Music superstar Shakira was acquitted of tax fraud in a new ruling released Monday by Spain’s national court.
The court ordered Spanish authorities to repay Shakira more than $60 million from the yearslong legal battle.
The ruling was based on an appeal from Shakira’s legal team, which argued the Grammy winner was not a full-time resident of Spain in 2011 and therefore did not owe taxes to the government for that year.
The court ruled that Shakira spent 163 days in Spain that year, not the minimum 183 days required under Spanish law to pay income taxes. The court also said the tax agency failed to prove that Shakira “maintained her center of economic interests in Spain, or that she had family ties with residents in the country.”
Spain’s Ministry of Justice said Monday it plans to appeal the court’s ruling, which was issued in April and announced publicly Monday.
Shakira applauded the court for what she described as a ruling that “set the record straight.”
“After more than eight years of enduring brutal public targeting, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and sleepless nights that ultimately impacted my health and my family’s well-being, the National High Court has finally set the record straight,” Shakira said in a statement to ABC News Monday.
“There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself could never prove otherwise, simply because it wasn’t true.”
Shakira moved to Miami in 2023, one year after she and her boyfriend of more than a decade, Spanish soccer star Gerard Piqué, ended their relationship. Piqué is the father of Shakira’s two sons.
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