Spain’s national court announced on Monday that it had acquitted Shakira of tax fraud in a case more than a decade old, and ordered the country’s tax authorities to repay her tens of millions of dollars.
The ruling is part of the Colombian pop star’s yearslong legal battle with the Spanish authorities. Upholding an appeal she filed, it orders the state to return 55 million euros (about $64 million) plus interest to the singer. The court ruled in April but documents were released on Monday.
At the heart of the case were allegations that Shakira, 49, had been a resident of Spain in 2011 and therefore owed taxes to the Spanish government that year. Spain’s national court said that hadn’t been proven.
To be considered a tax resident in Spain, a person has to spend more than 183 days of the year in the country, have their main economic activities based there or have a spouse or children living there.
The court said in its statement that Shakira had been in Spain for 163 days in 2011. Spain’s tax authorities failed to prove “that the singer had the core of her economic interests in Spain and family relationships with residents in our country” during that year, according to the court.
José Luis Prada, Shakira’s lawyer, said in a statement that the ruling “represents a significant personal and reputational vindication for Shakira after more than eight years of litigation.”
The ruling announced Monday applies only to 2011. In a separate case, prosecutors had accused Shakira — whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll — of six counts of tax fraud, charging that she had failed to pay €14.5 million in income taxes to the Spanish government from 2012 to 2014.
In that case, prosecutors had sought an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of more than €23 million.
In November 2023, just before a trial was set to begin in Barcelona, Shakira reached a deal with Spanish prosecutors under which she agreed to receive a three-year suspended sentence and pay a fine of €7 million.
Shakira has repeatedly denied the accusations and said that she was not living in Spain during those years.
In a statement on Monday, the singer said that the ruling ended her fight with the Spanish tax authorities and that she had relocated to Miami. She said that she had been made an example of in order “to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers.”
“For nearly a decade, I have been treated as guilty,” she said, adding: “Today, that narrative falls apart.”
According to court documents, prosecutors said that Shakira had bought a house in Barcelona in 2012 that became a primary home for her along with her former partner, the soccer star Gerard Piqué, and their son.
But the court found that in 2011 “there was no marital bond” between Shakira and a Spanish resident, nor were her children residing in Spain, according to the statement on Monday.
Shakira and Mr. Piqué announced their separation in 2022.
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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