Tax fraud is not something any right-thinking person would want to be associated with, but then life happens and people find themselves accused of tax fraud and have to clear that, one way or the other.
This is the reality of Colombian singer Shakira, who recently had trouble with the Spanish tax authorities. The tax authorities had filed a suit against her, claiming that she owed 14.5 million euros ($15.7 million) on income earned between 2012 and 2014.
She had listed the Bahamas as her residence during that period. However, according to prosecutors, in the same period, she had lived most of her life in Spain. As a result, the prosecutors say, she is to pay income tax for the period she lived in the country.
The case was expected to go to trial on Monday. But it turned out that the songstress, whose birth name is Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, would rather the case not go to trial. She had reached a settlement with the tax authorities, according to multiple reports.
If the case had gone to trial and she had been found guilty, she risked up to eight years in jail, as well as fines totalling about €24.5 million. So the settlement seems like a win for her.
