Bricks-and-mortar bookshops have launched a broadside against Britain’s “deeply unfair” tax system, which they say forces them to compete against the likes of Amazon “with one hand tied behind their backs”, after it was revealed that the online retailer’s corporation tax more than halved last year.

On Thursday, Amazon’s latest annual accounts for its European online retail business revealed that while turnover at Amazon UK Services – the company’s warehouse and logistics operation – rose to almost £1.5bn in 2016, its corporation tax payments fell from £15.8m to £7.4m year on year.

“It is simply wrong that the current system is so heavily weighted against bricks-and-mortar retailers, who are paying £2.41 in business rates for every £1 paid in corporation tax,” said the Booksellers Association’s head of corporate affairs Giles Clifton. “This deeply unfair system must end.”

Bedford’s Waterstones branch currently pays 17 times more in business rates per square foot than the nearby Amazon distribution centre. Changes to the UK’s business-rate system, which came into affect in April, saw booksellers warning the Treasury that the subsequent increase in rates for small businesses would negatively impact the 800-odd independent booksellers currently on the UK’s high streets

Clifton said that British booksellers were demanding “fair taxation” and “a level playing field” from the government, and called for the issue to be addressed immediately.

With Oxfam calling for the UK government to urgently implement comprehensive reporting for multinationals “to ensure they pay their fair share of tax”, the Booksellers Association has now also demanded reform, or risk the closure of the UK’s 867 booksellers – nearly half the number that existed 11 years ago.

“These latest figures from Amazon confirm what has become an annual event, an annual Groundhog Day. This is, quite simply, that Amazon is able to pay very low rates of tax in the UK … This gives Amazon – possessed of a huge market share and all the associated commercial bargaining power that goes with it – a further substantial advantage over its competitors in the UK book trade,” said Clifton, calling the current system “out of date and discredited” and warning that, without change, “there is a clear danger that more independent booksellers will close”.

“We have to be optimistic and start off with a belief that we can convince people the current system isn’t working. If our calls are not heeded, then we will continue with a situation in which it is much harder to succeed commercially as a bookseller, as the system is unbalanced,” said Clifton. “The system needs to be reformed so the burden of taxation … is spread more evenly [and] corporations like Amazon contribute more.”

A spokesperson for Amazon told the Guardian: “Amazon pays all the taxes that are required in every country where we operate.”