Shakira could recover €60 million from Spain

After years of legal fights, court hearings and endless headlines in Spain, Shakira has finally scored a major victory against the Spanish tax authorities.

Spain’s National Court has ruled that the Colombian singer did not commit tax fraud linked to her 2011 world tour and that she was not officially living in Spain during the period being investigated. The decision means the tax agency may now have to return around €60 million that had been claimed from the artist, along with interest and legal costs.

For Shakira, it is the end of another exhausting chapter that followed her for years both in courtrooms and across front pages.

And in Spain, where celebrity tax cases tend to attract enormous attention, the ruling is already generating huge debate.

The entire case came down to one question: was Shakira really living in Spain?

That was the central issue from the beginning. Back in 2011, Shakira was constantly travelling around the world for a massive international tour involving more than 100 concerts across 37 countries. According to her legal team, she did not have an official home in Spain at the time, did not yet have children there and did not run her business operations from the country either.

Spanish tax authorities believed otherwise.

Under Spanish law, a person generally becomes a tax resident if they spend more than 183 days per year physically present in Spain. Hacienda argued that Shakira had effectively established residency and therefore owed taxes linked to earnings from the tour.

But according to the National Court, the numbers simply did not support that argument.

Judges stated that even the tax agency’s own calculations only placed the singer at around 163 days in Spain during the relevant period. Shakira herself reportedly acknowledged spending closer to 143 days in the country that year.

Either way, both figures remained below the legal threshold.

The ruling also rejected attempts to include what Spanish authorities described as ‘sporadic absences’ to increase the number of days attributed to her stay in Spain.

According to the court, there was not enough evidence proving Spain had become the centre of Shakira’s economic activity at the time.

In fact, judges concluded that most of her professional structure and business operations remained based abroad.

The court ruling could now force Hacienda to return millions

The financial consequences are enormous. Spanish reports say the tax agency may now have to return the €60 million linked to the dispute, together with accumulated interest and the singer’s legal costs after years of proceedings.

One part of the ruling especially caught attention among legal observers in Spain.

The National Court reportedly ordered the tax administration to cover legal costs, something that does not happen automatically in these kinds of cases. In practice, it often suggests judges considered parts of the case insufficiently justified.

The decision can still be appealed before Spain’s Supreme Court, but for now the ruling represents one of the biggest legal victories Shakira has had since her long running tax problems in Spain began making headlines.

For years, the singer became one of the country’s most visible examples of Hacienda pursuing internationally famous public figures over tax residency disputes.

Every hearing, agreement and investigation linked to her name generated huge media coverage both in Spain and abroad.

The situation became even more high profile because of Shakira’s relationship at the time with former Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué.

The couple’s life in Spain kept the singer constantly in the public eye, making the legal battle impossible to separate from celebrity coverage.

Shakira says the case affected her health and reputation

After the ruling became public, Shakira released a strongly worded statement expressing relief and frustration after years of legal pressure.

The singer said she endured years of public accusations, reputational damage and emotional strain while insisting there had never been any fraud.

“After more than eight years enduring brutal public exposure, campaigns designed to destroy my reputation and sleepless nights that affected my health and my family’s wellbeing, the National Court has finally put things in their place,” she said in comments published by Spanish magazine Diez Minutos.

She also accused authorities of using her public image to send a warning message to other taxpayers.

According to Shakira, every stage of the process was leaked, amplified and distorted publicly in ways that caused major personal damage.

Her comments are already resonating with many people in Spain who feel tax investigations can sometimes become highly aggressive, especially in high profile cases.

At the same time, the ruling is likely to reopen wider discussions about how Spain handles tax residency disputes involving wealthy international figures whose work and lives are spread across several countries.

For now though, one thing is certain. After nearly a decade of legal battles, one of Spain’s most famous tax cases has ended with a court firmly siding with Shakira.