Colombian Singer, Shakira, appeared in a Spanish court on Thursday to answer tax avoidance charges.
The 42-year -old mother arrived at the Esplugues de Llobregat court near Barcelona at about 10 am, using the court’s car park entrance to avoid the media.
The has been accused by Spanish tax authorities last December to have avoided paying €14.5m in taxes, the Guardian UK reports. However, the singer counters that she was was up-to-date with her taxes, had given her full cooperation to the investigation and had no outstanding debts with the tax authorities.
Prosecutors had argued she avoided taxes by claiming to live in the Bahamas when she was resident in Catalonia. Shakira changed residences in 2015 from the Bahamas to Spain, where she lives with her partner, the Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué, and their two sons.
But prosecutors allege she was already living in the Catalan capital between 2012 and 2014 and should have paid tax in Spain on her worldwide income for those years. They argue she was resident in Spain for most of the year, only travelling abroad for short periods.
In February, the Catalan newspaper El Periódico reported that the singer had paid the Spanish tax authorities €14.5m to settle the debt.
