Lauryn Hill

Sounds like it should be on the new Killah Priest album.

The "I'm not crazy, society is crazy" hermitude posture is compelling, although in her case it's probably a little of both.

The "I'm not crazy, society is crazy" hermitude posture is compelling, although in her case it's probably a little of both.

^^^ truth.

This song was awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhega1bctNk

on the evidence of these lyrics i don't think lauryn is crazy, i think she's quite sharp, but either she's lost interest in or has just lost the art of presentation

Sounds like it should be on the new Killah Priest album.

― deeznuggz (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Monday, 6 May 2013 15:22 (4 hours ago) Permalink

lol

I think the new song is legitimately exciting and badass. Glad it's not just a Miseducation re-hash. Makes me actually anticipate future work from her.

goin to jail

never a fan of the Fugees and only marginally interested in her and yes I know she's said a lot of weird shit in public but any time people complain about her being lazy or undisciplined or whatever I just think that I don't know ANY women from my generation raising 5 children, that shit is no joke.

otm

the second part

for real. One is hard as fuck, and my friends are always like "ONE?! Holy shit you should try TWO!!!"

most female celebrities of her stature have one or two (and then hire a staff to raise them) - giving her the benefit of the doubt that she's tried to be more hands-on and putting their needs first like she says, five is a huuuuge amount of work and putting that on top of all her other baggage (being an aging black woman with a huge rep to live up to etc) its no wonder she might come off a bit unhinged

altho tbf when it comes to the taxes thing, eh I got nothing. hire an accountant already.

During a forceful statement to the judge, Hill explained she had always meant to eventually pay the taxes but was unable to during a period of time when she dropped out of the music business.

oh for fuck's sake

The thing about this that is super stupid is that if you contact the IRS and ask for help in figuring out how to pay a tax bill, they will totally work with you to figure out some payment schedule that is reasonable. Her bill was pretty fucking huge but that's money that the IRS wants and they will figure out how to work with you to get it.

I mean, pro-tip #1 for cheap Ivy ppl is "don't treat your taxes like your student loans; that shit won't get swept under the rug after 7 years" (hell at this point I don't even know if ppl are still doing that with student loans)

you don't get returns if you don't file taxes one calendar year, right?

I don't see how you could, it's not like they are magic

in the early 2000's I owed money cuz I didn't file the right form to take care of my freelance dough, and, yes, the IRS were quite friendly and helped set up a reasonable monthly payment plan.

It just cracks me up because I had been hearing all of this "THE IRS IS EVIL" rhetoric for years and years and years and then after a big jump in income I had a tax bill that I couldn't just write a check for at the time of filing, but I knew I'd be able to pay within the next 3 months, so I called their hotline and they were like "oh hey no biggie, here let us help you" and I sat there thinking to myself "have any of these IRS haters ever actually bothered to talk to them, or did they just try to duck out on their taxes due to Principles and then decided to get huffy when the government reminded them of one of the costs of citizenship"

the stupidity starts with lauryn hill not having an accountant. working models with a part-time table waiting job often need an accountant.

i mean 5 kids and royalty statements from platinum albums? anyone trying to apply their turbotax experience with that shouldn't be

if there's anything everyone should take away from this - it's a) always file, always report income. not reporting income is a felony. and b) if you aren't sure you're reporting income, hire an accountant.

i worked for a tax preparer this year and there who claimed insane expenses on his 2004-2006 taxes, got audited, ignored the audit for FIVE YEARS and then decided to finally get around to clearing things up with the IRS. He won't go to jail because while he filed a ridiculous handwritten return, he filed. They will hound him to his dying day for every dollar, adding penalties all the while, but you really only go to jail if you didn't admit to income in the first place.

and there was a guy who claimed

apparently you won't face criminal charges after six years, but will face civil penalties

generally they have little desire to put people in jail, since it's hard for you to make the money to pay them from there. but millionaires who ignore the IRS entirely for several years are made an example of.

if there's anything everyone should take away from this - it's a) always file, always report income. not reporting income is a felony. and b) if you aren't sure you're reporting income, hire an accountant.

― da croupier, Tuesday, May 7, 2013 10:49 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do we really think this was just incompetence on hill's part or, like, maybe she didn't want to pay taxes like the little people sort of thing..

i don't really think "i don't want to pay taxes, i'm special!" or "oh wow, i didn't realize what i was doing" is a binary here. most of the time when high profile people get nabbed for this they were getting horrifically bad advice, like wesley snipes, whose advisors were given even bigger sentences than he was. But it seems like she just went off the grid in a way you just can't when you have that much coming in residuals.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/lauryn_hill_court_tax_evasion.html

The judge credited Hill for living an exemplary life in the years before her failure to file taxes and noted several times that Hill had no prior criminal record.

