SHAKIRA COULD FACE SUBSTANTIAL JAIL TERM OVER ALLEGED TAX FRAUD
Released On 10th Aug 2022
Colombian singer Shakira faces more than eight years in jail if convicted of tax fraud in Spain, where she lived intermittently during the years being investigated.
The singer is facing six charges alleging that she failed to pay the Spanish government nearly $15 million in taxes between 2012 and 2014. The prosecutors said they would also seek a fine of $24.5 million.
Although she was offered a settlement deal by her prosecutors, Shakira rejected the offer and says she “trusts her innocence and chooses to leave the issue in the hands of the law.”
During the years in question, Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, claimed Bermuda as her official residence for tax purposes but prosecutors insist that she was living in Spain at the time with her now-ex partner, Spanish footballer Gerard Pique, father of her two children.
According to the Spanish authorities, her use of shell companies in tax havens – what they described as the “use of legal entities as intermediaries” to conceal her income – was an aggravating factor in the investigation.
Shakira maintains her innocence, however, and her lawyers refute the suggestion of tax fraud. They say the fact that the singer used companies overseas “is based on purely operative and commercial matters and in no case to enjoy any fiscal advantage or benefit whatsoever.”
In this case, the prosecutors see the use of shell companies as crossing the boundary between tax avoidance and tax evasion, the former of which is legal and the latter illegal. Shakira’s defence claim that no crime was committed.
Roger Isaacs, Forensic Partner at Milsted Langdon, said: “It is relatively uncommon for tax authorities to allege fraud which suggests that they are confident about the strength of the financial evidence.
“The burden of proof will be high and the prosecutors will have to demonstrate that attempts to minimise tax liabilities have strayed into the realm of fraud.
“Shakira’s claim that Bermuda was her “official residence for tax purposes” is not the only residency issue to have hit the headlines recently. Reports that Rishi Sunak’s wife is non-UK domiciled for tax purposes, led some commentators to question how credible it was for her to maintain that her intention was to return one day to live in India? However, in the case of Ms Sunak, no one has alleged that she was guilty of anything unlawful.”
