after she was charged with three counts of tax evasion, but the former Fugees member says serious threats kept her from filing taxes.
Lauryn just filed legal docs asking for mercy before her sentencing later this month, claiming there was a good reason she failed to file tax returns for 2005, ’06 and ’07 … when she earned a total of more than $1.8 million. She already pled guilty and faces several years in prison.
According to docs … Lauryn stopped paying taxes “when she withdrew from society at large due to what she perceived as manipulation and very real threats to herself and her family.”
While Hill didn’t really go into details about what the threats were and how exactly they prevented her from filing taxes, she made another good case about why she shouldn’t be locked up for the charges.
We all know how the IRS feels about getting their money so Hill made an offer that may be hard for them to refuse.
She explained that if she was locked up it would be very difficult for her to pay them back; however, if she was allowed to be on probation and still work she would be able to pay them back in no time.
During her time out on bond she was able to tour with Nas for their collab tour “Life is Good/ Black Rage” which was quite a success. If she can pull out a few more profitable tours like that she certainly will be able to pay off her debt in just a few years.
As for the threats, she never clarified if the situation had been dealt with or not. We can only assume that the threats have stopped because the soulful artist is feeling comfortable enough to pay up. Perhaps all the media attention on her was enough to scare away whoever was threatening her?
Either way, Lauryn Hill (and the rest of us) is hoping that the judge will be merciful and allow her to be on probation rather than behind bars, but that decision won’t be made until April 22.
