MADRID (AP) — Months after reaching an agreement with Spanish tax authorities to pay a multimillion-dollar fine, Shakira has explained her reasons for agreeing to it.
In an exclusive letter published Tuesday by Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the Colombian star said he did it for his children while maintaining his innocence.
“I need you to know that I made the decisions I made to protect you, to be by your side and to get on with my life. Not out of cowardice or guilt,” the letter says.
Shakira reached an agreement with prosecutors in November in which she admitted that she had not paid the Spanish government 14.5 million euros (about 15.6 million dollars) in taxes between 2012 and 2014.
“The truth is that I paid much more than I should have. When I really had to do so, I declared myself a Spanish tax resident and if you add up all the amounts I paid voluntarily and the unjustified fines, you will see that the Spanish State kept a sum greater than my total earnings from those years,” he said.
“It may seem incomprehensible, but for me the Spanish decade was a financially lost decade,” he added. “Today my assets consist of what I earned before arriving in Spain and what I earned after leaving it. Everything I earned in those years was kept by the Spanish State.”
Shakira currently resides in Miami with her children Sasha and Milan, having moved from Spain following her breakup with former soccer player Gerard Piqué.
She is one of the biggest stars in Latin music, with songs such as “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” “Whenever, Wherever,” “La Tortura” and “She Wolf,” has sold more than 80 million albums and received three Grammys and 14 Latin Grammys.
