By Raymond Doherty From economia

The Irish government has denied allegations that multinationals, including Apple, were given special tax deals to set up in the Republic, following further reports over the weekend

The accusations stem from last week’s Senate hearing in which Apple, represented by CEO Tim Cook, were criticised for supposedly funnelling billions of dollars in profit through Ireland and then on to the Cayman Islands.

The committee branded Apple’s complex structure the “Holy Grail of tax avoidance”.

However, Ireland’s enterprise minister Richard Brutons is adamant there were no special deals ever in the Irish tax code, but did admit there had been “different phases.”

“There was a period when every sector exporting didn’t pay tax on their profits, there was then a period when manufacturing companies had a 10% rate and every other sector didn’t,” he told reporters in Dublin. “So there were phases when there were different sectoral approaches but always statute-based, and there were no special deals.

“Ireland supports initiatives to deal with such aggressive tax planning but they will be done through international forums such as the OECD,” he added.

Bruton alleged that other countries do make special deals with multinational companies and suggested that this impacts on Ireland’s competitiveness.

According to a report in the Irish Times, Ireland will write to the Senate to challenge all claims it is a tax haven.

For more on this story go to:

http://economia.icaew.com/news/may-2013/ireland-denies-multinational-tax-deals