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Comment by Scipio_Afri | Hacker News Reader

Apple has $238 billion in cash in it's bank accounts. It was able to do this even if the tax code didn't change.

Did it have $238B domestically? The topic is about Apple being able to bring their cash horde back to the US, where they can then use it.

They don't need to repatriate that. They have tens of billions domestically, and can use debt instruments against their overseas money. Who wouldn't lend Apple money at very low interest rates, given >$150 billion in collateral in the bank.

Apple has already been doing buybacks and dividends by using bonds.

The bonds have to be paid back eventually, so it's just delaying the inevitable.

Except that they can just pay it with their overseas money in whatever form makes sense. On top of that, debt repayment comes out before the profit/loss that determines income so they could even use that to selectively lower their tax burden in future years.

Are you sure you can take a loan in the US and then pay it back overseas? That would be effectively transferring money from abroad. The whole point is to avoid that.

They timing seems awfully strange for that explanation to work. Remember, corporations do what makes the best sense financially. Even though they could do this before, they didn't, because it didn't make sense.

It’s timing. They could have done it, but waiting for just a little bit, would net them billions.

Like the article said, they prepped a certain amount and waited. Saving billions for doing the same thing but waiting a few months is a no brainer.

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