Grammy Award Winner Lauryn Hill was sentenced yesterday to 3 months in a tiny 4×4 cell for tax evasion after satisfying 900k+ of the 1.8 million dollar tax debt to the IRS. Well slap me silly and call me Susan…..I didn’t see that coming, hell neither did Ms.Hill.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark, N.J. federal court also sentenced the famed rapper and actress to three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring after the prison term. Hill must also serve a year of supervised release and pay a $60,000 fine in addition to paying her tax debt to the IRS. There’s New Jersey’s taxpayer’s dollars being put to work, even after Hill paid $970,000 to satisfy the $1 million owed in taxes.
Hill told the judge she lives “very modestly” considering how much money her music — she has sold 16 million records — earned for other people.
“Someone did the math, and it came to around $600 million,” she said. “And I sit here before you trying to figure out how to pay a tax debt? If that’s not like enough to slavery, I don’t know.”
“This wasn’t a life of jet-setting glamour,” she said. “This was a life of sacrifice with very little time for myself and my children.”
“Although Hill pleaded guilty to charges specifically related to those tax years, her sentence also takes into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009 — when she also failed to file federal returns — along with her outstanding tax liability to the state of New Jersey, for a total income of approximately $2.3 million and total tax loss of approximately $1,006,517,” the prosecutor said.
Hill’s attorney, Nathan Hochman, did bring up an interesting thought in an interview with CNN:
“I think the government has let a number of celebrities off and never criminally prosecuted them, Willie Nelson being at least one example,” he said. “I think that the court took that into account as well. Ms. Hill did not get a slap on the wrist and let off with just paying a certain amount of money but has had to go through this entire criminal prosecution.”
Willie Nelson and Nicholas Cage, both of whom owe over $10 million in back taxes, got off with payment plans.
Hill is tentatively scheduled to begin her prison term July 8. It was not immediately clear where she would serve the sentence.
Mjj says, Hopefully through the appeal process, Ms. Hill will be able to get this sentenced overturned………..
The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.
Related articles
