an earlier ruling that had erased €55 million ($64 million) in claims against the singer.
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The appeal was filed with the Supreme Court by state attorneys on behalf of the tax agency, arguing that the lower court erred in concluding the pop singer was not a Spanish tax resident in 2011, a spokesperson for the agency told Bloomberg News.
Under Spanish law, an individual is generally considered a tax resident if they spend more than 183 days in the country during a calendar year or if Spain is the main center of their economic interests. In the Colombian singer’s case, the National Court found in an April
Tax authorities argued that, despite her international schedule, she had already established her habitual residence in Spain. They pointed to her stays in Barcelona, her relationship with football player Gerard Piqué and sought to count time spent abroad as “sporadic absences.”
A spokesperson for Shakira declined to comment on the appeal, and referred to the singer’s statement from May 18, where she celebrated a “forceful and historic” verdict and said that “there was never any fraud.”
Shakira’s lawyers argued that she had resided permanently in the Bahamas since 2007, relying in part on a 2016 certificate of Bahamian tax residence.
The singer settled a separate case in 2023 and accepted six counts of tax fraud relating to 2012, 2013 and 2014, receiving a three-year suspended prison sentence and agreeing to pay fines of more than €7 million. In an interview, she said at the time that she did it in her children’s interests and not out of guilt or because she accepted wrongdoing.
In the most recent case, the National Court concluded that the evidence did not prove residency, and that Shakira’s traveling should not be counted as sporadic absences because she spent most of the year outside of Spain.
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