After years of back-and-forth with Spanish authorities, Latin American superstar Shakira has been ordered to stand trial in a tax-fraud case.
The Colombian singer could face an eight-year jail term if convicted, following accusations that she failed to pay €14.5 million (£13 million) in tax income between 2012 and 2014.
Representatives for the 45-year-old pop star have denied any wrongdoing and say she has always met all her tax obligations.
A Spanish judge approved a trial on charges of tax fraud on Tuesday (September 27). The date for the trial is yet to be set.
Shakira has made a major name for herself during her past three decades in the music industry with her Latin-pop hits.
The Colombian musician has been making waves on the Latin music charts since 1996, but didn’t make her way onto the US charts until 2001 with her hit song, Whenever-Wherever. She didn't have her first US number-one single until 2006, with the forever famous Hips Don’t Lie.
The singer hasn’t released an album since 2017’s El Dorado but she did release the single Me Gusta at the start of 2020, which led fans to believe that a new album was on the horizon.
Over the years, the pop star has toured the world and won three Grammys and 13 Latin Grammy Awards. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She was a judge on seasons four and six of The Voice in 2013 and 2014, where she earned a rumored $12 million salary.
So how much is the She Wolf singer worth - and why is she embroiled in a tax-fraud row?
What is Shakira’s net worth?
Shakira is reportedly worth $300 million. She made her fortune mostly through record sales and touring, but she also brought in a good amount of money through working as a judge on The Voice throughout seasons four and six.
The singer has brought in at least $2 million for each of her album releases. The most lucrative of her albums was her 2005 release, Oral Fixations Vol 1 & 2, which earned her a reported $8.7 million.
Why is she embroiled in a tax-fraud row?
Spanish prosecutors are accusing Shakira of failing to pay €14.5m (£1 million) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014.
At the centre of the case is Shakira’s residency status between 2012 and 2014, when prosecutors alleged that she was living in Spain but listing her official residence elsewhere.
Under Spanish law, people who spend more than six months in the country are considered residents for tax purposes. But Shakira says Spain was not where she was mainly living at the time.
Prosecutors allege she was mostly living in Spain even though her official residence was in the Bahamas. In July, they issued a document which claimed that she bought a house in Barcelona in 2012, which became a family home for her and her then-partner, Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué.
Her lawyers have said that, up until 2014, most of her income came from international tours and she spent long chunks of time outside Spain.
“The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It’s clear they wanted to go after that money, no matter what”, Shakira said recently, in an interview with Elle magazine.
She declared Spain to be her place of residence for tax purposes in 2015. She said she has paid €17.2m in tax and has no outstanding debts.
Where does Shakira own homes?
The Grammy winner currently lives in Barcelona with her family. Their Barcelona home is in the Avenida Pearson neighborhood and was purchased for $5.5 million in 2015.
She bought her Miami home for $3.38 million in 2001 and put it on the market in 2018 for $12 million. The gated home in Miami Beach sits on Biscayne Bay and has six bedrooms, a home gym, and even a hookah lounge.
The singer also teamed up with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Spanish musician Alejandro Sanz to purchase Bonds Cay, a 500-acre island in the Bahamas. The island set the group back by $15 million in 2011 and was purchased with the plan to make it into a boutique luxury getaway for their fellow celebrities. They also planned on making it into an artists' retreat with artists-in-residence. However, this hasn’t happened and the island is now reportedly up for sale.
How much does Shakira make from her perfume brand?
In 2010, Shakira launched her first fragrance after signing a deal with Puig to create a line of beauty and personal-care products. Her fragrances are sold under the name S by Shakira.
The singer was nominated during the FiFi Awards in 2011, an annual event sponsored by the Fragrance Foundation, honoring the fragrance industry's creative achievements.
S by Shakira brought in $35 to $45 million in its first year of sales.
She released a second fragrance in 2011, called S by Shakira Eau Florale, and followed that up in 2013 with the limited-edition perfume S by Shakira Aquamarine.
Shakira also has released other perfumes with Puig, including Elixir in 2013, and Dream and Dance in 2016.
What charities does Shakira support?
At the very beginning of Shakira's career, in 1997, she founded the Colombian charity The Barefoot Foundation.
The Barefoot Foundation works to ensure that every Colombian child can receive a quality education, and targets displaced and vulnerable communities by addressing their unique needs.
Through her work with this foundation, Shakira has helped build five schools in Colombia and made sure more than 4,000 children were well fed and properly educated.
