A petition launched by owners of an independent book store asking retail giants "to pay their fair share of tax" has received nearly 100,000 signatures from people supporting it.

Booksellers Frances and Keith Smith launched a petition last December calling on retail giants Amazon "to pay their fair share of tax in the UK." It also warned the company that the unfair advantage that not paying their taxes gives them is jeopardizing many high street businesses. The petition soon gained momentum and has received nearly 100,000 signatures. The independent booksellers are now planning to deliver their appeal to 10 Downing Street, accompanied by a large crowd of authors and other allies.

"We never expected this, [but] when we've reached 100,000 we will present the petition to Number 10," said Frances Smith. "We've got to keep the pressure up so the government realises this is an issue close to people's hearts. We have to keep banging on about it so the government knows it is important to people, and that there are votes in it."

The petition was launched on Change.org when the Smiths learnt of tax accusations against the retail giant last November. The Smiths admit that they weren't expecting as much support as they are getting. They wrote in their petition that many other businesses like theirs have been pushed to the brink because of the huge discounts Amazon offers, which they can only do because they dodge their tax payments.

"It's not a level playing field and leaves independent retailers like us struggling to compete just because we do the right thing," say the Smiths. "As independent booksellers, we are happy with competition in the market but it must be on level terms and by dodging corporation tax in this way, Amazon start with an unfair advantage. As they grow bigger it's inevitable that shops like ours will be under even more pressure. That's bad for customers, bad for the high street and bad for the UK."

Already 99,149 people have signed up to the notion that these arrangements are unfair. Higson, author of the "Young Bond" series of novels, is one of them. "My position is that Amazon is convenient and cheap, but at the expense of traditional bookshops that have to pay the full tax rate. How can anyone else possibly hope to compete?" he said. "There has to be a level playing field. I would be bereft if we lost all our bookshops and all book sales were in the hands of one single retailer that sells books for next to nothing. For a company to barge in, hoover up all sales of everything online and not pay UK tax appears to be bordering on the criminal. And for the government to have let them set up in this way is also bordering on the criminal, it's certainly very stupid, but then what do I know about EU tax laws?"