I am something of an Amazon “fanboy,” to use a term I can’t stand. Jeff Bezos is, in my view, a super-genius from the future, sent to teach us how e-commerce should be done. The news that Kindle ebook sales have now surpassed sales of print sales is yet another sign of his awesomeness, which is to say his willingness to disrupt his own business.

So naturally I resent the notion that Amazon is somehow “dodging” state sales taxes. As Mike Masnick notes, Jeff Bezos has explicitly said that he supports a federal measure to streamline state sales taxes:

Our point of view on this is that we should simplify the sales tax system, and we’ve been consistent on this for about 10 years. It’s called the Streamlined Sales Tax Initiative. I think 22 or 23 states have signed onto it. Because the right way to fix this is with federal legislation. That’s where it can be fixed properly.
Sales tax collection is very complicated. And, you know, we’re no different from big chains of retailers — they don’t collect sales taxes in states where they don’t have nexus, either. So everybody is following the same rules. And I don’t think our customers would say, “Why don’t you just optionally collect the tax? I know you’re not required to do it, but aw, go ahead.”

Sounds like a perfectly defensible position to me. Amazon pays state sales taxes in states where it has a nexus, which is its obligation under federal law. Change federal law and Amazon will happily comply.