Lauryn Hill

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.

:)

well her defense doesn't seem to be 'this shit was really complicated and I screwed up'

'I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.'

"get a therapist" or "get away from your terrible cheating headfucking husband" would probably have been the best advice for lauryn tbh (and i mean this with no snark, i have a massive amount of sympathy for what are clearly serious emotional problems that are being indulged by the industry so they can squeeze some cash out of her)

Yeah, well:

This motherfucking tax collector on the phone was saying "I'm sorry to hear that your mother-in-law died. But I went through that whole process myself with my dad in palliative care and my life went on, you know? I still had to pay bills" and I was shaking with rage, Barbara had died the week before, my boyfriend had been nursing her all year, so fucking what if we hadn't done our bookkeeping. And we don't even have kids. I make no secret that I'm a state-loving commie, but once I finish filing 2012 I am going to devote all my time to getting this woman fired

Sorry to clutter the Lauryn Hill thread with my personal rage but I'd been stewing about this all week

and stevie otm as always

well that's fucking horrible

for all that the IRS is getting demonized now, my dealings with them have never been like that, and I kind of extrapolate that experience internationally when I probably shouldn't; also my dealings with them have been proactive rather than reactive and it may be that that worked in my favor

goon yr tax experience sounds nightmarish

Yeah that's terrible. Not a comparable situation at all, but I get where your emotion is coming from. My tiny violin remains specifically for multi-millionaires, because I have no idea how much money she must have run through since The Score to not have the relatively small amount it would've taken to keep her out of jail. I've had some bad tax issues myself, and they happened bacause I was irresponsible. She doesn't get to opt out of being an adult just because she's a hippie or a celebrity.

True, but multimillionaire celebrities can sometimes (usually) attract less-than-scrupulous accountants/business managers.

See, that too. And I'm not contesting anybody's right to their tiny violins. But I sympathize with her. It has long been a Big Frustration Of Mine that they don't teach you (or at least, they didn't teach me or many of my friends) in high school, like right away, "this is how taxation works. Get ready to be taxed," because I think many people get to age 23, age 25 (age 32 in once instance I can think of) having no idea that they need to file! I didn't know until I was 24, I thought paying taxes was something people did when buying groceries.

one of the first things my parents did when I got my first job in high school was show me a 1040-EZ, even though I didn't make enough money to be required to file

it's true, though, that none of this was actually covered in school as far as I can remember

It's times like this when I'm relieved to have an accountant for a father-in-law.

It has long been a Big Frustration Of Mine that they don't teach you (or at least, they didn't teach me or many of my friends) in high school, like right away, "this is how taxation works. Get ready to be taxed," because I think many people get to age 23, age 25 (age 32 in once instance I can think of) having no idea that they need to file!

wow didn't know they need to file at all? that's...special. when i didn't file, i sure as hell knew i was doing something wrong that had consequences.

but i totally agree that it should be, like, a course you take in high school or a major part of Home Ec or something.

it's unbelievable that it's not taught in schools tbh - it's not in the uk either - and most people don't need to learn about the logistics and paperwork because in normal jobs tax is just deducted straight out of your salary. when i went freelance i was completely unaware that anything would be different, and then when i realised it was i had zero idea what to actually do, who to contact etc. i still don't feel like i 100% understand how it works

yeah! me too! I'm really fortunate, my boss at age 24, when he heard I hadn't ever filed, he got damn fatherly at me "what do you mean you don't file? do you not walk on these sidewalks? do you not drink from these faucets?!" and sat at my desk while I googled "how do you pay taxes" and I was like whoa! Best boss ever.

in the US if you have a normal job it's deducted automatically too but you STILL have to file a tax return every year