A petition launched by owners of an independent book store asking retail giants "to pay their fair share of tax" has received nearly 160,000 signatures from people supporting it.

Booksellers Frances and Keith Smith launched a petition last December calling on retail giant Amazon "to pay their fair share of tax in the UK." It also warned the company 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.

"Times are tough and getting tougher," the Smiths write in their petition. "We face unrelenting pressure from huge online retailers undercutting prices, in particular Amazon, and it's pushing businesses like ours to the brink. But what's even worse is that Amazon, despite making sales of £3.3 BILLION in the UK last year, does not pay any UK corporation tax on the profits from those sales. In my book, that is not a level playing field and leaves independent retailers like us struggling to compete just because we do the right thing."

Back in December, "we would have been glad with a few thousand signatures", said Frances Smith, "so to get almost 160,000 is just amazing. It just shows you how much people care."

Charlie Higson, author of the "Young Bond" series of novels, is one of the people who signed the petition.

"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?"