The Colombian singer Shakira once again faces problems with the Spanish Justice. The artist has just been accused by the Prosecutor's Office of defrauding the Treasury of that country by 6.6 million euros in 2018.
Prosecutors accuse Shakira of defrauding 6 million in her new tax crime case.
#ÚLTIMAHORA | La Fiscalía acusa a Shakira de defraudar 6 millones en su nueva causa por delito fiscal. pic.twitter.com/laI4Sncu0U
— EFE Noticias (@EFEnoticias) September 26, 2023
In this case, reports the newspaper El Mundo, a court in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) opened an investigation after allegedly accusing Shakira of "using a corporate network in tax havens to defraud 6.6 million euros in personal income tax returns and of the 2018 estate tax." This is what the Prosecutor's Office stated in its complaint:
Shakira, moved by the desire not to pay taxes on all of her income and to stop paying what she was entitled to into the State's coffers, consciously and voluntarily submitted false personal income tax and IP declarations for the 2018 financial year, omitting to declare income and deducting expenses that were not applicable, thus reducing the amount to be paid to the State Administration of the Tax Agency (AEAT) for personal income tax and to the Agència Tributària de Catalunya (ATC) for IP, due to the application of this tax legal imperative of the joint limit between the amounts of both taxes.
'El Dorado', the tour that Shakira allegedly used to defraud the Treasury
As can be read in the accusation against the Colombian artist, the Barcelona Court assures that the singer committed the alleged crime while she was performing on the "El Dorado" musical tour :
She failed to declare income in the amount of 12.5 million dollars, received in the form of an advance in fiscal year 2011 and accrued in fiscal year 2018 on the occasion of the "El Dorado" musical tour. She failed to declare income amounting to more than 2.5 million euros, which resided in two intermediary companies GGT and AC. She deducted duplicate expenses for an amount greater than 3 million euros. She deducted expenses for the amortization of her own musical rights in an amount exceeding 3 million euros. And she deducted personal expenses and unjustified expenses for amounts exceeding 500,000 euros.
The Prosecutor's Office requests, after pointing out the charges that could be brought against Shakira, that the singer declare herself under investigation in a videoconference from her home in the United States. The news comes just over a month after the singer must be held accountable before the Barcelona Court for tax fraud, this time between 2012 and 2014. For this crime, the Barcelona Court asks for eight years in prison for the Colombian artist and that she pay a fine of 23.8 million euros.
