They are returning it to stock holders - however, it is not tax efficient to do this by simply paying dividends with profits. By offshoring the money they can minimize taxes, and still pay stock holders by taking massive loans with the cash hoard as security, effectively repatriating the money without paying taxes.
As an aside, they are not mainly paying dividends to get this money to stock holders. Pushed heavily by large Apple owners like Icahn, apple is buying back it's own stock - effectively paying dividends by raising the stock price. I don't recall the exact details why, but somehow that ends up also being more tax efficient. Eg: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegar...
As an aside, they are not mainly paying dividends to get this money to stock holders. Pushed heavily by large Apple owners like Icahn, apple is buying back it's own stock - effectively paying dividends by raising the stock price. I don't recall the exact details why, but somehow that ends up also being more tax efficient. Eg: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegar...
Source: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014BR46P2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...