ABBA: Crazy Costumes Were a Tax Dodge

The crazy outfits ABBA was known for donning onstage? The band didn't pick them solely based on a love of sequins and spandex, the Guardian reports. Rather, Björn Ulvaeus confesses in a new book, Swedish tax laws allowed bands to deduct money spent on costumes, as long as the clothing in question was so insane it could never be worn in any other capacity than onstage. "In my honest opinion we looked like nuts in those years," Ulvaeus admits in ABBA: The Official Photo Book. "Nobody can have been as badly dressed on stage as we were."

In order to be deducted from taxes, clothing "should be fantasy clothes, pure stage clothes, clothes with the employer's name or logo, or other attributes that make them clearly distinguishable from ordinary garments," according to an official statement procured by the Local. (More ABBA stories.)