Amazon spent $570,000 on lobbying in 4Q

Amazon.com Inc. spent $570,000 in the fourth quarter to lobby the federal government on online sales taxes and other issues, according to a disclosure report.

That's up 84 percent from the $310,000 that the online retailer spent in the year-ago quarter, and 4 percent more than the $550,000 it spent in the third quarter of 2009.

Web-based retailers like Amazon have historically not collected taxes from customers in states where they don't have a physical presence like an office. Customers are supposed to self-report taxes on such out-of-state purchases, though few do.

Lately, though, several states have passed legislation trying to force the retailers to collect the sales taxes, mostly by passing laws that claim online retailers' in-state affiliates × such as people who get paid when someone buys a book from Amazon that they've linked on their blog × constitute enough of a presence to require tax collection.

Seattle-based Amazon also lobbied the federal government on legislation related to net neutrality × an effort by the Federal Communications Commission that would require Internet providers to give equal treatment to all data passing over their networks × and organized retail crime, according to the report filed on Jan. 20.

In the October-December period, Amazon lobbied Congress, according to the report filed with the House clerk's office.