[run4yourlives2]

You're missing nothing.

Saying "waiting for a lower tax rate" is just a nice way of saying "never". There is no good reason a corporation would bring offshore cash back unless they absolutely have to. The whole point of putting it there in the first place is to isolate it.

Unless something changes dramatically that makes the current practice really unfavourable to them, there should be no expectation that corporations are actively looking to use this money and are simply waiting for the "best time".

[glenneroo]

If the government really cared, wouldn't/couldn't they just force banks to forbid transactions with known tax havens?

[runako]

This isn't about tax havens, it's about the fact that US law levies taxes on corporate income earned anywhere in the world.

So iPhones sold in Sweden or France (not tax havens) generate tax liability in the US. This tax is only due when the profits of those sales are brought back to the US. Companies like Apple therefore have an incentive to keep overseas profits generated outside the US.