The eight-time Grammy
Award winner and South Orange, N.J., resident was charged this week with
willfully failing to file income tax returns with the Internal Revenue
Service. Federal prosecutors said she didn’t pay taxes on more than $1.5
million earned in 2005, 2006 and 2007 from recording and film
royalties.
Hill wrote. “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.”
She
said in her online post that she explained herself to authorities when
she was questioned by authorities about her failure to pay taxes.
“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,” she wrote. “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.”
A
spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, which filed
the tax charges, said in response to Hill’s posting Friday that they
could not speak to the specifics of the investigation.
The
37-year-old Hill got her start with the Haitian-American hip-hop band
the Fugees. She began her solo career in 1998 with the album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”