As you know, President Trump signed The Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) on July 4th of this year. The Bill had one especially important piece of legislation that will have an incredible impact on your business in 2026. If you are an FFL who currently does not have your Special Occupancy Taxpayer (SOT) license to sell National Firearms Act (NFA) regulated firearms, now would be a good time to consider doing so.
We have all seen the NICS data, and you, as an FFL, certainly don’t need to be told that regular firearm sales are slow. And that is putting it mildly. However, there is a segment of the market that is growing and is set to grow exponentially in just a few months. The BBB passed the most pro-2A legislation we have seen in decades. What used to be a burdensome tax of $200 per silencer, short-barreled rifle and short-barreled shotgun has now been eliminated. $0 tax stamps take effect January 1, 2026.
Silencer sales saw a spike starting in March of 2024 as soon as ATF announced that the new normal on Form-4 wait times would be 4 days. Warehouses emptied, inventory was in short supply and sales were higher than they have ever been. ATF processed nearly 83% more Form-4s in 2024 than they did in 2023. That’s right, the market grew overnight by over 80%. If you missed out on that growth in business, now is the time to really evaluate whether you want to get in on the next wave of growth in 2026.
A quick overview of what the BBB does for the NFA Market:
- It removed the $200 tax on NFA purchases.
- This applies to Silencers, Short Barreled Rifles, and Short Barreled Shotguns.
- It does NOT apply to Machine Guns and Destructive Devices (they remain taxed at $200 per ATF Form-4 Application).
- It removed the $5 tax on Any Other Weapons (AOWs).
- Now taxed at $0, the same as Silencers, SBRs and SBSs
- The National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) does remain intact and continues to be operated by ATF.
- ATF Forms for NFA transfers (Form 3 and Form 4) are STILL REQUIRED prior to the transfer of an NFA firearm.
Long story short, everything that is done today when customers purchase a silencer remains the same, except they no longer need to pay the $200 Tax Stamp. Every silencer, SBR and SBS just effectively became $200 cheaper.
With gun sales flat, or down, diversifying your business and adding NFA sales has never been more important. Now is a great time to apply for your SOT, learn the ropes of the silencer market and get silencers in your inventory that will help your business thrive in 2026.
With that business growth, you will also see a growth in the number of 4473s you process at your FFL. Why keep wasting time, money, and space on storing 4473s in cardboard boxes? It’s 2025, and digital storage of 4473s is the perfect solution for your FFL. It saves you money from the first day you sign up. It frees up valuable space in your store for better inventory management. You must keep every 4473 for the life of your business. Why search your back room of dusty file boxes on every trace ATF requests like it is 1985?
The solution is simple: store your 4473s in 4473 Cloud. You can sign up and store your forms digitally in just 5 minutes. Yes, it is that simple. No messy IT implementations, just sign up, save money, and launch your business into the 21st century today!
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