IRS Hits Lauryn Hill with $867,000 in Additional Tax Liens

The Internal Revenue Service has filed seven additional tax liens totaling nearly $867,000 against singer/songwriter Lauryn Hill only months after she was released from prison on tax charges.

Hill, a former member of the group the Fugees, was released last October after serving three months in prison, with another three months to be served in home confinement (see Former Fugee Lauryn Hill Released from Prison for Tax Charges). She was sentenced last July for failing to pay taxes on more than $1.8 million in federal taxes in 2005 to 2007, plus unpaid federal and state taxes in 2008 and 2009 of about $500,000 (see Fugees Singer Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion).

Hill has recently begun touring now that she has completed serving time in prison and home confinement. However, according to Radar Online, the IRS has now filed additional tax liens for unpaid taxes from 2005 to 2011, including $422,008.26 for 2005, $19,838.75 for 2006, $61,158.50 for 2007, $58,405.71 for 2008,; $30370.91 for 2009,; $13,247.73 for 2010, and $261,838.19 for 2011.

Upon her release from prison, Hill thanked her fans for their support and for sending her letters, packages and books. “Because of you there was not one day that I didn’t receive mail while I was away,” she wrote on her site. “I appreciated that. Also, know that many of your letters not only touched me but continued to confirm for me what I already knew but needed to hear again: that sincere expression has a serious purpose.”

Hill's publicist, Kathryn Frazier, owner of Biz 3 Publicity & Management, denied that the tax liens are new. "So the gist is this: Contrary to media gossip there are no changes in Ms. Hill's legal status," she said in an email to Accounting Today. "Ms. Hill has finished her sentence, has been fulfilling her agreement with the IRS, and is taking care of all outstanding matters in regards to this situation. She is not in jeopardy of any further charges. The press is reporting on paperwork that had recently been filed, and has now become public record."