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Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Three Months In Prison For Tax Evasion

DAVID JOHNSON · Tuesday, May 7th 2013 at 12:59PM · 4632 views

Grammy-winning singer/rapper Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months in federal prison for failing to pay taxes on nearly $2 million in income.

The ruling also requires the 37-year old entertainer to complete an additional three months under house arrest, and nine months of supervised release. She also has to pay a $60,000 fine. Her sentencing will begin on July 8th, and she will likely serve her time in the state of New Jersey where she resides.

Hill pleaded guilty last summer to three misdemeanor counts of tax evasion, admitting that she intentionally failed to file tax returns in 2005-2007 because she had withdrawn from society and was not working as an artist. She faced a potential prison sentence of one year for each of the three counts, but her attorney sought probation in the case.

�I needed to be able to earn so I could pay my taxes, without compromising the health and welfare of my children, and I was being denied that,� Hill said.

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Comments (4)

Cynthia Merrill Artis Tuesday, May 7th 2013 at 1:59PM

I just read the story....
she's coming out with a new album to help her pay off her taxes....

DAVID JOHNSON Tuesday, May 7th 2013 at 2:08PM

She is to report to prison on July 8, The A.P. reported. The judge also sentenced her to an additional three months of home confinement after her release.

On Sunday, Ms. Hill�s attorney said she had paid about $970,000 to satisfy her unpaid state and federal tax bills, as well as penalties. That payment came on the eve of the singer�s sentencing, nearly two weeks after United States Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo had scolded her in court for being slow to square her accounts with the government.

�Ms. Hill has not only now fully paid, prior to sentencing, her taxes, which are part of her criminal restitution, but she has additionally fully paid her federal and state personal taxes for the entire period under examination,� her attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in an e-mail sent to Reuters.

Ms. Hill recently announced on her Tumblr blog that she had signed a new record deal and was writing new material. Last week, she released one of her new songs � �Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix).�

Ms. Hill started out with the Fugees and became a critical darling after her 1998 solo album, which won the Grammy award for album of the year. Then she largely disappeared from view, putting out only two albums in the last 15 years � �MTV Unplugged No. 2.0″ in 2002 and �Khulami Phase� in 2010.

Shortly after her arrest last year, Ms. Hill said in a blog post she had dropped out of the music business to shield herself and her children from society, and she portrayed her decision to stop paying taxes as part of that effort. �I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, s*xism and ageism that I was surrounded by,� she wrote.