Apple’s CEO has said the company has no special deal with the Government here in relation to its tax.

Speaking at a conference held by US technology site All Things D, Tim Cook said it had no arrangement in Ireland that allowed it to pay a 2% flat rate of tax on its non-American profits.

Some US Senators had claimed that the company was being given favourable treatment in Ireland, which allowed it to avoid tax in the US.

A US Senate Committee hearing last week found that Apple’s Irish operations, which distributed products outside of America, has paid minimal tax in recent years despite making billions in profits.

However Mr Cook said their Irish operations were no designed to avoid paying tax in the US, but were instead designed to manage product sales in different regions.

He said this was a practice used by all large multinationals and was not “nefarious”.

The company’s structure sees its Irish operations co-fund research and development at its US headquarters in return for the licence to distribute the resulting products.

We have no special deal with the Irish government that gives us a 2% flat tax rate

“You have two entities contributing money to develop products and then each of those sell products within their regions,” he said.

“They either accrue the losses, if there are losses within that, or the rewards if there are rewards... There were times when both were losing tonnes of money.”

Mr Cook said he wanted to see a complete overhaul of the US tax system which would see a more simple structure with a lower corporation tax rate. He said doing so would make it more attractive for companies like Apple to repatriate cash currently held overseas.

Of the massive cash reserve Apple currently holds, around $100bn is held outside the US.

No special tax deals with companies: Revenue chairman

Separately, the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners Josephine Feehily has told the Oireachtas’ Finance Committee that Revenue do not do any special deals with companies, big or small.

She was replying to Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty, who was asking about the Apple situation.

She said she would not comment on any individual case regardless of who they are but added ''our tax system is statue based, is transparent and I have no role in changing that''

She told the committee that issue of taxation of global businesses raises complex policy issues and political issues.

She said the issues can only be resolved at OECD and EU level.