Shakira says all the money she earned in Spain was withheld by the Tax Agency

After being investigated for suspected tax fraud in Spain, Colombian singer Shakira, 47, reveals in an open letter published by El País that all of her assets acquired during her time in Spain were retained by the Tax Agency.

“Everything I earned in those years was retained by the Spanish state. The state retained an amount greater than my total income in those years. It may seem incomprehensible, but for me the decade in Spain was financially lost,” he said.

In 2023, she made a deal and pleaded guilty to tax fraud in order to pay a million-dollar fine in exchange for avoiding a trial for tax evasion that was around 14.5 million euros.

According to her, the Spanish Tax Agency, which she compared to the Inquisition, is “a state institution that seemed more interested in publicly burning me at the stake than in listening to my reasons.”

In the report, Shakira also says that she was a victim of sexism, because if it were an American man who fell in love with a Spanish woman and visited her regularly, “it is hard to believe that the Tax Agency would have considered that he had the intention of settling” in the country.

The artist has always denied having lived in Spain for more days than the legal limit before 2015. Her relationship with former player Gerard Piqué began in 2011, when she was playing for Barcelona. The two separated in 2022.

“I made the decisions I made to protect my children, to be by their side and to move on with my life,” he said.