British booksellers have warned MPs that taxation of Amazon and other digital retailers must be overhauled if the bookshop industry and the high street are to survive.
“Amazon may maintain they create jobs but the company is putting numerous competitors out of business,” the Booksellers Association (BA) has told a parliamentary inquiry into the future role of high streets.
The BA, which said the number of independent book shops in the UK had halved to 858 since the US retailer’s UK launch two decades ago, added: “Bookshops have closed because of Amazon. The current steps being taken to reform the digital economy so that large scale internet retailers pay a proper share of taxation … should be encouraged and implemented quickly.”
The shadow cast by internet home shopping over struggling high streets is one of the key themes of the 75 written submissions received by the housing, communities and local government committee ahead of its first hearing on Monday.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
