According to Variety.com, after an eight-year court battle, Spanish court has ordered the country’s treasury to refund nearly $65 million to singer Shakira after ruling that the money was allegedly improperly collected. The country’s high court has acquitted the Colombian singer of alleged tax fraud and ordered the treasury to repay the money to her, with interest. In the ruling, the court said that tax authorities failed to prove Shakira allegedly had spent 183 days in Spain in 2011, effectively making her a resident and liable for personal income tax.
The court ruled instead that she had spent just 163 days in the country during that financial year. The country’s tax agency said it would make an appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court and allegedly would make no payment until the final ruling In a lengthy statement following the ruling, Shakira said: “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. There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself could never prove otherwise, simply because it wasn’t true.”
The artist adds: “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.Today, that narrative crumbles, and it does so with the full force of a court ruling. 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.”
Leave a Comment