Apple, as a much smaller company in the 1990s, established a European beachhead in the then impoverished Irish county of Cork. At the time, Ireland saw this investment as a mutual advantage and agreed to a favorable tax rate for a growing high tech presence.
It would be a fiduciary crime against the owners (shareholders) not to work for best tax treatment of their investments. Taking advantage of LEGAL provisions in domestic and international tax codes is not criminal.
The USofA has kept one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world and, because of the peculiarities of the same, returning profits to the home country would cause them to be taxed without deductions otherwise available to non-intellectual property companies (Caterpillar, Boeing etc.)
The EU is passing the equivalent of a post-facto tax ruling, saying that Apple should have been paying a tax rate to Ireland that the EU thinks is/was ‘fair’ and computing it back to near the start! The EU Socialists slaver for money and Apple is an easy, AMERICAN, target!
The Bayer take over of Monsanto is mostly the result of unfavorable US tax laws. As a result the HQ of Monsanto will move to Germany, the US will get even less taxes from Monsanto and jobs will be lost. If we don’t change to Trumps tax plan we won’t have any multinational companies based in the US. I spent 36 year career in international business and without these changes we are in deep trouble.