Shakira’s lawyer, José Luis Prada, defended this Tuesday that the appeal filed by the Spanish Tax Agency to annul the sentence that urges the artist to return 60 million euros “will not prosper” because he is convinced that he is “right” and that the victory of the Colombian artist is “irreversible”.
“I think that the appeal will not prosper, we are right. The Audiencia Nacional itself, in resolving this situation, has based itself on rulings of the Supreme Court, therefore we are very confident that it will be ratified,” said the lawyer in an interview with EFE.
“This is a great procedural victory, and everyone will continue to use their weapons, but I think it has a certain irreversible character,” added Shakira’s legal representative, after the Audiencia Nacional on Monday ruled in favor of the singer in her latest litigation in Spain and annulled the fine imposed for the taxation of the 2011 tax year.
According to the lawyer, the appeal that the Tax Agency has already advanced that it will file before the Supreme Court will not be able to paralyze the refund of the guarantees and the appeal of costs but, in any case, the firm will request a “provisional execution” of the sentence to counteract the possible precautionary measures that may be requested by the State Attorney’s Office.
“I am confident that it will be possible to obtain the return of that amount and not postpone it until the final decision of the appeal,” said Prada, who said that they will respond to the appeal with arguments based, in large part, on the same precepts with which they have defended the artist until now.
Shakira and her victory over the IRS: Lawyer tells the truth
The Audiencia Nacional annuls in its ruling the settlements and penalties imposed on the singer.
The reason for this is that it considers that the Administration did not prove that the artist stayed in Spain for more than 183 days in 2011, as required by law when converting a taxpayer into a tax resident in the country.
“An extensive interpretation was made of what the law calls ‘sporadic absences’, a criterion designed for people who are resident in Spain and who leave, not to attract for the first time to the residence a person who was never a resident before, even less so when he or she is on an international tour,” Prada detailed.
It is for this very reason, the basis of the arguments presented before the Audiencia Nacional, that the lawyer is confident that the appeal will have no chance: “In the end it is a matter of common sense, it makes no sense to make this extensive interpretation of sporadic absences that leads to absurd situations”.
The lawyer clarified that, of the approximately 60 million that the Tax Agency will have to return to the singer, 27 million correspond to what the artist originally paid in, to which will be added the 9,200,000 euros of accumulated interest that this money generated up to the date of the sentence.
The rest corresponds to the bank guarantee with which the singer guaranteed the 33 million euro penalty imposed on her by the Tax Authorities, in addition to the costs of maintaining the guarantee.
An “unbalanced” system
Prada acknowledged that Shakira received the sentence with “great satisfaction and relief”, especially because it meant for her reputation a victory in the most significant case quantitatively and “more important” for her and her representative, who was always “convinced” that the appeal was “very well put together” and that she was right.
For the lawyer, the main “reflection” that emerges from this case is that there is an “imbalance” in the relationship between the Tax Agency and the taxpayers, which in his opinion invites to think about whether the legal system should be modified.
“There is a lack of equality of arms, it is unbalanced. We have a legal system where, in order to appeal, one must have the economic means to sustain the lawsuit,” the lawyer denounced, reported Agencia EFE.
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