Musician Lauryn Hill reported to a federal prison in Connecticut on Monday to serve out her three-month sentence in the $1.8 million tax evasion case she pleaded guilty to last summer.
Hill, 38, an eight-time Grammy-winning R&B artist, was
charged last year with three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007.
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The three-month sentence "also takes into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009 — when she also failed to file federal returns — along with her outstanding tax liability to the state of New Jersey, for a total income of approximately $2.3 million and total tax loss of approximately $1,006,517," according to the prosecutor.
During sentencing in May, Hill likened her financial situation to slavery.
"I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of ... I'm a child of former slaves," Hill said. "I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me. I sold 50 million units ... now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is."
Hill said she could not pay her taxes because she left the music business and didn’t have the money. Her last album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," dropped in 1998.
"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," Hill, a mother of six, reportedly said in court. She had five of her children with Rohan Marley, the son of reggae singer Bob Marley.
After her release from prison, Hill must also serve an additional three months of house arrest and a year of supervised probation, as well as
pay the taxes she still owes and a $60,000 fine, CNN reported.
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