The investigation by the Tax Agency against Shakira for not paying her taxes in Spain has followed two different paths: one, the criminal, where the Colombian singer admitted guilt; and another, the administrative, where she fought until the end and won. The National Court has concluded that Shakira should not have been considered a tax resident in 2011, which is exactly the opposite of what she herself acknowledged before the Barcelona Court regarding the subsequent years (from 2012 to 2014). “If this ruling had been issued earlier, it could have had an impact on the criminal process, because it would have given us much more strength,” reflects José Luis Prada, the tax lawyer who defended Shakira in this case, in conversation with EL PAÍS.
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The Tax Agency opened an inspection on Shakira and concluded that, between 2011 and 2014, she was a tax resident in Spain. However, the first of those years was excluded from the Prosecutor’s complaint (because it had expired) and was resolved only through the administrative route. It ended with a file that imposed on the artist a settlement of 27.3 million for not paying income tax and wealth tax, plus a fine of another 27.4 million: almost 55 million in total. It was an exceptional year in Shakira’s career, with the earnings from her world tour Sale el sol and following the success achieved with the song Waka-waka from the 2010 South Africa World Cup.
This is the decision that the National Court has now overturned, accepting part of the arguments put forward by the defense: Shakira was not a tax resident (the Tax Agency could only prove her stay for 163 days of the year, not the 183 required), she did not have her center of interests in this country, and she had not established her “family nucleus,” beyond having started a romantic relationship with former footballer Gerard Piqué. “We had hopes because we were right. But it has been a slow process and always generates tension,” explains Prada, who regrets that the National Court took five years to decide, since the contentious-administrative appeal was filed in 2021.
The lawyer, managing partner of Prada Tax Advisors, denounces that this delay has prevented the favorable position of the contentious-administrative judges from having effects on the criminal process that was developing in parallel: in November 2023, Shakira decided to accept a three-year prison sentence (one for each fiscal year) and pay a fine of 7.3 million euros. She did so to avoid undergoing a trial with an uncertain outcome and enormous media exposure. Would the same have happened if she had known that the National Court, in the administrative sphere, was ruling in her favor? “It is difficult to speculate, and it is true that each fiscal year is a separate compartment. But it would have given us a lot of strength, because the underlying argument about sporadic absences and the proof of tax residence is the same,” he opines.
Prada reproaches the Tax Agency for having “overstepped” with Shakira and points out the “paradox” that what was collected in the criminal conviction is much lower if one takes into account “the interest she will now have to pay,” which he estimates at more than nine million. “It is a setback for the public treasury and nonsense, but there are reckless practices by the Administration,” says the lawyer, who denounces a “disproportionate inequality between the Administration and the taxpayer that should be reconsidered.”
Prada insists that Shakira made the decision to accept the sentence somewhat hastily, in a context of “moral and psychological pressure,” and in the midst of a separation process. And he denounces the “eight-year ordeal” that has meant “an unacceptable wear and tear” for his client. The singer has more than enough means to go all the way, but “many other anonymous taxpayers do not have the resources to defend themselves,” he adds.
Shakira’s defense will request the immediate execution of the sentence, although it assumes that the State Attorney’s Office, on behalf of the Tax Agency, will file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
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