Exclusive: Lauryn Hill Drops Nearly $1 Mill To State Of NJ Over Tax Debt

NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 13: Musician Lauryn Hill performs onstage during The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit presented by CHANEL: A Tribute to Julianne Moore at MOMA on November 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Museum Of Modern Art)

State Of NJ Accused Fugees’ Singer Of Not Paying Taxes

Lauryn Hill, 42, has fallen on her sword and accepted full responsibility for her tax debt to New Jersey and has settled it to the tune of nearly $1 million, BOSSIP has learned.

Last year, we exclusively revealed that the Fugees’ front woman had been dealing with big tax problems, namely one bill from New Jersey’s Division of Taxation for $438,221 from 2016 and another for $446,386.60 in 2012. In total, her entire tax debt was at least $894,607, according to public records.

After our story about her tax trouble, Hill wrote an open letter on social media to explain what happened.

“This has been an ongoing process, and I have been working steadily towards a resolution,” Hill wrote on Twitter last year. “It has been an uphill battle, but we’re getting over the hump.”

NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 13: Musician Lauryn Hill performs onstage during The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit presented by CHANEL: A Tribute to Julianne Moore at MOMA on November 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Museum Of Modern Art)

Hill admitted that some of her tax problems were down to her decision to leave the music industry at the height of her fame.

“I left the game, I wanted out, the way it was organized needed adjustment,” she wrote on Twitter. “When you eat a lot of other people’s debts like I did, and become financially responsible for as many people as I did, a break like the one I took was necessary. It took bold, courageous moves, and cost me certain economic comforts. But it’s getting better every day, thank God, and I’m living a much more liberated existence because of it.”

And according to public records, Hill recently cleared both debts on the same day, and the state closed her case.

New Jersey’s Division of Taxation has the power to seize property and other assets from tax scofflaws in order to satisfy their tax debts.

It’s not the first time that the “Ready Or Not” singer has run afoul of the tax man. She served three months in federal prison for tax evasion in 2013 after the feds accused her of not paying $1 million in back taxes.