Apple chief Tim Cook defends tax practices and denies avoidance Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, mounted an emphatic and unapologetic defence of the US technology group's tax practices, as US senators quizzed him on congressional charges that the company avoided billions of dollars in taxes on international profits. We pay all the taxes we owe, every single dollar. We not only comply with the laws, but we comply with the spirit of the laws," Mr Cook said. "We don't depend on tax gimmicks," he added. Mr Cook appeared relatively at ease for most of the time as he faced questions by members of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which released a 40-page report on Monday night detailing Apple's use of tax loopholes and subsidiaries in Ireland to minimise its global tax payments. Democratic senator Carl Levin and Republican senator John McCain, the top lawmakers on the panel, chided Apple for pursuing such an aggressive tax avoidance strategy and pressed Mr Cook for answers on the scheme. Mr Levin noted that just in 2012, Apple had exploited tax loopholes allowing it to avoid $9bn in US taxes, or $25m per day, and said such practices did "real harm" to the US economy. "You shifted the golden goose to Ireland," Mr Levin said. Mr McCain called Apple's tax strategies "complicated and pernicious," adding that the California-based group's practices were "unacceptable." But the senators did not allege that Apple did anything illegal with its tax structures, leading the hearing to turn away from Apple's behaviour at times to focus on what corporate tax reform plans could help fix the problem. On that front, Mr Cook pushed a sweeping overhaul of the US corporate tax system, even if it resulted in a higher US tax burden for Apple. Mr Cook said America's 35 per cent corporate tax rate should be reduced, while all business tax breaks should be scrapped and a "reasonable" tax should be imposed on repatriated US profits earned abroad. "We strongly believe such comprehensive reform would be fair to all taxpayers, would keep America globally competitive, and would promote US economic growth," Mr Cook said. But when Mr Levin brought the hearing back to Apple's tax strategy and why valuable intellectual property rights on its international profits were held in three Irish subsidiaries that were not tax residents of any country, the discussion became testy. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said those structures were the result of arrangements made more than 30 years ago when Apple first began to expand overseas. This included a special 2 per cent tax rate negotiated with Ireland, which is much lower than the country's regular 12 per cent corporate tax rate. "Of course we have to change the system but in order to change it we have to understand it, not deny it," Mr Levin said, But Rand Paul, the Tea-party backed Republican senator from Kentucky, earlier denounced the hearing and took Apple's defence. "I'm offended by the spectacle of dragging in executives from an American company for doing nothing illegal," Mr Paul said, adding that "if anyone should be on trial here it should be Congress" for creating such a Byzantine tax code. The hearing began with the testimony of two academics, including Richard Harvey of Villanova University who said he almost "fell off his chair" when he read Apple's testimony claiming they did not make use of "tax gimmicks."