Lauryn Hill is a rapper, singer, songwriter and also record producer. She got a number of awards and one of them was the Golden Note Award from American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 2015. She is also considered as one of the greatest rappers of all time and one of the most influential musicians of her generation as cited from Wikipedia. However, there was a moment where she was in jail for several months. Why did she go to jail?
The Reason Why Lauryn Hill Go to Jail
Lauryn Hill was sentenced for three months in prison and three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring because she did not report more than $2.3 million in income. She intentionally did not file tax returns for five years. U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo imposed the sentence in Newark federal court. According to the United States Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey site, previously, Hill pleaded guilty to an information that charged her with three counts of failing to file tax returns with the IRS.
As also explained on the same site, Hill was not only an entertainer, but she also owned and operated four sub-chapter S corporations, and her main source of income was royalties that she got from the recording and film industries. Hill got more than $1.8 million in income during 2005, 2006, and 2007 from those sources. However, during those years, she did not file her tax returns.
Furthermore, on the site it is explained that the sentence that she received took into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009, when she failed to file federal returns and also her tax liability to the state of New Jersey, for a total income of around $2.3 million and total tax loss of around $1,006,517.
Hill was not only sentenced in prison and got home confinement, but she also served a year of supervised release. She was also sentenced by Judge Arleo to pay a $60,000 fine beside her restitution to the IRS. Hill was also ordered by Judge Arleo to fully cooperate with the IRS. Those included payment of outstanding interest and penalties on her tax obligations.
Cited from the Billboard site, Hill explained that she meant to eventually pay the taxes, but she could not do that when she dropped out of the music business. She said that she needed to earn so that she could pay her taxes without compromising the health and welfare of her children, and she was being denied that. Before she was sentenced, her lawyer said that she had paid more than $970,000 to fulfil the state and federal tax liabilities.
When Did She Release from Prison?
According to CNN, Lauryn Hill was released from a federal prison on Friday, October 4th, 2013. She was released from a low-security all-female facility in Danbury, Connecticut. Nathan Hochman, her lawyer, said that she went out several days earlier than was planned because of various factors including good behavior.
She released a new song called “Consumerism” at the same time of her release from prison. The song highlights various -isms, such as narcissism and skepticism.
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