The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has unveiled plans to update and coordinate national tax laws to stop companies such as Google and Starbucks from using legal loopholes that enable multinational companies to avoid paying tax.

The OECD's action plan identifies 15 specific actions that will give governments the domestic and international tools to prevent corporations from paying little or no taxes.

The initiative comes following widespread criticism of companies such as Google, Starbucks and Amazon for using offshore jurisdictions to reduce tax liabilities.

The OECD said the plan will "align tax with substance", ensuring that taxable profits cannot be artificially shifted away from countries where the sales are made and operations are located, through the transfer of intangibles, risks or capital.

The action plan also provides a new set of standards to prevent double non-taxation and stronger rules on controlled foreign companies that will allow countries to tax profits stashed in offshore subsidiaries. 

The new rules were produced by the OECD at the request of the G20 to come up with an action plan after agreeing earlier this year to make a crack down on tax avoidance a priority.

The action plan was launched last Friday at the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Moscow.

OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría said the action plan "marked a turning point" in the history of international tax co-operation.

“International tax rules, many of them dating from the 1920s, ensure that businesses don’t pay taxes in two countries. This is laudable, but unfortunately these rules are now being abused to permit double non-taxation. The action plan aims to remedy this, so multinationals also pay their fair share of taxes,” said Gurría.

Many global firms create corporate entities in low-tax jurisdictions in order to reduce paying tax.

Whilst completely legal, there has been mounting controversy about the way multinationals have shifted their operations in this way and politicians have accused them of being "unethical" for not paying their fair share.

Since November last year the UK parliament has held three hearings on corporate tax avoidance, closely putting Google, Amazon and Starbucks under the microscope.

These companies all said that they comply with international tax laws.

Google UK sales are worth £3.2 billion ($4.88 billion), but it paid just £6 million in corporation tax in 2011.

Earlier this year the tech giant was blasted by British MPs for routing its UK sales through its European headquarters in Dublin to eliminate its tax bill in Britain.

Last month, following pressure from politicians and campaigners, Starbucks paid £5 million in UK corporation tax, its first such payment since 2009.

This was after it was revealed the firm had only paid £8.6 million in corporation tax in its 14 years of trading in Britain, and nothing over the past three years.

In order to reduce its tax bill, Amazon UK is believed to have classified itself as a service provider to its Luxembourg business, Amazon EU Sarl.

Despite making sales of £4.3 billion last year, Amazon's UK subsidiary paid only £2.4 million in corporate taxes last year.