Given the past experience with the 2004 tax holiday (little economic investment effect), the current proposal should be rejected. And to allow another tax holi

Given the past experience with the 2004 tax holiday (little economic investment effect), the current proposal should be rejected. And to allow another tax holiday only sets the expectations that additional ones can be lobbyed for in the future, meaning these companies will again hoard foreign profits offshore in hopes of repeating this request again and again and thereby depriving the government of timely tax revenue. This is a quite blatant attempt by these companies to game the tax system for their own (not public) benefit. As others have stated, these companies obviously held the foreign profits abroad hoping to have/create this type of lower tax opportunity to bring back those profits. However, I don't blame these corporations for trying this - corporations' jobs are to make and keep as much money as possible, mostly in response to shareholders' desires for greatest economic returns. Anyone who owns stock in Apple and Google is a part of the reason for this attempt. If this tactic works, the market value of Apple and Google will increase and isn't that what essentially all shareholders want? Frankly, if these companies voluntarily paid all taxes without trying to find ways to minimize them, most shareholders will be furious at management. Government, through its various corporate/tax laws, sets the limitations on what is permissible and not for corporations, and it hopefully tries to do it in the way that maximizes overall public benefit (balance regulation against enough corporate freedom to incentivize economic growth). The problem I see is that special interest groups have disproportionate power through buying influence. In order to prevent recurring instances of this same situations, the government should firmly show that it will not grant tax holidays now or in the future (then maybe companies will bring foreign profits back right away to the US, thereby paying taxes on time and maybe hopefully spurring economic investment). My Conclusion: Companies (at least public companies) aren't wrong to try to maximize their value in every way within the controlled environment created by governments. The government should act in the way to incentive corporate actions in the best interests of the public (whether it be more tax dollars or economic growth or another objective). Just say no to the tax holiday.