Lauryn Hill pays tax debt ahead of sentence
NEWARK, New Jersey: Hip hop artist Lauryn Hill, on the eve of her scheduled sentencing on federal tax evasion charges, has paid off the balance of more than US$ 900,000 she owed in back taxes and penalties, her attorney said on Sunday.
The Grammy-winning musician is scheduled for sentencing on Monday in US District Court in Newark, New Jersey on three charges she failed to file tax returns on more than US$ 1.8 million between 2005 and 2007.
She faces up to a year in jail for each charge, but the final sentence is expected to be adjusted based on her repayment of the money, her attorney said.
She owed at least US$ 504,000 in federal back taxes as well as state taxes and penalties that brought the estimated total to more than US$ 900,000.
“Ms Hill has not only now fully paid prior to sentencing her taxes, which are part of her criminal restitution, but she has additionally fully paid her federal and state personal taxes for the entire period under examination through 2009,” her attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in an email.
In April, Hill was admonished by US Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo for failing to make promised payments on her unpaid taxes ahead of her sentencing.
She had expected to raise the money from a new recording contract last fall but only paid $ 50,000 when she did not complete the expected tracks, her attorney said.
Her attorney said last month that Hill lined up a loan secured by two pieces of real estate. He said on Sunday that the tax repayment came from a combination of sources but did not include funds from any new record sales.
A new single by Hill, her first in several years, called ‘Neurotic Society’, was posted on iTunes on Friday.
She posted a link to the song on the social media site Tumblr on Saturday, writing, “Here is a link to a piece that I was ‘required’ to
release
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.
Lauryn Hill
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,” she wrote.
Hill’s 1998 solo album ‘ The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ won the singer, a former member of the Fugees, five Grammy awards.
Hill is from South Orange, New Jersey.
A spokeswoman for US Attorney Paul Fishman declined to comment on the case, as did a spokesman for the Internal Revenue
Service. — Reuters