Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Three Months in Jail for Unpaid Taxes
Rapper-singer pleaded guilty to tax evasion last year
Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months in prison for failing to pay taxes on approximately $1.8 million in earnings. She received her ruling in federal court in Newark, New Jersey.
Hill received the one-year maximum sentence for her three counts of tax evasion, and told the judge that she always meant to pay the taxes but was unable to during her hiatus from the industry, reports New York Daily News. Her attorney said that Hill had already paid approximately $970,000 in what was owed on state and federal levels. In 2012, Hill pleaded guilty to tax evasion on $1.8 million in income between 2005 and 2007. She promised to pay $554,000 before a sentencing hearing, when a federal judge said she had only paid $50,000.
Hill was also sentenced to three months of home confinement, though her attorney argued for probation instead. She has not commented yet on whether she will report to prison. In April, she posted a note on Tumblr announcing that she’d signed a new record deal and alleged to a “10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors.”