By Carla B.
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Last year Grammy winning singer Lauryn Hill pleaded guilty to willfully failing to file income tax returns with the IRS. Federal prosecutors contend she didn’t pay taxes on more than $1.5 million earned in 2005, 2006 and 2007 from recording and film royalties.
Lauryn Hill - Getty Image
Today (May 6, 2013) the singer stood in federal court and calmly said, “I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me.”
Hill went on to say that the treatment she received while in the entertainment business led to her decision to leave it.
“There were veiled threats, there was blacklisting,” she said, without giving specifics. “I was told, ‘That’s how it goes, it comes with the territory.’ I came to be perceived as a cash cow and not a person. When people capitalize on a persona, they forget there is a person in there.”
Assistant US Attorney Sandra Moser acknowledged Hill’s creative talent and work on behalf of impoverished children but called Hill’s explanation for her actions “a parade of excuses centering around her feeling put upon” that don’t exempt her from her responsibilities.
“She wasn’t interested in all those years in paying what she owed,” Ms Moser told the judge.
At the time of her arrest last year, Hill wrote a criticism rejecting pop culture’s “climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism.”
“Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual,” Hill wrote. “I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities, but I did however put my safety, health and freedom and the freedom, safety and health of my family first over all other material concerns! I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.”
Hill is to report to prison by July 8. It’s not clear where she’ll serve her sentence. She didn’t comment after the sentencing.
She said in a recent post online that she has signed a recording contract with Sony, so I guess that post on being a cash cow was all for show. {shrugs}
“She is looking forward to putting her case behind her and getting back to her music and creating again,” attorney Nathan Hochman said.
Despite having paid more than $900,000 in the past several days, Hill still owes interest and penalties, the US attorney’s office said.
In addition to serving three months in prison, Hill must pay a $60,000 fine. After she is released from prison, she will be under parole supervision for a year, the first three months of which will be spent under home confinement.
The AP contributed to this report.
