Shakira is in line to receive more than €55 million (about $64 million U.S.) after a Spanish court ruled in her favor in a long-running dispute over her 2011 taxes. But Spanish tax authorities have indicated they will appeal the decision, which found they had failed to prove that the singer was a Spanish tax resident for 2011. That means Shakira, who Forbes calculates was the 6th highest paid musician in 2025, with earnings of $105 million, will likely have to wait for her money.

Shakira’s Residency Claims

Spain’s tax agency argued that Shakira’s relationship with then-FC Barcelona footballer Gerard Piqué helped tie her to Spain and that, as a result, she spent much of her time in the country.

In 2010, Shakira recorded the catchy “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. She met Piqué while filming the song's video (he retired from FC Barcelona in 2022). Shortly after, the pair publicly confirmed their relationship. Shakira gave birth to the couple’s first son, Milan, in Barcelona in 2013. At the time, news agencies reported that the baby “was born in Barcelona, Spain, where Shakira and soccer star Gerard Piqué currently reside.” Two years later, Piqué and Shakira announced the birth of another son, Sasha.

The children were largely raised in Barcelona, a fact Shakira appeared to acknowledge in a 2022 Instagram post where she wrote, “Me establecí en Barcelona para darle una estabilidad a mis hijos, la misma que ahora buscamos en otro rincón del mundo al lado de familia, amigos y el mar.” That translates loosely to, “I settled in Barcelona to give my children stability, the same we are now looking for in another corner of the world next to family, friends and the sea.”

Shakira’s tax residency was the central issue in the matter. Shakira had previously claimed tax residence in the tax-friendly Bahamas. According to Spanish authorities, she continued to claim Bahamian residency for tax purposes until 2015, when she changed her official residency to Spain.

Spanish tax authorities, however, claimed she was a resident of Spain, not the Bahamas, from 2011 through 2014.

Spanish Law & Residency

Under Spanish law, an individual generally may be treated as a Spanish tax resident if they spend more than 183 days in Spain during the calendar year, or if Spain is the main center of their economic interests. For the 2012 through 2014 tax years, the dispute focused on how much time Shakira spent in Spain and whether Spain—not the Bahamas—was her real tax home. Tax authorities claimed that her absences during those years were sporadic and that between 2012 and 2014, Shakira “had no physical presence for a single day” in the Bahamas.

As part of their efforts to establish residency, tax investigators followed the singer to places she frequented, including her hairdresser’s. They also tracked Shakira’s activity on social networks like Instagram, where she has over 95 million followers. In 2020, the Spanish newspaper El País published a reconstruction of her schedule based on the investigation. The schedule suggested the entertainer spent more than 200 days in Spain in each of 2012, 2013, and 2014. According to investigators, Shakira did not visit her home in the Bahamas for a single day during that period.

Shakira’s 2011 Win

For 2011, however, the court said Spanish authorities were able to prove only 163 days in Spain and could not show that “the main center or base” of Shakira’s activities or economic interests was directly or indirectly located there. Shakira had argued that she spent much of that year on the road, playing 120 concerts in 2011. As a result, the Treasury was ordered to reimburse the singer the tax paid, plus interest.

Spain’s tax agency has indicated it will appeal to the Supreme Court and that no payment will be made until a final ruling is issued.

2012-2014 Tax Years: Shakira’s 2023 Agreement

In 2018, Spanish criminal prosecutors accused Shakira of failing to pay €14.5 million in taxes on income earned from 2012-2014. She denied the accusations. However, in 2023, the singer reached an agreement with prosecutors for those years. The trial, which was expected to include more than 100 witnesses, was called off after only eight minutes.

As a result of the agreement, Shakira accepted a three-year suspended sentence, paid a €7.3 million fine, and paid an additional amount to avoid prison—not unusual in Spain for cases involving non-violent crimes.

2018 Tax Year: Charges Dropped in 2024

Shakira also faced tax evasion charges related to her 2018 income. In that case, Spanish authorities alleged that she used an offshore holding company to avoid paying €6.7 million (roughly $7.2 million) in income taxes for 2018. However, in May 2024, prosecutors moved to drop the case, citing insufficient evidence to proceed.

The Paradise Papers and the Panama Papers

Shakira’s offshore finances also attracted scrutiny. The singer was named in the 2017 Paradise Papers, a leak of more than 13.4 million confidential financial documents involving offshore investments.

She had also appeared in the Panama Papers, a separate leak tied to the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which closed in 2018.

Both of those leaks are separate from the Spanish residency disputes, and merely appearing in the leaked documents does not mean that the singer did anything wrong.

About Shakira

Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, was born in Colombia in 1977. Her debut album, Magia, hit the charts in 1990 when she was just 13 years old. Within a decade, she had sold millions of albums and became a household name. In 2025, Forbes named Shakira the sixth highest-paid musician, landing a spot between Coldplay and Drake, thanks largely to Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry) World Tour, which became the highest-grossing Latin music tour for a woman with $327.4 million in revenue.

The singer—perhaps more synonymous with soccer than any other pop star—made her World Cup debut in 2006, performing “Hips Don’t Lie,” during the closing ceremony in Germany. She subsequently appeared in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to sing the anthem, “La La La (Brazil).”

Shakira is scheduled to take the World Cup stage again in 2026. FIFA has announced that she will appear alongside Madonna and BTS as part of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show on July 19.

She and Burna Boy also released “Dai Dai,” the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Song. The video for the song has been viewed more than 3.5 million times on Instagram.

Could A Similar Residency Fight Happen In the U.S.?

Most countries—the U.S. included—have specific rules for determining residency.

If you are not a U.S. citizen, you can still be a U.S. resident for tax purposes if you meet either the green card test or the substantial presence test for the calendar year. The green card test generally applies when a noncitizen has been issued a Permanent Resident Card, Form I-551. The substantial presence test is based on physical presence: generally, at least 31 days in the U.S. during the current year and 183 counted days under a weighted three-year formula.

Many states also have residency requirements based on days present in the state.

Steps To Take To Protect Yourself

So how can you protect yourself? Start with the assumption that if your residency is ever questioned, you’ll need to show—not just tell—where you lived, worked, and spent your time. That means keeping records that establish both where you were physically present and where your life was centered.

Tax authorities may review obvious documents, such as utility bills, driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations, and voter registration records. But they may also look at the everyday trail you leave behind. Residency disputes often hinge on those ordinary details. For me, they might include plant purchases and coffee receipts. For you, it may be toll records or gym check-ins. Whatever your records look like, make sure they tell the same story you do.

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