THE Tax Office has issued a warning about individual education or scholarship trusts in its latest Taxpayer Alert, the sixth one this year.

The ATO is ramping up warnings for taxpayers to avoid getting involved in unscrupulous tax schemes before the end of the financial year.

The schemes seek to reduce tax through education or scholarship trusts for a student who may be a family member of the person contributing to the trust.

The warnings do not apply to investment products that operate as scholarship plans through mutual friendly societies such as Australian Scholarships Group and Lifeplan.

Tax commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said he was concerned about whether taxpayers who entered into individual arrangements were entitled to claim scholarship and bursary payments as tax free.

He said under the arrangements, taxpayers applied to the marketer of the scheme for the student to be accepted into an education funding program.

Once the student was accepted into the program, the taxpayer, who is usually a relative, contributed money indirectly to an individual scholarship trust and the funds were distributed to the student tax free.

“Under the law, these types of payments are only tax free if they are received by a student who has won an award or been selected through an open process,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.

“The Tax Office is looking at arrangements that do not appear to meet these requirements and whether tax should be paid on any distributions.”

Ali Noroozi, tax counsel for the Institute of Chartered Accountants, said taxpayer alerts were early warnings signs for consumers to be vigilant about getting into “dodgy schemes” before the end of the financial year.

A spokeswoman for Australian Scholarships Group said mutual scholarship plans, not individual scholarship trusts, were granted a unique tax break that was only available through friendly societies.

“ASG has been concerned for some time that these (individual) arrangements promoted by some accountants do not fit into the spirit of school funds that are allowed special considerations under the Tax Act,” she said.

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After all the rumours, Led Zeppelin are finally expected to confirm this afternoon that they are to reform after a gap of 19 years.

A concert featuring the three surviving members of the band is to be announced this afternoon at a press conference held by promoter Harvey Goldsmith, who spent the majority of last week advising fans not to buy advertised tickets to Zeppelin shows that “don’t exist”. The announcement is to be made at the 02 arena, the venue where the forthcoming reunion will take place.

Lead singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones have yet to comment, but the Press Association are reporting that Plant, 59, responded to a fan’s recent inquiry about the concert by saying: “How did you know about that?”

The group split in 1980 after the death of their drummer, John Bonham, though they have reformed for one-off concerts, the last being Live Aid in 1986. It is also being reported by the BBC that the trio will be joined for the reunion by Bonham’s son Jason.

Rumours that the band were to reform began in June with the suggestion that they were to play a memorial gig for Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away last year. The band have sold over 200 million albums worldwide and have a “best-of” compilation, Mothership, out in November. Goldsmith is due to make the announcement at 4pm today.

THE Da Vinci Code rapist today lost a legal bid to have his ten-year jail sentence reduced.

Robert Greens, 30, first attempted to blame his twin brother for the horrific drink-and-drug-fuelled assault on a Dutch student near Rosslyn Chapel.

His legal team argued that the judge who jailed him failed to give Greens enough credit for ultimately pleading guilty.

But judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected his challenge and described his crime as “an appalling case”.

Lord Macfadyen commented that it must have been “a worrying proposition” for the victim that the accused was suggesting his twin brother was the perpetrator of the crime.

The judge said: “Do you not have to look at the justification for that examination of DNA evidence? Normally one would say this is simply a man taking advantage of a close relative having similar DNA.”

He said that blaming your own twin brother could be seen as taking advantage of DNA material.

Lord Macfadyen said: “It can’t have been much fun being accused of rape by your own brother.”

Defence solicitor advocate Gerald McClure said the investigation of the DNA was carried out because the victim was not able to identify her attacker and Greens claimed an absence of memory.

Shaven-headed Greens, formerly of Eskview Road, Mayfield, Midlothian, argued in his appeal that his sentence should have been further reduced because he had avoided a trial through his plea of guilty.

But it was pointed out he had not admitted the offence at the earliest possible chance, but gone through a series of preliminary court hearings before tendering his plea.

Lord Johnston, sitting with Lord Macfadyen, said the appeal would be refused and they would give full reasons in writing later.

Lord Johnston said: “This is an appalling case which entirely justifies the approach by the sentencing judge.”

He added during the appeal hearing: “For my part, this is one of the worst cases I have ever seen.”

Greens was ordered to be kept under supervision for seven years after serving the ten-year sentence earlier when jailed by Lord Mackay.

He told the rapist that he intended not only to punish him, but to “mark society’s condemnation of his crime” when he imprisoned him at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The judge said his sentence was meant to reflect the sustained and brutal nature of the violence inflicted by Greens.

Greens left his victim so badly beaten that she looked like she had gone through a car crash after the attack on May 15 2005.

He had smoked 15 cannabis joints on the day of the rape and drank ten pints in the two hours before the sex assault.

One clinical psychologist who interviewed him said his claim of amnesia was “highly suspicious”.

Greens saw the 19-year-old victim as he drove along the remote B7003 road through Roslin Glen and pulled over a lay-by before walking back and attacking her.

The student, a gap-year visitor to Scotland, was walking to a friend’s house after getting lost and arriving at Rosslyn Chapel, featured in Dan Brown’s best-selling book The Da Vinci Code, at closing time.

Greens grabbed her by the arms and hurled her down a steep embankment then dragged her to where they could not be seen.

The court heard that he told her to stop screaming because he had a knife and asked her if she was a virgin. The victim was a virgin but refused to give him the satisfaction of an answer.

She was battered in the face as she was subjected to the rape ordeal and was later spotted by a woman driver who at first thought she had been in a road accident. The victim’s face was bruised and bloody and her right eye was swollen shut.

A link was made with Greens through DNA evidence found on the victim’s pants which were discarded at the scene of the attack.

Mr McClure said the sentencing judge appeared to have given insufficient weight to the fact that the injuries sustained by the victim were not of the most severe kind.

But Lord Johnston said “the appalling trauma” suffered by the victim had also to be taken into account.