A Spanish national high court has acquitted Colombian singer Shakira of tax fraud and ordered the country's tax authority to repay approximately €55 million — plus interest, bringing the total to around €60 million — after ruling that the money had been improperly collected. The case centred on whether Shakira was a legal tax resident of Spain during the 2011 fiscal year, a status that under Spanish law requires spending at least 183 days in the country. The court found that authorities could only document 163 days — 20 days short of the threshold — and that the tax agency had therefore failed to meet the burden of proof.

The repayment covers roughly €24 million in income tax and nearly €25 million in fines that authorities had imposed for what they described as a "very serious" infringement. The court ruled those fines unlawful, since they rested on an assumption of residency that was never substantiated. Spain's tax agency has said it will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, and that no payment will be made to the singer until a final judgment is issued.

Shakira, who is 49 and known globally for hits including Hips Don't Lie, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), and Whenever, Wherever, said the court had "finally set the record straight" after eight years of what she described as "brutal public targeting, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and sleepless nights" that affected both her health and her family. She also accused the tax authority of leaking details of the proceedings and using her public profile to send "a threatening message to other taxpayers."

The 2011 case is one of several tax disputes Shakira has faced in Spain, where she lived for several years with former Barcelona and Spanish national football player Gerard Piqué. In 2023, she reached a settlement with prosecutors in Barcelona over a separate case covering the tax years 2012–2014, in which she accepted six charges and paid a €7.5 million fine — roughly half of what had originally been demanded — rather than face a trial that could have resulted in an eight-year prison sentence. A further investigation into her 2018 tax payments was reportedly dropped in 2024 due to a lack of evidence. The latest ruling does not affect any of those separate proceedings.

The verdict arrives at a high-profile moment for the singer, who is scheduled to conclude her Women Don't Cry Anymore world tour with a residency in Madrid in September. She was also announced last week as a performer alongside Madonna and K-pop group BTS at the half-time show of this summer's Fifa Men's World Cup final. Earlier this month, an estimated two million people attended a free concert she gave on the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.