Answer: when it's the National Rifle Association. The above is clipped from the NRA's 2010 disclosure (Form 990) as a tax-exempt entity, and it reports zero dollars spent on lobbying. It does spend large amounts on its own salaries (Wayne LaPierre shows as receiving $960,000 in compensation in 2010), consulting firms, and various services related to stirring rage among its members about dark plots to take away their guns. They are not, yet, as fussy about the lobbying distinction as they are about the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons.