Shakira turned heads in a Dior bustier as she arrived at Madrid airport, four months after winning a €55million tax refund from the Spanish government. The Colombian star, 49, was given a huge welcome, greeted by Spanish musicians and dancers on arrival.
She wore a strapless pink and blue corset with matching low-rise skinny trousers, towering pink heels and bold sunglasses. Shakira is in Spain to perform for the first time in eight years, ahead of a 12-night European residency at the Estadio Shakira, built inside the Iberdrola Music space in Villaverde, Madrid, opening on September 18. She will perform her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour for more than 50,000 fans a night, concluding on October 11.
The tax-fraud case
The arrival comes after Shakira fired a parting shot at the Spanish government once an exhaustive tax-fraud case ended with her winning a €55million refund. She had been cleared of alleged fraud relating to a 2011 tax return, following a legal dispute with Spanish authorities that began in 2023.
She celebrated the victory earlier this year by posting a snippet of Rihanna's 2015 single Bitch Better Have My Money on Instagram, alongside photos of herself in a distinctive multi-print co-ord, a pointed reference to her incoming payout.
Shakira had previously confessed to six tax fraud crimes at a Barcelona courthouse in 2023, accepting a suspended three-year prison sentence and a €7.3million fine, admitting wrongdoing for 2012, 2013 and 2014 as part of a plea bargain. She later accused the Spanish Treasury of "publicly burning her at the stake" like the Inquisition, speaking from her new home in Miami.
Court sides with the singer
In May, the Audiencia Nacional Court in Madrid ruled in Shakira's favour over her 2011 tax return, finding that authorities had failed to prove she had spent the minimum 183 days in Spain that year needed to make her liable for tax there. The court said her stay amounted to 163 days, and that the administration could not prove Spain was the centre of her economic interests or that she had family ties there. It added that it was "irrelevant" that the Bahamas, where she was officially tax resident in 2011, was a tax haven at the time.
Shakira, who moved to Miami in 2023 with her two children after splitting from former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, said the court had "finally set the record straight" after more than eight years of "brutal public accusations" and "orchestrated campaigns" that affected her health and her family's wellbeing. She said there was never any fraud and that the administration was never able to prove otherwise.
Her lawyer, Jose Luis Prada, called it an eight-year ordeal reflecting "lax administrative practice," adding that Shakira had the resources to fight the case but that many other taxpayers do not. Her representatives said in a statement that she had performed 120 concerts in 37 countries during her 2011 world tour, had no house, children or business centre in Spain that year, and that the Tax Agency had pursued her regardless.
The Ramos remark
Shakira's former lawyer, Pau Molins, previously claimed on a Catalan radio station that she would have saved money had she fallen for former Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos instead of Pique, pointing out that Madrid residents do not pay wealth tax, unlike those in Catalonia. He said her relationship with Pique had "cost her €120 million."
Three of the six crimes Shakira admitted to in her plea deal related to evasion of wealth tax, levied on residents' worldwide net assets, for 2012 and 2014; the other three related to income tax evasion. Molins said he had wanted to take the case to trial, believing it winnable, but respected Shakira's decision to settle. He said determining tax residency for touring artists is "very difficult," noting she visited 74 countries in 2011 alone.
Spanish residency rules
Under Spanish law, the tax year runs from January to December, and residents pay tax on worldwide income. Anyone who spends more than 183 days in Spain in a calendar year is considered a resident for tax purposes.
Shakira, full name Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, separated from Antonio de la Rua, son of a former Argentine president, in August 2010 before starting a relationship with Pique in 2011. The Spanish Tax Technicians Association, known as Gestha, disputed the size of her payout, saying it was closer to £30million rather than the £50million reported, arguing earlier estimates wrongly included a fine and interest that no longer applied. The union said Spanish tax regulations are among the most protective in the region and denied the Tax Agency had acted in bad faith.
