Sorry for my ignorance but have a question.

I have a silencer stamp in WA state. My brother has them in Florida. Both as individuals. Both of our wives would probably not want to deal with them on our passing.

Can we file them as a single trust being in different states? Can a individual stamp be changed to a trust by just one of us and add the cans to the newly formed trust? Or would new transfers/stamps be required for all cans under the trust?

Looking to make it easier for the survivor to deal with the cans and actually have possession until disposition is made.

Hope I made it understandable with my explanation.

As far as the "survivor" is concerned, the silencers being in a trust or filed as an individual doesn't matter. Both are relatively easily passed on if something happens to the owner. When it comes to putting items into a trust that have already been filed as an individual, you certainly can, but you pay again, and have to wait for them to process the change. Think of it as a transfer from an individual to a trust; it doesn't matter if you happen to own said trust, and already own the silencer as an individual. The trust is a different possessing entity. Others will likely elaborate. I am not an expert, but I know enough to confidently contribute.

Can a survivor possess a can (if not named in a trust) upon the passing of the stamp holder or must it be transferred to say a licensed dealer until sold and transferred to a new owner?

The way I understand it, a silencer owned by an individual can be passed on to a survivor the same way as anything else. There is a form to submit to the ATF (likely accompanied by the relevant legal documents naming the inheritor), and it does not require any additional tax paid.

This should all be verified by someone who is in the business of knowing these things. I am merely hoping to make you aware that a trust isn't required for things to be passed on to survivors.

Thank You KSGM. Hopefully not something to worry about for a long time, but it came up in conversation about estate planning for our firearms.

You should read up on this. I believe that for NFA items owned by an individual, they pass on to the estate at the time of death. Will or not, they remain in the possession of the executor of the estate until the tax-free Form 5 transfer to an heir or beneficiary is approved. Only then can the heir/beneficiary take possession of the item. I don’t think you’re simply allowed to just take it home with you the next day, even if it’s in the will that you get it. While the Form 5 doesn’t require paying the $200 tax, the person getting the NFA item still has to submit fingerprints, photo, and they run a background check, just like if you got the can transferred to you while the person was still alive. Aside from being free, it probably gets expedited because the ATF doesn’t want the can in the hands of an executor for too long.

Thank You Dwill104. That was a question we had, without a trust did that mean a stamp had to be obtained for each individual can. By your answer it appears not. Great, that could get expensive!

quote:

Originally posted by Tonydec:
Thank You Dwill104. That was a question we had, without a trust did that mean a stamp had to be obtained for each individual can. By your answer it appears not. Great, that could get expensive!

Yes, you need a separate stamp for a transfer of each NFA item. A tax stamp only covers one item. If you have 10 cans, each owned as an individual, you would need 10 stamps to transfer them to trusts, even if they all end up going to the same trust. As noted, if after a death, the transfer tax is waived, so it’s free, not $200. However, it’s still a separate form for each individual item.

Got it, we were concerned with heirs having to pay for all stamps again. The Form 5 alleviates that. Thanks again.