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Right now I don't pay taxes on purchases through Amazon. Online purchases are treated the same as if you had bought an item from a sales catalog. The company selling the item does not have to collect taxes, or pay taxes to a state, unless the selling company has a "presence" in the state. In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled that states CANNOT require companies who don't have a physical presence in their state to collect and pay them taxes (Quill Corp. vs. North Dakota). Just because a catalog company sends you a catalog doesn't mean it has a presence in your state. Just because Amazon has an Internet presence doesn't mean it has a physical presence in a state. A state can only make a company pay tax if they have some kind of brick and mortar, or legal, presence in that state.
However, it appears that the federal government is considering changing the law so that items bought over the internet will require the selling company to collect sales tax based on where the item is shipped. The legislation is called the Marketplace Equity Act (H.R. 3179), and, oddly, it is actually supported by Amazon.
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