{"id":3170,"date":"2026-05-19T05:40:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T05:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2026-05-19T05:40:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T05:40:01","slug":"shakira-acquitted-of-tax-fraud-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/shakira-acquitted-of-tax-fraud-in-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakira Acquitted of Tax Fraud in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakira has officially been acquitted in a major Spanish tax fraud case after Spain\u2019s High Court ruled that authorities failed to prove she was legally a tax resident in the country during 2011. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The court overturned a previous \u20ac55 million ($64 million) penalty and ordered Spain\u2019s Treasury to reimburse the singer more than \u20ac60 million (around $70 million) including interest. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the Court Ruled in Her Favor :<\/p>\n

Under Spanish law, an individual must spend more than 183 days in Spain within a year to qualify as a tax resident.<\/p>\n

According to the ruling, authorities were only able to prove that Shakira spent 163 days in Spain during 2011 below the legal threshold. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The court also rejected arguments that her relationship with former footballer Gerard Piqu\u00e9 automatically established Spain as the center of her economic interests. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shakira Responds :<\/p>\n

Following the decision, Shakira criticized what she described as years of public targeting and damage to her reputation.<\/p>\n

In a statement released through her legal team, she said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never any fraud.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her lawyer described the eight-year legal process as exhausting and praised the court\u2019s independence in overturning the earlier penalties. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Separate From Her Previous Tax Settlement:<\/p>\n

The ruling only applies to the 2011 tax dispute.<\/p>\n

It does not erase the separate 2023 agreement in which Shakira settled another Spanish tax case tied to 2012\u20132014 payments in order to avoid trial. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s tax agency is reportedly expected to appeal the new acquittal to the Supreme Court. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After nearly a decade of legal battles, Shakira has secured one of the biggest courtroom victories of her career.<\/p>\n

The ruling marks a major reputational win for the global pop star while reigniting conversations around celebrity taxation, residency laws, and the aggressive financial scrutiny faced by high-profile entertainers in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shakira has officially been acquitted in a major Spanish tax fraud case after Spain\u2019s High Court ruled that authorities failed to prove she was legally a tax resident in the country during 2011. \u00a0 The court overturned a previous \u20ac55 million ($64 million) penalty and ordered Spain\u2019s Treasury to reimburse the singer more than \u20ac60 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[160],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","author-urbanafrica"],"authors":[{"term_id":160,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"urbanafrica","display_name":"URBANAFRICA","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-FFB50F59-0D6C-491C-BACA-64123F72D056.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-FFB50F59-0D6C-491C-BACA-64123F72D056.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africahalloffame.org\/Home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}