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Business owners are warned to be wary of a scheme offering to reduce tax through arrangements using tax losses from unrelated companies. Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody says the Tax Office is concerned the arrangements involve the artificial transfer of income and that at all times the business owners retain effective control of the money in question - less a fee paid in cash to the promoter. Under the arragements a business is restructured so income is channelled through a chain of trusts and ultimately to a company with alleged tax losses. These type of schemes are being offered to privately owned businesses that have had a few goods years and facing major increases in company tax, but have run down usual types of tax deductions such as depreciation or the recent tightening of tax deduction provisions. Carmody says the arrangements may breach a number of provisions of the Tax Act, including the general anti-avoidance provisions. He says some cases may be referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration for prosecution.