Shakira Compares Spanish Tax Office To ‘Inquisition’ and ‘Witch-hunt’
In a heartfelt and pointed letter published in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Shakira didn’t hold back. “In this small article, there is more truth about me than in everything that was published in 2023,” she declared, standing firm in her defense.
The Colombian singer, who has been in the spotlight not just for her music but also for her tumultuous personal life, revealed that she only admitted guilt last year to protect her children, not out of any genuine wrongdoing or fear.
“Some might wonder why I’m speaking out now. My first reason is my children. We’re living in a time marked by the arrogance of the State, but there’s a big difference between overpowering and reasoning, between intimidating and convincing. If they want us to trust institutions, they should show us that those institutions trust us. Burning a public figure at the stake every year, like it’s some kind of Inquisition, is not the way to restore lost prestige.” she wrote.
She also also said she wanted to explain things in her own time: “To my children, I want to leave the legacy of a woman who explained her reasons calmly and in her own time, when she felt it was necessary—not when she was forced to. I need them to know that the decisions I made were to protect them, to be by their side, and to move on with my life—not out of cowardice or guilt.”
Spain charges Shakira with tax evasion
The origins of this legal storm date back to 2011 when Shakira was frequently traveling to Spain to be with her then-partner, soccer star Gerard Piqué. According to Shakira, her visits were purely motivated by love, not by any intention to establish permanent residency—a claim the Spanish Tax Agency would later dispute. “If the singer had been an American man,” Shakira pointed out in her letter, “and had fallen in love with a Spanish woman and visited her regularly, I find it hard to believe that the Tax Agency would have considered that he had an intention to take root. There is a structural machismo that assumes a woman can only follow a man, even when it is not in her best interest.”
The controversy reached a boiling point in January 2018 when the Tax Agency accused Shakira of failing to pay taxes in Spain from 2012 to 2014, despite allegedly living there during that period. The agency claimed she owed €14.5 million (about $15.6 million) in unpaid taxes. In 2023, Shakira reached a settlement, admitting to the alleged crimes and agreeing to pay a fine of over €7 million (approximately $7.9 million). However, Shakira has always maintained her innocence, insisting that the agency’s narrative is a “childish and moralistic” fabrication designed to tarnish her reputation.
Shakira’s letter goes beyond defending herself—it’s a full-blown critique of the Spanish judicial and tax systems. She accused the Tax Agency of orchestrating a smear campaign, likening their actions to “publicly burning her at the stake” much like a witch during the Inquisition. According to Shakira, the agency’s true motive wasn’t to uphold the law, but to make an example out of her, using her as a “hunting trophy” to restore their credibility.
The singer didn’t mince words when she described the toll this legal battle has taken on her. Despite giving 120 concerts in 90 cities during the years in question, she claimed that her finances were drained by the Spanish state. “It may seem incomprehensible, but for me, the Spanish decade was a financially lost decade,” she wrote. “Today, my patrimony consists of what I earned before arriving in Spain and what I earned after leaving it. Everything I earned in those years went to the Spanish State.”
The Colombian also expressed a need to reclaim her narrative, stating, “I needed to make my defense to be able to get my life back, so that no one writes my story for me. I tell it to live,” she concluded.
Shakira has since left Barcelona for Miami, where she now lives with her two children after her split from Piqué in 2022. Although 2023 was a challenging year for the singer, marked by her separation and the ongoing tax fraud case, the chapter may finally be coming to a close. In May 2024, the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office requested that the accusations against Shakira for tax fraud in 2018 be dropped, citing insufficient evidence.
