Understanding Gun Trusts
An NFA Gun Trust is a type of legal Trust specifically designed to be used with NFA items and firearms in mind. It is written with specific language that complies with the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act rules and regulations. While NFA Gun Trusts are valid and work in all 50 states of the US, it’s important to note that owning certain Title II firearms in your state depends on your state’s laws. Every state has different regulations on which NFA items and firearms are allowed to be registered and used within that state.
Advantages of a Gun Trust
Using an NFA Gun Trust has a bunch of advantages, which makes it a great solution for most people interested in buying NFA items. You can add your family to the Trust, as well as responsible people like your spouse, children, or close friends. But, if someone is in possession of an NFA item from the Trust and isn’t listed as a trustee of that Trust, that could be a real problem. Adding trusted parties to your Trust is usually easy, as is the removal of Trustees. But it all comes down to how your Trust is drafted and established. The major plus of a Trust is that they’re drafted as revocable trusts, meaning you can change them when you want or if the need arises, and it can be pretty easy to do so.
It also lets you transfer NFA items to whoever inherits them upon your death without incurring the $200 transfer tax to get it to the new owner. Plus, if you pass away, having a Trust will let your estates bypass probate for your firearms and other things, keeping your stuff from becoming a matter of public record.
Additional Details
A Gun Trust doesn’t just protect the NFA items you bought with it. It can also include non-NFA items like handguns, shotguns, rifles, and, in many cases, family heirlooms. It’s pretty simple to move firearms into a Trust, like listing the items out on a schedule document at the end of the Trust. Once they’re in, they get the same protections as an NFA item. If you file for your NFA items as an individual and later decide that you want an NFA Trust for your collection, then you’ll need to apply for another Tax Stamp to move the collection into the Trust. That means that you are repaying the $200 Tax Stamp for every NFA firearm that you want to move within the Trust. Therefore, you need to decide how you want to structure your NFA items before you purchase your first NFA item.
