Shakira just won a major round in her long-running tax fight with Spain. The country's High Court has cleared the singer of tax fraud for 2011 and tossed out a roughly $64 million penalty imposed by Spain's tax agency, according to a court document seen by Reuters. The court ordered the Treasury to return about $70 million to her, including interest, her legal team said. Judges found that authorities had not proved Shakira spent more than 183 days in Spain that year, the threshold to be treated as a tax resident. Tax officials had argued she was effectively based in Spain due to her relationship with then-Barcelona star Gerard Piqué and her professional activity there.
The court called the fines unlawful because they were "based on the assumption that the appellant's tax residence was in Spain for the 2011 fiscal year, a fact which has not been proven." As the AP reports, authorities were only able to prove that she was resident for 163 days that year. The decision, which applies only to the 2011 tax year, can still be challenged before Spain's Supreme Court, and does not alter her separate 2023 deal with prosecutors over 2012-14 taxes, in which she admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay roughly $8.5 million. Shakira isn't the only big name Spain has gone after for tax evasion: Soccer players Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were also found guilty but avoided jail time as first-time offenders, notes the AP.
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