Shakira takes a shot at the Treasury despite having unfinished business: "I feel that this system in Spain needs to be reviewed for the good of the citizens"

• Shakira finalizes an agreement to avoid trial for defrauding almost 14.5 million euros from the Treasury
• Shakira admits her fraud to the Treasury and accepts a three-year prison sentence plus a fine of 7.3 million euros

Despite the agreement reached with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the State Attorney's Office, Shakira still haspending cases with the Spanish justice system and the Treasury. This Monday, the Court of Barcelona sentenced to 3 years in prison, replaceable after the payment of 432,000 euros, and a fine of 7.3 million euros to the singer who admitted before the court to having committed the crimes against the Tax Agency between 2012 and 2014. At that time, the artist, who was beginning her relationship with the then Barça player Gerard Piqué, did not file the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) and Wealth Tax (IP) for 2012, 2013 and 2014, which caused economic damage to the Treasury of 12.3 million for personal income tax and 2.19 million for wealth tax to the Agència Tributària de Catalunya.

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Latin Grammy.

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Bad manners.

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Thus, the singer admitted before the court that she avoided paying taxes to the Treasury by pretending that she did not reside in Spain and hiding her income through a corporate network based in tax havens, such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Malta, Panama and Luxembourg with which she channeled the profits of her professional activity. The Prosecutor's Office accused her of concocting a "plan" to avoid paying either personal income tax or wealth tax to the Tax Agency, hiding her income in these companies in tax havens and initially asked for 8 years in prison. After the agreement, it reduced the sentence to 3 years after considering a very qualified mitigating circumstance, such as the fact that Shakira paid about 17 million euros corresponding to the defrauded amounts plus interest.

Shakira acknowledges that she defrauded the Treasury and accepts a three-year prison sentence and a fine of more than 7.3 million

Regarding this trial, her advisors have explained that they were "aware of the wear and tear and time that this process entails for a singer of international prestige like Shakira" and that is why they reached "an economic agreement with the prosecution in order to put an end to the process" since in this way "the impact of media exposure" is avoided. as well as that 117 witnesses tell intimacies of Shakira and Piqué's private life at the beginning of their relationship, as could some of the singer's employees, such as choreographers, dancers, stylists, therapists, lawyers, her driver, dance, music or zumba teachers; neighbours of the residences that the couple shared, such as one on Muntaner street in Barcelona or another house in Cabrils, and employees of hairdressers, beauty centres, bars, cafeterias, hotels where the artist went when she lived in Barcelona, among others, such as representatives of important commercial brands or the doctors who treated her during her pregnancy.

There are a lot of people who don't have the resources to pay for a good defense

"The efforts to defend her innocence, the criminal process and the pressure from the Tax Agency during these five years have generated for the artist an enormous waste of time and resources; and Shakira now feels the need to prioritize her career and her stability and that of her children," her legal advisers said. However, the artist went further and said that "I feel that this system in Spain needs to be reviewed for the good of the citizens. And for my part, I will continue to be an ally to make this happen. There are many people who do not have the resources to pay for a good defense or even reach an agreement and have seen their lives wear out in front of their eyes because of discrepancies with the Treasury that could have been resolved in an environment outside the prison."

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The sentence also establishes that the prison sentence is replaced after the payment of 432,000 euros along with the condition of suspension "for a period of two years conditioned" that Shakira "does not commit a crime within that period". This circumstance is fundamental, since the singer has had another criminal procedure open for months in the Court of Instruction number 2 of Esplugues de Llobregat, the same one that investigated the first case against her that ended in the conviction this Monday. As a result of a new complaint by the Prosecutor's Office, it is being investigated whether the artist allegedly used a corporate network in tax havens to defraud 6.2 million euros in the 2018 Personal Income Tax and Wealth Tax returns. The figure could increase with late payment interest. Shakira has not yet been subpoenaed to testify over this allegation.

Another Accusation

The complaint of the Prosecutor's Office states that, Shakira "moved by the desire not to pay taxes on all her income and to stop paying into the State Coffers what she was entitled to, consciously and voluntarily filed untruthful personal income tax and IP returns for the 2018 financial year, omitting to declare income and deducting expenses that did not apply, thus reducing the amount to be paid to the State Administration of the Tax Agency (AEAT) for Personal Income Tax and to the Tax Agency of Catalonia (ATC) for the IP, due to the application in this tax by legal imperative of the joint limit between the quotas of both taxes".

He declared his residence since 2015 in Spain

Thus, it remarks that he allegedly "omitted to declare income amounting to 12.5 million dollars, received in the form of an advance in 2011 and accrued in 2018 on the occasion of the El Dorado musical tour; failed to declare income in excess of EUR 2.5 million, which was held in two intermediary companies, GGT and AC; deducted duplicate expenses in excess of EUR 3 million; deducted depreciation expenses for its own music rights amounting to more than EUR 3 million; and deducted personal expenses and unjustified expenses in excess of €500,000."

"The defendant, in order not to pay Personal Income Tax (IRPF) corresponding to the 2018 financial year, for the income from the activity she carried out, which she personally provided and from which she profited, used a corporate framework, deriving the income to companies domiciled in countries of low taxation and high opacity", according to the Prosecutor's Office, which urges her to testify as a person under investigation by videoconference from her home in the United States.

€60 million in litigation

Shakira's problems with the Treasury go beyond criminal cases. He also has an appeal pending in the contentious-administrative chamber of the National High Court for the 60 million euros he paid to the Tax Agency for the taxation of the profits of his 2011 tour. This case was present in thenegotiations between his lawyers and the prosecution, although in the end it was not included in the agreement reached, since it corresponds to a jurisdiction other than the criminal one.

Despite this, the singer herself referred to this procedure in the statement released on Monday, indicating that "from substance to form, the 2011 case is nonsense; Not only because I wasn't even close to being a resident in 2011, but because I've been made to pay for all the working capital for my tour. They haven't taken into account the expenses I incurred and ended up paying for my tour expenses twice. There has been a kind of double taxation and I have been imposed disproportionate fines on profits that did not exist. To the point that I had to pay 60 million. And all because, in the middle of a tour of more than 120 concerts around the world, I made visits to Spain to see the person with whom I started a relationship, adding up to a total of 70 days between all the visits. 2011 was a year in which I had no ties to Spain. I was coming out of a long relationship of more than ten years with my ex-partner, Antonio de la Rúa, with whom I lived in the Bahamas; and he came to Spain sporadically. And, as if that were not enough, the 2011 case has been processed anomalously and outside the deadlines dictated by law, so it should be annulled."

The advisors indicate that at that time the singer hired specialists from the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, and "that she always did everything she was told to do and paid all the debt even before the filing of the lawsuit. Following instructions from her professionals, the artist "declared her residency since 2015 in Spain and, from then until her recent return to Miami, she paid all her taxes in this country. What the Treasury disputes with Shakira are the first years of courtship with her ex-partner; like 2011, where she only spent 70 days in Spain, without having any bond in this country other than a few days of romance."

For this reason, Shakira "trusts in the adequate discernment of the justice authorities and that they will know how to separate the way in which this criminal case has ended, without it conditioning or affecting in the least the case of 2011, since it is a watertight legal compartment and a completely different process for all intents and purposes." Regarding his agreement on Monday in the Court of Barcelona, he made it clear that he has "personal, emotional and sentimental reasons that have nothing to do with the legal", although regarding this pact he hangs the shadow of his other legal problems that he still has to resolve before definitively closing his life in Spain despite already residing in Miami.

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