Shakira allegedly defrauded another six million euros to the Treasury in 2018, when she was already residing in Spain, through a "network of companies" that led her to "simulate" the transfer of her rights to instrumental companies. The Prosecutor's Office has released on Tuesday the details of the second complaint against the Colombian singer, which already transcended last July. The alleged fraud amounts this time to 5.3 million for Personal Income Tax and another 700,000 euros for Wealth Tax. In just two months, Shakira will sit on the bench of the accused to face the first judicial case, in which she is accused of defrauding a total of 14.5 million euros. The Prosecutor's Office requests that Interpol notify the artist, who resides in the United States, of the complaint and the summons to declare as investigated for two tax crimes.
The complaint recalls that, in 2018, Shakira lived in a house in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona) with former Barça defender Gerard Piqué and their two children, so she had to pay all her taxes in Spain. In the declaration of that year, however, he omitted part of his income and, in particular, the millionaire payments obtained thanks to the El Dorado musical tour, which between June and November of that year led him to give 53 concerts in 22 countries, especially in Europe, the United States and Latin America. "Moved by the desire to pay as little as possible," Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll "used a corporate framework" and deducted expenses "that did not proceed," according to the Public Ministry.
More information
Shakira's confessions in court: "I landed the plane in Barcelona just to give Gerard a kiss"
Shakira derived that income to companies domiciled in countries where taxes are barely paid and "of high opacity". The Prosecutor's Office also points out that these companies are purely instrumental, that is, they have no real activity, since "they lacked human and material resources" and their only objective is to contribute to avoiding the payment of taxes.
The most relevant company in this international network is AC, based in Luxembourg, which received (under a long-range contract signed with Live Nation in 2008) income from the transfer of Shakira's musical rights. Since the singer pays her taxes in Spain of her own volition (2015), she had included all the income of that company in her declaration before the Tax Agency. But in 2018 it declared only 75% on the grounds that the company had "significant assets" and carried out vital functions.
None of that is true, according to the Prosecutor's Office. AC was nothing more than an "interposed company" that "did not exercise any activity". But the accusation goes further: the most important asset of that Luxembourg firm were the musical rights of Shakira, which she had ceded only "formally" and through a series of "simulated contracts", without any real will to cede them. "Shakira maintained at all times," the complaint concludes, "full availability and control over her own musical rights."
37 million for 'El Dorado'
The successful El Dorado tour reported to Shakira 37 million euros (plus another 4.2 for sponsorship) that she charged through different societies and in different ways. A portion of the money (9.6) was paid by Live Nation in 2011 as an advance; however, the payment had to be contemplated in the 2018 declaration, that is, at the time of accrual, as the singer's advisors had expressly requested before the Treasury. This circumstance was "perfectly known" by Shakira, the complaint stresses.
The singer from Barranquilla obtained that year other income (from advertising, sponsorship or musical rights) that led her to enter a total of 48 million euros. A machine like the one that the artist starts on a tour around the world also entails considerable expenses and these were 28.4 million. But the Treasury, again, disagrees and considers that the correct figure is lower, about 21.3 million. The reason is that Shakira, according to the conclusions of the inspectors, presented expenses in duplicate (three million), expenses for own musical rights that could not be deducted (another three million) and also personal and unjustified expenses (half a million euros; among others, for plane tickets in the name of her two children, Milan and Sasha). The total returns obtained in 2018, according to the Treasury, were 26.7 million, and that is the amount that had to have been recorded to calculate the income tax settlement.
As for the Wealth Tax, the Treasury concludes that the singer's companies have financial assets totaling 147.2 million euros and real estate (a house in Barcelona, another in the Bahamas, two in Miami, one in New York and another in Barranquilla) for 12.1 million. The statement was also not accurate on this point. The Tax Agency of Catalonia (ATC), which manages this tax, stopped entering 773,600 euros.
