Former Fugee singer/emcee Lauryn Hill was charged with failing to file taxes by the Federal government. She allegedly has not paid taxes on over $1.5million from music royalties earned from 2005-2007. She explains in a lengthy letter on her blog the reasons why she has chosen not to do so. Here is her letter to the Feds.
"It was reported yesterday that Ms. Lauryn
Hill has been charged with three counts of misdemeanor failure to file
taxes. These charges were incurred for the years of 2005-2007, during a
time in which Ms. Hill had removed herself and her family from society,
in order to keep them safe, healthy, and free from danger. In response
to these charges, Ms. Hill has issued the following statement:
“For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground. I
did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their
desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without
being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military
industrial complex with a completely different agenda. Having
put the lives and needs of other people before my own for multiple
years, and having made hundreds of millions of dollars for certain
institutions, under complex and sometimes severe circumstances, I began
to require growth and more equitable treatment, but was met with
resistance. I entered into my craft full of optimism
(which I still possess), but immediately saw the suppressive force with
which the system attempts to maintain it’s control over a given
paradigm. I’ve seen people promote addiction, use
sabotage, black listing, media bullying and any other coercion technique
they could, to prevent artists from knowing their true value, or
exercising their full power. These devices of control, no
matter how well intentioned (or not), can have a devastating outcome on
the lives of people, especially creative types who must grow and exist
within a certain environment and according to a certain pace, in order
to live and create optimally.
I kept my life relatively simple, even after
huge successes, but it became increasingly obvious that certain
indulgences and privileges were expected to come at the expense of my
free soul, free mind, and therefore my health and integrity. So
I left a more mainstream and public life, in order to wean both myself,
and my family, away from a lifestyle that required distortion and
compromise as a means for maintaining it. During this
critical healing time, there were very few people accessible to me who
had not already been seduced or affected by this machine, and therefore
who could be trusted to not try and influence or coerce me back into a
dynamic of compromise. Individual growth was expected to take place
unnaturally, or stagnated outright, subject to marketing and politics. Addressing
critical issues like pop culture cannibalism or its manipulation of the
young at the expense of everything, was frowned upon and discouraged by
limiting funding, or denying it outright. When one has a
prolific creative output like I did/do, and is then forced to stop, the
effects can be dangerous both emotionally and psychologically, both for
the artist and those in need of that resource. It was
critically important that I find a suitable pathway within which to
exist, without being distorted or economically strong-armed.
During this period of crisis, much was said
about me, both slanted and inaccurate, by those who had become dependent
on my creative force, yet unwilling to fully acknowledge the importance
of my contribution, nor compensate me equitably for it. This
was done in an effort to smear my public image, in order to directly
affect my ability to earn independently of this system. It
took a long time to locate and nurture a community of people strong
enough to resist the incredibly unhealthy tide, and more importantly see
through it. If I had not been able to make contact with,
and establish this community, my life, safety and freedom, would have
been directly affected as well as the lives, safety and freedom of my
family. Failure to create a non toxic, non exploitative environment was not an option.
As my potential to work, and therefore earn
freely, was being threatened, I did whatever needed to be done in order
to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement,
manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that I was surrounded
by. This was absolutely critical while trying to find and
establish a new and very necessary community of healthy people, and also
heal and detoxify myself and my family while raising my young children.
There were no exotic trips, no fleet of cars,
just an all out war for safety, integrity, wholeness and health,
without mistreatment denial, and/or exploitation. In order
to liberate myself from those who found it ok to oppose my wholeness,
free speech and integral growth by inflicting different forms of
punitive action against it, I used my resources to sustain our safety
and survival until I was able to restore my ability to earn outside of
it!
When artists experience danger and crisis
under the effects of this kind of insidious manipulation, everyone
easily accepts that there was something either dysfunctional or
defective with the artist, rather than look at, and fully examine, the
system and its means and policies of exploiting/’doing business’. Not
only is this unrealistic, it is very dark in its motivation,
conveniently targeting the object of their hero worship by removing any
evidence that they ‘needed’ or celebrated this very same resource just
years, months or moments before. Since those who believe
they need a hero/celebrity outnumber the actual heroes/celebrities,
people feel safe and comfortably justified in numbers, committing
egregious crimes in the name of the greater social ego. Ironically diminishing their own true hero-celebrity nature in the process.
It was this schism and the hypocrisy,
violence and social cannibalism it enabled, that I wanted and needed to
be freed from, not from art or music, but the suppression/repression and
reduction of that art and music to a bottom line alone, without regard
for anything else. Over-commercialization and its
resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and
distorting to the inherent nature of the individual. I Love making art, I Love making music, these are as natural and necessary for me almost as breathing or talking. To
be denied the right to pursue it according to my ability, as well as be
properly acknowledged and compensated for it, in an attempt to control,
is manipulation directed at my most basic rights! These forms of expression, along with others, effectively comprise my free speech! Defending,
preserving, and protecting these rights are critically important,
especially in a paradigm where veiled racism, sexism, ageism, nepotism,
and deliberate economic control are still blatant realities!!!
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.
As this, and other areas
of issue are resolved and set straight, I am able to get back to doing
what I should be doing, the way it should be done. This is part of that process. To those supporters who were told that I abandoned them, that is untrue. I abandoned greed, corruption, and compromise, never you, and never the artistic gifts and abilities that sustained me.”
