Shakira Celebrates €55M Tax Win with Rihanna Song

 fired a parting shot at the Spanish government on Monday evening after an exhaustive tax-fraud case ended with the Colombian star winning an enormous €55million refund.

The singer has been cleared of alleged fraud relating to a 2011 tax return following a lengthy legal dispute with Spanish authorities that began in 2023. 

She will now be awarded a €55million refund and celebrated the victory by sharing one of 's best known lyrics alongside a series of new photos on social media. 

Taking to Instagram, Shakira, 49, accompanied her latest posts with a snippet from the Bajan singer's 2015 single, B***h Better Have My Money - a less than subtle reference to her incoming refund - while . 

Shakira had previously confessed to six tax fraud crimes at a Barcelona courthouse in 2023, . 

She admitted to wrongdoing for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 on the first day of a scheduled trial as part of a plea bargain deal, despite accusing the Spanish Treasury of 'publicly burning her at the stake' like a witch during the Inquisition in a subsequent no-holds-barred attack from her new home in Miami.

But she celebrated victory over Madrid tax chiefs on Monday over her 2011 tax return.

The Audiencia Nacional Court in Madrid confirmed it had sided with the singer as it said authorities had been unable to prove she had spent the minimum 183 days in Spain in 2011 that would have made her liable to pay tax there for that year. 

It said in a statement: 'The administration has not proven the singer stayed in Spain for more than 183 days in 2011.

'On the contrary, the ruling judges understand that Shakira's stay in Spain that the singer had her centre of economic interests in Spain or family ties with residents in the country.'

The sentence said it was 'irrelevant' that the Bahamas, where the singer was officially a tax resident in 2011, was a tax haven at the time.

It said: 'The essential point the administration had to prove was whether the appellant was a tax resident in Spain.'

The artist, who moved to Miami in 2023 with her two children following her split from former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, said on Monday: 'After more than eight years enduring brutal public accusations, orchestrated campaigns to destroy my reputation, and entire sleepless nights that ended up affecting my health and my family's well-being, the Audiencia Nacional court has finally set the record straight.

'There was never any fraud, and the Administration itself was never able to prove otherwise, simply because it was not true.

'Even so, for almost a decade, I was treated as guilty, every step of the process was leaked, distorted, and amplified, and my name and public profile were used to send a threatening message to other taxpayers.'

Her lawyer, Jose Luis Prada added: 'This ruling comes after an eight-year ordeal that has taken an unacceptable emotional toll on my client and reflects a lax administrative practice.

'Shakira has had the strength and resources to see this through to the end, but this modus operandi suffocates many anonymous taxpayers who do not have the resources to defend themselves. 

'For that reason, it is an immense relief and a profound source of pride to witness the rigor and independence of our courts, and it comforts us to see that, in the face of unacceptable administrative positions, we can trust in a justice system that truly works and ensures the rule of law prevails.'

Shakira was on a world tour in 2011 and according to her representatives .

They said in a statement today: 'She didn't have a house in Spain, or children, nor did she ever have her business centre in that country.

'Even so the Tax Agency pursued her and forced her to pay tax for her total earnings from that tour without taking into account her expenditure, leading to huge losses and an unfair and unfounded persecution which had terrible consequences for her.'

Shakira's former lawyer famously claimed, after she , that she would have saved herself millions if she had fallen in love with former Real Madrid star Sergio Ramos instead of Gerard Pique.

Pau Molins said the quirks of the Spanish tax system meant her 11-year romance with the retired Barcelona footballer led to her facing six tax fraud charges instead of three.

He defended his arguments, made on a radio station, by pointing out that residents in Madrid do not pay wealth tax unlike those living in Catalonia.