The bookshop that is taking on Amazon...and winning

Frances and Keith Smith, who run Kenilworth and Warwick Books, set up their online petition in November in hope of creating a fairer deal for small businesses and to try and shame multi-national companies into doing their bit.

The couple are calling for a “level playing field” in the wake of news that the online company is among global retail giants exempt from paying corporation tax on UK sales.

They will take the petition directly to Downing Street on April 17 to present the rising 105,767 signatures to the Prime Minister’s office.

They hope, with enough support, they can push politicians to look again at companies like Amazon who avoid paying millions in UK taxes each year as they are based abroad.

And Mrs Smith said that they are now calling on all authors, residents, shoppers and politicians to join them on the day to make the call for a fairer deal heard in hope of protecting the threatened high street.

”We want everyone to come and support us, writers, readers, everyone,” she said.

“We are absolutely delighted with this response. We never thought we would get to 100,000 signatures to be able to take the petition to London but now it has happened we need to really make the most of it and fight for what is right.”

The pair have insisted that they are not against competition, but that the argument is simply for companies to pay their way in taxes on UK sales along with everybody else.

Mr Smith explained: “We face unrelenting pressure from huge online retailers undercutting prices and it’s pushing businesses like ours to the brink.

“It just is not a level playing field, that is all we want to see, a break for small businesses.

“Well established businesses are finding it really tough and we just need to make people aware of the impact this has.

“So many of us are really struggling while these companies trade from abroad meaning they pay almost nothing to our economy while making billions in profit. We pay our taxes and so should they.”

The pair will also lobby HMRC to investigate the legalities of off shore based business avoiding tax on UK sales.

As Amazon’s headquarters is in Luxemburg, it is not under immediate jurisdiction to conform to the same tax laws as British-based business - despite making billions of pounds of sales here each year.

Last year, bosses of Amazon, Starbucks and Google were hauled before MPs to answer why they pay little or no tax on UK sales.

Amazon released a statement declaring that it “pays all applicable taxes in every jurisdiction that it operates within” which does not include the UK.

Starbucks later announced that it would look at its tax affairs after public outcry.

n Sign the Change.org 
petition’@AmazonUK: Pay corporation tax in the UK 
online.