This year, tax reform could give U.S. companies access tohundreds of billions of dollars they have stashed overseas.Many corporations can't wait that long.

Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. sold a total of $27 billion ofdebt this week to fund their daily operations, repay maturing debtand buy back shares. Those bond sales might be unnecessary if newtax laws come this year because under President Donald Trump'sproposed plan, companies could pay a one-time 10% levy tobring back money held overseas, less than a third of the currentrate.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told investors this week that he was“confident” that “some sort of tax reform” would be coming thisyear. But until it goes into effect, borrowing is still the bestbet for many companies, said Jordan Chalfin, an analyst at debtresearch firm CreditSights.