Despite her best efforts to avoid jail time because of her failure to pay taxes over the years, including paying off her tax debt at the 25th hour, Lauryn Hill has just been sentenced to three months in prison, as well as three additional months of home confinement for tax evasion.
According to the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, while in court in Newark, New Jersey today, Hill tried to explain to the judge that she had every intention to pay those taxes, but wasn’t capable of doing so during a time when she separated herself from the music industry.
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.
And as we said, she made an attempt and successfully completed payment of those taxes to the state and federal government, with her attorney saying she paid more than $970,000.
However, it seems that it was a little too late. You could say that things could be a lot worse, especially since Hill was facing a maximum sentence of “one year each on three counts.” But as a mother of six children, prison is the last place she needs to be. Hill and her attorney were hoping just for probation, and she even plead guilty, but just like actor Wesley Snipes (who served more than two years in prison for failing to file federal income taxes and more and was just recently released), she will have to face jail time despite paying back what she owed.
We’ll keep you updated on when she’s expected to start her sentence when the information is released, and any statements she puts out about the case, possibly on her blog. This is such a shame for such an extraordinarily talented woman, and we wish her the best.
