Tax-news.com reported late last week that:

Niue Premier Sani Lakatana revealed this week that the OECD has expressed concerns over the Government's decision to retain its International Business Company (IBC) licensing regime, despite his recent announcement that the jurisdiction's offshore banking legislation is set to be repealed.

At a meeting with Niue Financial Secretary Leonard Tukuitonga in Auckland on Thursday, OECD officials raised concerns that the country's IBC registry, which is run out of Panama, could pose a risk in terms of vulnerability to tax evasion.

However, Mr Lakatana stated that although he was willing to dismantle the offshore banking sector in order to avoid the sanctions threatened by OECD members, he was not prepared to forgo the much needed $700,000 in revenue which is brought in by the IBC registry, as the OECD has been unable to come up with any suggestions as to how to replace that income.

To put this in context, Niue offshore companies offer these features:

- All profits of IBC that are derived from outside the island are tax-exempt, and generally there is no stamp duty on IBC transactions.
- Original corporate documents can be submitted for registration in any language along with an English version.
- Shares can be issued registered or bearer. Shareholders and directors can be individuals as well as legal entities. Only one shareholder and a
director would suffice for registration.
- Data on owners and directors is not publicly available and will remain confidential.
- No annual tax return requirement, however every company must pay annual license fee on time to avoid penalties.
- There is no requirement to register the details of the first directors or any subsequent changes therein. Meetings can be held anywhere in the
world.

And for the sake of $700,000 we can't buy these people out?

This is madness. Write the cheque. End the problem.