According to legal sources this Wednesday, in their additional report on the case, the Spanish Treasury technicians contradict the arguments of the defense of the Colombian singer, who wields her concert and television schedule to try to show that she remained less than 184 days in Spain and, therefore, had no obligation to pay taxes in this country.
Faced with this situation, the head of the Court of Instruction number two of Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona, northeast of Spain) summoned the Treasury technicians and the defense experts to testify for next July 8 to present their thesis on what were Shakira’s tax obligations, according to the Spanish newspaper “El Periódico de Catalunya”.
In January of last year, two actuaries of the Tax Agency already declared before the investigating judge and reaffirmed themselves in the report that they once sent to the Prosecutor’s Office to communicate that the artist had been evading the payment of IRPF (Income Tax of Natural Persons) between the years 2012 and 2014.
As a result of the Treasury report, the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office filed in December 2018 a complaint against the singer and her tax advisor in the United States, accusing them of six crimes against the Public Treasury for devising a “plan” not to pay even the Personal income tax or wealth tax, using a network of companies based in tax havens that were formally the holders of the income that Shakira received.
Specifically, the public prosecutor maintains that the singer “channeled the capital movements generated by her professional activity” – her performances or participation in the US program “The Voice” or the marketing of perfumes with her name – through companies domiciled in British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Malta, Panama and Luxembourg.