OH MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN!!

In that case, thank you Sweden for giving us one the most iconic bands of the eighties.

@minando ABBA is usually considered a 1970s band not 1980s. They're essentially a disco group. The bulk of their success was during the mid to late seventies. They were huge when I was a little kid but were gone during the eighties when I was old enough to start getting into music. The eighties was synth-pop, hair metal and early alternative.

Disco went heavily out of fashion in the very early eighties. ABBA's only noteworthy album during the eighties was Super Trouper in 1980. By 1983, the band had broken up. All the disco artists were gone by then.

Oh come on,Sweden would just love prancing around in one of the sparkly jumpsuits or skirts( maybe the rabbit dress worn by Agnetha,if memory serves me right),until Finland peeks in through his window.

@Klaus Doesn't mean the band couldn't have consisted of greedy cunts.

I’m pretty sure they’re doing onemore tour, but they’re charging around $300 per ticket. I guess they ran out of all of that 70s money.

This was in a time when some people in Sweden had to flee the country if they didn’t want to pay 200% taxes (Ingvar Bergman the director) though, the tax climate in Sweden in the 60s and 70s was outlandish.

First time heard abba's song from this british pop groups of the 90s (can't find the video clip on youtube just this one) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgVUe5-Ozg i though ABBA was british pop group singers not swedish.. ☺☺☺

I like ABBA

What kind of taxes they tried to evade?

wat

Abba was the best selling band of all time. Taxes for costumes must have been peanuts to them. I would think that having just the right look would be much more important than saving a few bucks.

@Klaus Peanuts no. The outfits were custom made and specially designed. That isn't cheap. And it is not like they only have one costume each. They probably had quite a few. Then there is every time they needed repairs or a completely new outfit

@Klaus
They wasn't when they started. So it only the reason for the outrageous outfit in their early periods. I guess they continued because it worked, and their manager was a very economical guy.

@ICynic #9685079  
That makes sense. And once the outfits were established as part of their brand, they would want to stick to them.

Interesting

Let's go Mama Mia!

More specifically, it wasn't a deduction, just not taxed. Usually company benefits are taxed, a company car you can use outside work is considered a forma of income and taxes. So free clothes would normally be taxed, but by making the clothes outlandish enough they could reasonably argue the clothes were only usefull privately and thus not a company benifit.

@Carewolf I would love to see that Abba clothing "only usefull privately" (I guess you meant NOT usefull privately?)

@Carewolf

Even more specifically you can buy the clothes with company money and then deduct the VAT.

If you have 1000 kr in your company and a shirt on a shelf costs 500 kr. You buy it for company money and then deduct 20% of the price in VAT. Making the expense to the company 400kr. The company now has 600 kr left and you have a shirt.

If you instead wanted to buy it privately you would have to take out 500 kr from the company. You would then pay about 450 kr in tax as well because now it's like a wage and you have to pay fees and taxes on the sum. You then buy the shirt for 500
You now have a shirt and your company spent 950 kr on it instead of 400.

Confirmed: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/16/abba-outfits-tax-deduction-bjorn-ulvaeus