She also said admiringly that Hill had carved out a career of "outstanding and unparalleled accomplishments in the arts," called her "inspirational" and noted, "Her solo album is considered one of the most important in the history of women’s recordings."

But Arleo also pointed out that Hill, who had attended Columbia University, was an intelligent woman who knew her taxes were due.

While "it is … not lost on me that all state and federal taxes were paid" by Hill over the weekend, the judge said, it is "inexplicable to me why they were not paid" before, given Hill’s assets, including several homes in South Orange.

The fact that Hill may have gone "underground" to escape society or the recording industry, Arleo concluded, "doesn’t explain or justify her failure to file tax returns."

"They can be done quietly and underground," the judge said.

Ready or not, here we come, you can't hide... gonna fiiiiiiind you, and get OUR mon-ey!

hill said during the sentencing that she is giving voice to the powerless and thus was being silenced. considering that she hasn't actually had much to say (or sing) in public for a long time, what "voice" is she giving to anyone? not to mention that everything she said was a red herring and most of it was just batshit. i'm not convinced she's capital-C crazy; she just seems to default to blaming everything but herself in any situation.

i'm pretty curious whether she dropped the people previously handling her money or if they dropped her

funny that during the three year period she wanted to "defer" paying taxes to protect her family from the industry, she somehow managed to sing a new song over the closing credits of an animated movie

parsing her tumblr statement, posted back when she plead guilty last year, it sounds like she decided she was going to ignore her taxes until she figured out how to work outside the record company system.

http://mslaurynhill.tumblr.com/post/24689947994/it-was-reported-yesterday-that-ms-lauryn-hill-has

Learning from the past, insulating friends and family from the influence of external manipulation and corruption, is far more important to me than being misunderstood for a season! I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities, but I did however put my safety, health and freedom and the freedom, safety and health of my family first over all other material concerns! I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.

I conveyed all of this when questioned as to why I did not file taxes during this time period. Obviously, the danger I faced was not accepted as reasonable grounds for deferring my tax payments, as authorities, who despite being told all of this, still chose to pursue action against me, as opposed to finding an alternative solution.

My intention has always been to get this situation rectified. When I was working consistently without being affected by the interferences mentioned above, I filed and paid my taxes. This only stopped when it was necessary to withdraw from society, in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of myself and my family.

ignoring the whole "state of mind" thing, there are lots of people in various walks of life who think "hey i'm just not going to file for a year or two until i get my shit together, hopefully no one will notice."

granted most of them don't say that while hundreds of thousands of dollars in residuals and royalties are coming in, and they're singing over footage of CGI penguins.

she deserves a "B" at obfuscatory bullshit at best

she is actually in jail now :(

::tiny violin for multi-millionaires who don't pay taxes::

It could all be so simple

Just pay your damn taxes. What's so hard about that?

Good, fuck off.

Utterly tedious human being

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biHJ6S91xBY

:(

I actually have super huge sympathy for her. "Just pay your taxes" is an easy thing to say if you're getting pay stubs, but when you're talking about 300 contracts a year, tiny paycheques from disparate sources, big money in but big expenses, I have nothing but sympathy for this woman

Well, I think that's where the "get an accountant" criticism comes in tbh

It's so much more complicated than that.

I got three years behind. In 2009 I had to file in 14 countries. I had the government taxing me on several contracts that hadn't been settled or were in dispute. Every accountant I talked to was "you have to take care of this yourself, I have no idea where ever to start".

well presumably SOME accountant knows how to do that stuff, and one would think that LH is the type of person who could afford said accountant

When I finally filed 2009 (last year), was audited on it (and passed with flying colours), the tax agency took a look at my money in and assessed me for 2010 and 2011, but of course, didn't factor in the expenses (paying my employees, flights and accommodations, etc.) and I suddenly got a bill for more than a quarter-million dollars. "It's not up to us to provide you with expenses". Look in my bank account, I said, this assessment is crazy. I might possess a tenth of that. "When you owe us more than 250K," they continued, "we move ahead with legal action." It was Brazilian. It took me two months of solid bookkeeping for each year I was behind. I can't even imagine how fucked Lauryn must've been but I don't think it's as simple as "lazy, crazy Lauryn Hill, behind on her taxes? tsk tsk tsk"

The taxation system is really well designed for people with single or dual occupations but it's really fucking tough for people who're trying to collect on 300+ contracts a year. I mean, I don't know, maybe the woman is a crook, but the number of people who, during my own ordeal, were just like "pay your taxes goddammit!" were jerks who get T4s, copy a couple numbers, think about writing off their car payments, and get it done in an afternoon. Just saying.

judging other people is so fucking fun though. i think that's pretty incontrovertible.