Lauryn Hill Heads to Prison for Tax Evasion

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be certain, except death and taxes.” This couldn’t be more true for Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill as she begins serving a three-month prison sentence in Danbury, Connecticut for failing to pay $1 million in taxes over the past decade.

Hill, who began singing with the Fugees as a teenager in the 1990s before releasing her multiplatinum 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” pleaded guilty last year in New Jersey to failing to pay taxes on $1.8 million earned 2005 to 2007. Unfortunately for Lauryn, her sentencing also took into account unpaid state and federal taxes in 2008 and 2009 that brought her total earnings to $2.3 million.

Hill attempted to excuse her tax evasion to her dropping out of the music business in order to protect herself and her children, all six of them. In spite of Hill’s charitable works, her family circumstances, and the fact that she paid back the taxes she owed, Hill will serve three months in prison followed by a year of supervision with the first three months spent under home confinement. Sandra Moser’s reasoning is that while she acknowledges Hill’s talent and charitable work, her explanation amounted to nothing more than, “a parade of excuses centering around her feeling put on” and doesn’t exempt her from her responsibilities.