If Santa put a new Kindle...

...in your stocking, best get downloading your favourite authors quickly, because from 1st January Amazon UK will be charging UK sales tax based on where the buyer lives, not on the tax haven where it's based - which is absolutely fair and right.

VAT on ebooks will be going from 3% to 20%.

Authors and publishers, who have been discounting the books heavily for their readers - and still are -  will not be able to suck up that extra cost so it will be passed onto the buyer.

The big question is not how much we're paying, but why are we paying VAT on ebooks when we don't pay it on paper books. A timely question to ask your MP in the run up to the general election.