Bjorn Ulvaeus, better known as one of the members of the wildly popular (still) pop group ABBA, has recently won a court case against the Swedish Tax Board. The deal was worth a reported 85 million kronor (approximately $12.1 million US).
In 2006, the Swedish Tax Board had demanded 87 million kronor (just under $12 million US) in unpaid taxes from Ulvaeus. In 2007, they sought to collect an additional 16 million kronor ($2.24 million US) for the years 2004 and 2005. The additional money was the result of an increase in income attributable to Ulvaeus after the Swedish Tax Board determined that a series of tax structures set up by Ulvaeus constituted tax avoidance.
Since 1990, Ulvaeus has signed over the rights to his song royalties to the Dutch company Fintag, which has an agreement with Stanova, based in the Netherlands Antilles. The Netherlands Antilles is a Caribbean island with very low tax rates; nearly 95% of the Ulvaeus’ royalties are routed there.
Ulvaeus has, as a result, always claimed that the royalties were excluded from his personal income in Sweden. At appeal, Ulvaeus won on all counts.
“I am of course very happy to have it down in black and white that I always went about things the right way with my original tax payments, while the tax agency was on completely the wrong track,” Ulvaeus told business magazine Privata Affärer.
While I could really care less about Bjorn and tax troubles…I still had to read this because, hey, it referenced ABBA and I’m an ABBA freak who really thinks they should just toss aside their differences and tour the world.
I am a giant idiot, that lives perpetually in my teens.