Shakira Wins Tax Fraud Case in Spain After Eight Years, Will Get $70 Million Back

After eight years Shakira finally got the ruling she'd been fighting for.

Spain's National High Court acquitted the singer on Monday of tax fraud related to her 2011 income, overturning a €55 million fine that the Spanish tax agency had imposed back in 2021. Her rep says the Spanish government now has to return over €60 million — about $70 million — to Shakira.

The case came down to a simple question that authorities apparently couldn't answer. To owe personal income tax in Spain a resident has to spend at least 183 days in the country in a given year. The court ruled that prosecutors were unable to prove Shakira actually spent that many days in Spain in 2011. No proof, no case.

Shakira didn't hold back in her response.

"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," she said in a statement.

"There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself could never prove otherwise, simply because it wasn't true. Yet, for nearly a decade, I was treated as guilty. Every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified, using my name and public image to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers."

The History Behind This

The Spanish tax agency had argued that Shakira was a Spanish resident in 2011 based partly on her relationship with Gerard Piqué, the Spanish soccer player she was with for over a decade and with whom she has two sons — Milan, 13, and Sasha, 11. The relationship and the high-profile breakup in 2022 played out very publicly, and the tax case had been running in the background of all of it for years.

Monday's ruling only covers 2011. It doesn't touch anything after that year.

This also isn't the only tax battle Shakira has navigated in Spain. In November 2023 she agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine to settle separate charges of failing to pay taxes between 2012 and 2014, avoiding a potential prison sentence. She maintained her innocence then too and said she settled for the sake of her sons. In May 2024 Spanish prosecutors dropped separate fraud charges related to her 2018 income.

So — $7.5 million paid in 2023 to end one case, $70 million coming back from the government now on a different one. The math on this decade of legal battles is complicated.

What She Wants This to Mean

Shakira made clear she sees this as bigger than her own situation.

"My greatest wish is that this ruling sets a precedent for the Treasury and serves the thousands of ordinary citizens who are abused and crushed every day by a system that presumes their guilt and forces them to prove their innocence at the cost of economic and emotional ruin. This victory is dedicated to them."

Her lawyer echoed that. "Shakira had the strength and resources to see this through to the end, but this modus operandi suffocates many ordinary taxpayers who do not have the means to defend themselves."

Not many people can spend eight years fighting a government's tax agency. Most people settle. Shakira didn't — at least not on this one — and on Monday that decision paid off in a big way.

She's currently preparing for the next North American leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour through June and July, followed by 12 shows at Madrid's Shakira Stadium in September and October.

She's performing in Spain. She just made Spain give her $70 million back. There's something almost poetic about that.

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