Pictured: Singer Shakira is the latest star revealed to use abroad tax havens
Shakira has been dragged into the Paradise Papers row after it was revealed she transferred £30million in musical rights to an offshore firm in Malta.
The Colombian-born singer is the latest celebrity revealed to use abroad tax havens after 1.34million papers were leaked to the German press this week.
Malta Tournesol Limited, the star’s company, is based on the Mediterranean island of Malta, known for its tax incentives.
On the papers, Shakira is listed as a Bahamas resident, despite living Barcelona with her footballer boyfriend Gerard Pique.
Her lawyer was keen to stress all activity was legal and in accordance with laws.
Shakira’s lawyer Ezequiel Camerini told Spanish website El Confidential: ‘The Maltese company Tournesol Limited fulfils all legal requirements to operate as such. All of the corresponding information relative to this entity is public and transparent.’
While admitting that Shakira lives in Barcelona, the lawyer justified her residence in a tax haven explaining that ‘as an international artist she has resided at different locations throughout her professional career and, in every case, has fully met the laws of all the jurisdictions where she has resided.’
The website reported the company’s capital was just under £3million pounds but the associated share premium corresponding to the musical assets and trademarks had been valued at €31.6 million (£27.8 million).
El Confidential was one of the nearly 100 media organisations involved in sifting through information obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung following a share with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and U2 frontman Bono have all been named in the Paradise Papers, which have thrust the spotlight back on the tax affairs of the rich and powerful 18 months after the Panama Papers.
The disclosure of 13.4 million documents, published on Monday, dramatically revealed the ties of major companies and political figures to secretive overseas arrangements.
The late Duke of Westminster (pictured, left, with his wife) passed on the bulk of his family’s estimated £9billion fortune to his son Hugh (right) after his death last year
It emerged today that the Duke of Westminster’s estimated £9.35 billion estate, which has been passed on between the generations, has included holdings in Bermuda and Panama.
The finances of James Sassoon, a Tory member of the House of Lords who is related to a famous war poet, have also come under scrutiny.
Until around 1999, the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor International Holdings Ltd had assets worth more than £600m with 42% of its shares held by screen companies in the tax havens .
Two offshore companies, incorporated in 1964 and 1977 respectively, held shares in GIHL, the paper reported, before Grosvenor bought them both out for £40million in 2007.
Questions were asked when it emerged Gerald Grosvenor, who died from a heart attack aged 64 in August last year, left a personal estate of £743.4 million, reduced to £616.4 million after debts and liabilities.
The rest of his estimated £9billion estate appears to have been in family trusts which were passed on to his only son Hugh, 26, now the 7th Duke of Westminster.
As with nearly all of those highlighted in the Paradise Papers, there is no suggestion that any rules were broken.