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Celebrity

15th Dec 2018

Shakira has been charged with tax evasion

She's now facing trial.

Anna O'Rourke

Shakira has been charged with tax evasion

Shakira could soon be put on trial – she’s just been charged with tax evasion.

Prosecutors in Spain say that the 41-year-old avoided paying €14.5 million in tax there by claiming to live in the Bahamas.

Shakira officially changed her primary residence from the Bahamas to Spain in 2015, reports The Independent.

Authorities believe she was also living in Spain between 2012 and 2014, only travelling abroad for short periods, and so owes tax on her worldwide income there for those years.

Income tax rates in the Bahamas are among the lowest in the world.

Shakira lives in Barcelona with her partner, Gerard Piqué, and their two sons, five-year-old Milan and three-year-old Sasha.

Shakira has been charged with tax evasion

A judge in Spain will now have to determine whether there is enough evidence to take the singer, who is originally from Colombia, to trial.

A representative for Shakira said that she was not a resident of Spain at the time in question and that she was being used as a “scapegoat” to scare others into paying tax.

An investigation into her tax affairs was set up at the beginning of this year after she was one of the stars named in the Paradise Papers.

Bono, Madonna, Keira Knightly, Justin Timberlake and Nicole Kidman were also named in the leak.