In the end, simply paying the tax wasn’t enough.
Despite assurances to the court today that her outstanding tax liabilities had been paid in their entirety, Lauryn Hill was slapped with a three-month stint in prison for failing to file and pay taxes on time. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo who had previously postponed the sentencing for two weeks after learning that Hill had not yet made restitution.
While Hill faced a sentence range of between 24 to 36 months, her attorney asked for probation rather than prison as a nod to Hill’s six children who range in age from 1 to 15. Instead, she received a three-month prison term plus three months of house arrest. That sentence will be followed by nine months of supervised release.
In addition to the payment of taxes, interest, and penalty, Hill must cough up an additional $60,000 as a fine.
Hill took advantage of the opportunity to make a statement (although I’m sure her attorney was cringing in the corner), likening her situation to slavery. She told the judge:
I was put into a system I didn’t know the nature of. … I’m a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me… I sold 50 million units … now I’m up here paying a tax debt. If that’s not likened to slavery, I don’t know what is.
Hill pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion for failing to file tax returns for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. At the time of her plea, she posted on Tumblr that she had gone “underground” in order to live without “being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military-industrial complex with a completely different agenda.” She followed up on those statements in court today, saying, “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.”
To pay the bills, Hill signed a deal with Sony Records, a move that was met with mixed responses from her fans. While many of her fans were excited to hear that she would be making a new album, there was concern that a traditional record deal might result in an artistic compromise. Hill had previously been critical of the business side of the recording industry, arguing that it valued dollars more than artists. The first song attached to that deal, Neurotic Society, was released last week on iTunes, marked by a message on Hill’s Tumblr account:
Here is a link to a piece that I was ‘required’ to release immediately, by virtue of the impending legal deadline. I love being able to reach people directly, but in an ideal scenario, I would not have to rush the release of new music… but the message is still there. In light of Wednesday’s tragic loss (of former label mate Chris Kelly), I am even more pressed to YELL this to a multitude that may not understand the cost of allowing today’s unhealthy paradigms to remain unchecked!
Hill’s prison sentence is slated to begin on July 8.
