Pop singer Shakira says the tax fraud allegations made against her are ‘false’ and shared that she has paid ‘everything’ that was owed. For the unversed, the 45-year-old pop star is being accused of fraud and faces up to eight years in prison after allegedly racking up six
separate counts of tax fraud totalling over $13 million.
However, she has decided to fight the allegations and insisted that she did not spend more than 183 days in the country, which would lead the Spanish government to count her as an official citizen, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Shakira said, “I have to fight for what I believe; because these are false accusations. First of all, I didn’t spend 183 days per year at that time at all. I was busy fulfilling my professional commitments around the world.”
Shakira continued, “Second, I’ve paid everything they claimed I owed, even before they filed a lawsuit. So as of today, I owe zero to them. And finally, I was advised by one of the four biggest tax specialist firms in the world, PricewaterhouseCoopers, so I was confident that I was doing things correctly and transparently from day one.”
The Objection hitmaker, who is also facing a fine, went on to describe the claims made by the Spanish government as ‘fictitious’ and claimed that the authorities often do this to celebrities as well as the ‘regular taxpayer.’
Shakira told ELLE, “However, even without evidence to support these fictional claims, as they usually do, they’ve resorted to a salacious press campaign to try to sway people, and apply pressure in the media along with the threat of reputational damage in order to coerce settlement agreements.”
“It is well known that the Spanish tax authorities do this often not only with celebrities like me (or (Cristiano) Ronaldo, Neymar, (Xabi) Alonso, and many more), but it also happens unjustly to the regular taxpayer. It’s just their style. But I’m confident that I have enough proof to support my case and that justice will prevail in my favour.”
-IANS
