According to Abba: The Official Photo Book, published to mark 40 years since they won Eurovision with Waterloo, the band’s style was influenced in part by laws that allowed the cost of outfits to be deducted against tax – so long as the costumes were so outrageous they could not possibly be worn on the street.
I’m guessing they didn’t pay for the costumes themselves. They just got to write off the cost because they were wearing them. But I don’t know how it works for sure.
I think it’s a case of the outfits essentially being akin to a work uniform. You wouldn’t wear it on the street, and you need it for work (as I guess stage and screen actors do too), and due to that you can claim it as a work expense and is tax deductible?
I think that’s it, yeah. This way they avoided paying tax on their costumes.
I think it was even better than that. It wasn’t just the tax on the costume, it was the entire cost of them could be deducted from their tax bill. The more extravagant and expensive, the smaller that years tax bill!
There you go. Thanks for the explanation!
If someone else bought the costumes, then they certainly can’t write them off.
I think I figured it out!
They were going to have to wear costumes regardless, but they would be able to not pay taxes on them if the costumes were crazy enough.
It really seems like these would be more expensive by more than the tax benefits
Not at all, Sweden during the ABBA age was completely nuts. There was no cap on taxes, and as such, you could incur a more than 100% marginal tax rate.
Astrid Lindgren (the beloved childrens book writer) was amongst those affected.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomperipossa_in_Monismania
@Zip2@feddit.uk explained it:
I appreciate the amount of thought you’ve put into this, while I just make cynical comments.
It made me start thinking about it and then it bothered me enough to try to figure it out.
As we often hear over in Lemmy Shitpost, “I know this is a shitpost, but…”