This is how the legal situation remains in Spain after a request to archive the case for fraud

​The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office filed this second complaint against Shakira last July, when the artist was waiting to sit on the bench following her first open case for tax fraud in Spain.

The entity accused her, according to the Spanish newspaper ABC, of allegedly simulating the transfer of their rights to ghost companies to avoid paying taxes on the 2018 Income Tax (IRPF) and Wealth Tax returns. The singer, they point out, would have defrauded 6.6 million euros (about 7 million dollars).

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​The complaint, whose file the Prosecutor’s Office is now requesting, maintains that The singer defrauded the Tax Agency of 5.3 million in income tax, corresponding to the income he received from his 2018 “El Dorado” tour and from the transfer of his intellectual rights, and another 773,600 euros in wealth tax for the 12 million he owns in real estate and financial assets.
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​”Being a tax resident in Spain, she was obliged to submit the corresponding personal income tax and IP declarations, paying taxes on her entire world income. regardless of the place where it occurred and whatever the residence of the payer,” reads the prosecutor’s document.

Thus, they pointed out that The Colombian company used the corporate framework for “untruthful declarations” of personal income tax, in which he omitted to declare income and deducted expenses that were not applicable, thereby managing to reduce the tax rate.

“Moved by the desire not to pay taxes on all of her income and to stop paying into the State’s coffers what was due to her, she consciously and voluntarily presented false personal income tax and IP declarations for the 2018 financial year,” the statement said. complaint.
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After the accusation, the singer stated that she once again found out about the allegations through press publications and that she had not been formally notified. At the same time, accused the prosecutor’s office of resorting to improper means to pressure taxpayers.

Shakira also assured that her actions have always been in accordance with the law and “under the advice of the best tax experts,” as she recalls. ABC.
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Three months ago, Shakira’s defense requested the filing of the tax fraud case opened against the singer. after in August of last year he deposited with the Barcelona Court the 6.6 million that the Treasury demanded from him to show his willingness to regularize his situation with the Spanish treasury.

This sum included, in addition to the amount claimed, interest and regularization fees.

And although it was precisely the Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office that filed the second complaint for tax fraud against the singer, Now, after months of investigation, he has concluded that there is not sufficient evidence that he committed the two crimes against the public treasury attributed to him.

The other two private accusations filed also supported the request to file: the State Attorney’s Office – on behalf of the Tax Agency – and the Generalitat, according to legal sources.
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The Prosecutor’s Office ruled in favor of the file, but referred the singer to the administrative route to catch up with the Treasury, so that the defense will allocate the sum initially deposited in court to pay the debt claimed by the Tax Agency.

In other words, The Public Ministry considers that the singer does have a tax obligation with the IRPF and Heritage for its activities and properties in 2018, but that the matter must be resolved by administrative means and not by criminal means.

Thus, the prosecution considers that it would be the Tax Agency and the Tax Agency of Catalonia that should demand from Shakira the sums of money required for her 2018 activities.

Now, It will be the court in charge of the investigation who must make its decision on the future of the case, but the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, which is added to that of the artist’s defense, could lighten the legal horizon of the interpreter and the court seems to have no other option than to close the case.

The Colombian’s defense already celebrated the decision in a statement sent to the media. “We are pleased that the Prosecutor’s Office has finally adhered to our request for an archive,” he noted.
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Shakira already avoided undergoing a media trial last year before a Barcelona courtafter reaching a last-minute agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office by which he agreed to acknowledge the facts, as well as pay a fine of more than seven million euros.

Then, The Public Ministry accused her of not having paid around 14.5 million euros in taxes in Spain at the time, in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, despite having resided in the country.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested that the singer receive a sentence of eight years and two months in prison and a fine of 23.8 million euros.

Shakira defended, for her part, that she did not commit any wrongdoing, since, despite having started a relationship with Piqué in 2011, she led a nomadic life due to her international career, and her tax residence was in the Bahamas until the beginning of 2015.

At the start of the first session of the trial – which could have aired part of his private life -, Shakira formalized her agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office and accepted a sentence compliance that included, among others, the payment of a fine of more than 7.3 million euros, corresponding to “50%” of the total fraud.

Previously, the singer – who in 2021 also appeared in the so-called Pandora Papers, the journalistic investigation that pointed out hundreds of personalities for having supposedly resorted to tax havens – had already paid 17.45 million euros to the Spanish treasury to regularize her situation. in this case.

Shakira is now waiting for the Spanish National Court to resolve a dispute she has with the Tax Agency for the 2011 tax year, in which it is decided whether the singer resided in Spain that year for more than the 183 days per year that, according to the law, make a taxpayer a tax resident in the country.

That matter, however, It will remain in the contentious-administrative process, in which the artist’s defense hopes to be able to prove that she did not reside in Spain. long enough to be obliged to pay taxes, without it becoming a criminal process.

Spain is characterized by applying a severe regime against those who evade taxes. According to the newspaper ABC, for tax evasion to be considered a crime, “the amount defrauded must exceed 120,000 euros.”

The crime includes penalties between one and five years and fines that can reach six times the amount defrauded.

In this panorama, Shakira has not been the only one who has had problems with the Spanish treasury. Players such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gerard Piqué, Dani Alves, Xabi Alonso and Neymar are also included.

Messi and his father, for example, were accused in 2016 of defrauding the Spanish Treasury of 4.1 million euros. Ronaldo was also accused in 2019 of evading a payment of 5.7 million to the Spanish treasury.

Singers like Miguel Bosé and Ana Torroja and many other singers, actors and politicians in the country have also had problems.