Lauryn Hill sentenced to 3 months in jail for owing $1m

By Osagie Alonge

Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months in prison for failing to pay about $1 million in taxes over the last ten years. Magistrate Madeline Cox Arleo read the sentencing on Monday May 5, 2013.

Despite having paid more than $900,000 in the past days, Hill still owes interest and penalties, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Hill pleaded guilty last year to failing to pay taxes on more than $1.8m which she earned from 2005 to 2007. Monday’s court seating highlighted unpaid state and federal taxes in 2008 and 2009 that brought the total earnings to about $2.3 million.

‘I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me’, Hill told Cox Arleo.

She is to report to prison by July 8. It’s not clear where she’ll serve her sentence.

Additional reports from Associated Press.