Singer Lauryn Hill on tax charges

Five-times Grammy winner Lauryn Hill has been charged with failing to file income tax returns for several years with America’s Internal Revenue Service, federal prosecutors announced today.

The singer earned more than US$1.6 million during 2005, 2006 and 2007, the three years that she failed to file returns, federal prosecutors said.

Hill’s primary source of income is royalties from the recording and film industries, prosecutors said. She also owns and operates four corporations: Creations Music, Boogie Tours, LH Productions 2001 and Studio 22, according to court papers.

Her California-based lawyer, Nathan J Hochman, and her publicist were not available for comment.

Hill, 37, first found fame with The Fugees and began her solo career in 1998 with the critically acclaimed album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

The album, praised by critics for its incisive lyrics and synthesis of rap and soul, sold eight million copies. Hill was pronounced the face of “The Hip-Hop Nation” by Time magazine.

She then largely disappeared from public view to bring up her six children, five of whom she had with Rohan Marley, the son of famed reggae singer Bob Marley.

Hill lives in New Jersey, just outside Newark.

She is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate on June 29. She could face a maximum penalty of a year in prison and US$100,000 fine on each charge.