I am contemplating purchasing a SBR. I have a few trust questions that I am hoping can be answered.
First, if utilizing a trust, is the firearm paid for by an account or credit card in the name of the trust? Or can a personal credit card or check written by an individual who is the grantor/ trustee be utilized?
I would assume it would not matter where the funds for the firearm came from, as long as it it the trust that is named on the Form 4 that is assuming ownership of the firearm.
On the same note, can the check that is written for the tax stamp be from a personal checking account or does it need to come from an account owned by the trust?
My wife currently does not have access to my safe. Howver, I store family photgraphs, etc in it. I believe that if I give her access to the safe, she has to be a trustee (even if she has no intrest or intent on handling the firearms.) Is this correct?
Thanks, to anyone that can help clear these questions up. Obviously I am new to this, and I want to make sure that I do everything by the numbers.
Just send a personal check. The only thing owned by the trust is the NFA item.
My wife currently does not have access to my safe. Howver, I store family photgraphs, etc in it. I believe that if I give her access to the safe, she has to be a trustee (even if she has no intrest or intent on handling the firearms.) Is this correct?
She doesn’t need to be a trustee to have access to your safe. Who says you even own a safe in the first place… right?
What if you just stored the gun in the closet? You wouldn’t have to lock the wife out of the closet now would you?
It does not matter who buys the firearm. As the Grantor of the Trust, you can acquire it by whatever means and then you place the item in the Trust via an Assignment of Property form.
When sending a payment to ATF for a Form 1/4, the payment does not have to be from the Trust or you. I’ve sent more than my share of personal checks for customers who didn’t want their wives to see a check going to ATF.
If your wife has access to where the NFA items are stored, she absolutely needs to be a Trustee on the Trust if you want to follow the letter of the law.
I’m a Class III dealer and deal with Trust transfers everyday. Please let me know if I can assit you.
The wife of the owner at my favorite local gun store (Pistol Parlour) knows men. I picked up a barely used G17, and she asked if I needed a bag for the pistol. I said “No”. She said “OK. I didn’t know if you needed to sneak it in the house or anything”
I’ve had guys pickup their silencers and leave their wives in the car. One guy stuck the can in his cargo pocket and then bought a hat to take out to show his wife. Ha, ha!
“You dragged me all the way out here to buy a hat?”
I went with a trust, and I used a local attorney who also happens to be a CIII dealer and who wrote an article about the use of trusts for NFA purchases for Small Arms Review last year. I believe that he is one of, if not the, people responsible for the recent popularity of the use of a trust. Some people have put down the article as being too “basic”, but that was it’s intended purpose. You might want to see if you can find a copy of the article.
My reasons for going with a trust were that I wanted an easy transition to heirs if I die, didn’t want to have to get signatures from the CLEO (even though he was signing at the time), and wanted to be able to have other trustees have access to the items in the trust. I went with a trust over a corporation because the trust doesn’t cost anything to maintain while a corp. can have state fees every year and at the very least has to file taxes (although likely not pay them).
I would not go the trust route without an attorney. NFA is not a poor man’s game, and IMHO if you can’t afford to pay an attorney $300-500 to ensure that you get it right, I can’t imagine what you’re going to be able to buy on that tightwad budget. Yes, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of people that simply buy Willmaker and draft up a trust, or just steal one by copying a friend’s, but there are nuances to the law and the trust that can vary by state, and a good attorney can put clauses and provisions in the trust that are specific to the purpose of using it for NFA items.
Being and avid reader of MGN (defunct) and SAR I recognize Bob’s name. As a matter of fact I think that issue is back in my hooch in a footlocker. Here is what I gathered skimming through the article.
An NFA Trust allows you to purchase w/o the approval of the CLEO. Is that correct?
The trust is not public info thereby not broadcasting the fact that you have them.
Smoother transfer to heirs in the event that something happens.
