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More tax woes for ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus

Paul O'Mahony
Paul O'Mahony - [email protected]
More tax woes for ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus

Early last year the Swedish Tax Board demanded 87 million kronor in unpaid taxes from former ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus.

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Now the authorities have asked for an additional 16 million kronor in taxes on earnings for the years 2004 and 2005, which the singer had placed in offshore tax havens, newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports.

Since 1990 the rights to Ulvaeus' music have been administered by Dutch company Fintage. This company subsequently entered into an agreement with Stanova, a company based in the Netherlands Antilles.

As a result, 95 percent of the composer's royalties make their way to the low-tax Caribbean island.

Stanova in turn is owned, indirectly, by the composer himself.

When the tax board looked into the network of companies that own the rights to Ulvaeus' music it did not approve the tax structures and increased the amount of Swedish tax accordingly.

The singer appealed last year's tax decision and eventually managed to get the sum reduced from 87 to 65 million kronor. But he has also appealed the lower sum and is currently awaiting a decision from Stockholm county court.

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