The "Dutch sandwich" looks set to remain on the global tax planning menu, despite a Dutch parliamentary committee meeting to discuss the fairness of its tax system on Wednesday.

That's the view of leading Dutch accounting academic, Joost van Buuren of Nyenrode Business School. He said: 'The problem is that everyone has to move at the same time. We can't just say that the Netherlands must change their laws, while no one else does. A unilateral approach will not work. There has to be a level playing field.'

Van Buuren, a former E&Y employee, said that while Dutch Labour party members had criticised the Netherland's tax haven status for multinationals and the country's finance ministry had said it was willing to have a "better audit of tax treatments of multinationals", the country as a whole "would not be willing to let all this money go".

'There's a lot at stake here and a lot of jobs have been created for Dutch lawyers and accountants through these tax laws.'

Currently, around 23,500 multinational companies are headquartered in Holland and benefit from favourable tax rates.

The tax system ensures around £1.5bn of taxes and revenues are generated just by the businesses servicing these 'PO-box' companies. That's around 0.3% of Dutch GDP.

Both search engine giant, Google and computer behemoth, Dell use the Netherlands' tax laws to shave billion off their tax bills.

A recent Bloomberg report, which cited the Dutch Central Bank, showed that in 2010 multinational companies passed £8.7trn through 14,300 Dutch 'special financial units.

The wider tax avoidance debate is echoing across the world, as evidenced by David Cameron's broadside against global tax avoidance at Davos yesterday.

In response to the PM's comments, Heather Self, partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, said: 'It's good to see the recognition from David Cameron that the issue of tax avoidance needs multilateral solutions, not knee-jerk reactions by the UK.

'A lot of the debate around the "fair share of taxes" has been very superficial - let's hope we can now have an informed discussion.

'What the UK must do is set clear rules and enforce them properly so that the UK gets its "fair share" of tax from multinationals operating here. At the same time, the UK needs a competitive tax system in order to attract and retain business - and the jobs they create.

'The UK is not a global policeman, although it has a role to play in making sure that international rules operate consistently across international borders.'

'The transfer pricing rules have fallen behind the way that global business operates, and it is time to take a fresh look.'