Not just that US income tax needs to be paid, but also that cash needs to be converted into USD, which poses a problem in relation to fluctuating rates on curre

Not just that US income tax needs to be paid, but also that cash needs to be converted into USD, which poses a problem in relation to fluctuating rates on currency conversion. Currency conversion rates is a running theme in Apple's SEC filings and was also mentioned in yesterday's call. In fact, there is an entire paragraph in last year's annual report that discusses how they built a model to not just optimize conversion to USD, but also predict the total cost so that they could also hedge against it. There's also a note which says their foreign tax obligations are still under review from 2016 forward, so they might be prevented from moving the money until that picture becomes more clear as to how much is owed.