There have been major tax advantages. The impact is lessened by the recent tax reform, but consider Apple has hundreds of billions of dollars in wholly-owned o

There have been major tax advantages. The impact is lessened by the recent tax reform, but consider Apple has hundreds of billions of dollars in wholly-owned offshore subsidiaries. Up until recently, if they repatriated that cash, they had to pay 35% in taxes. Much better then for an Aa1-rated company like Apple to take out debt at a very low interest rate.