Taxes at time of FFL transfer ?

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  • 10xclean

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 23, 2008
    358
    Kingsville
    I have seen varied results on this. some ffl's charge sales taxes on a firearm delivered to them for transfer. What is the law on this ? have a big $$ rifle in the works and not sure if the vendor will tax me and the ffl too. Lots of out of state vendors now collecting tax money. any ffl's you are aware of that do not charge taxes on internet purchases?

    thank you.
     

    JohnC

    Active Member
    May 29, 2019
    311
    Baltimore, MD
    I have seen varied results on this. some ffl's charge sales taxes on a firearm delivered to them for transfer. What is the law on this ? have a big $$ rifle in the works and not sure if the vendor will tax me and the ffl too. Lots of out of state vendors now collecting tax money. any ffl's you are aware of that do not charge taxes on internet purchases?

    thank you.


    You need a new FFL if you get charged taxes on a firearm you've... already been taxed on. The dealer should have charged you taxes, as is written in law. I have never heard of being taxed on a firearms that an FFL is transferring from an online dealer. Especially considering that many around here charge $25-$50 for a long gun or handgun trial, collecting an illegal tax on top of that would be insane.
     

    davsco

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 21, 2010
    8,607
    Loudoun, VA
    the receiving FFL doesn't even know what you paid for the gun, so on what basis would he even charge/collect tax?
     

    ken792

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 2, 2011
    4,480
    Fairfax, VA
    If the vendor hasn’t collected MD sales tax, it’s not the transferring FFL’s job to do so. The end user is supposed to remit use tax to the state.

    In WA state, the transferring FFL is actually supposed to collect the tax, but few if any other states do it that way.

    https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/business/sales-use/index.php

    Every time you purchase taxable tangible goods from businesses outside of Maryland, whether in person, over the phone, or on the Internet, the purchase is subject to Maryland's 6 percent use tax or 9 percent alcoholic beverage tax if you use the merchandise in Maryland.
     

    Matlack

    Scribe
    Dec 15, 2008
    8,555
    There are FFL that try to do this. They are pocketing the money. Tell them to complete the transfer or you report them to the MD comptroller. They don't take kindly to people stealing money meant for them.
     

    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,151
    Sun City West, AZ
    I've been told by gun stores that do transfers to ask the sender to not send an invoice with the firearm showing the sales price or that the store would be legally obligated to collect sales tax on that amount.
     

    dist1646

    Ultimate Member
    May 1, 2012
    8,758
    Eldersburg
    Taxes are supposed to be collected by the seller and remitted to the state. If an in state dealer tries to collect taxes for what you paid, find another dealer. I do believe the pieces of garbage in Annapolis are going to get around to taxing even the transfer fee as part of the service industry taxes they are beginning to impose on everything.
     

    135sohc

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 27, 2013
    1,157
    Not on the firearm purchase price itself but on the transfer fee the FFL I use does charge the MD 6% rate... Seems odd but I think they do it more so as a CYA because of the paper trail a transfer generates and the potential for the state to get nosy if they wanted too.

    I buy plenty of stuff with no paper trail from them and half the time they round down to the nearest dollar so they dont have to deal with change... so their collection of sales tax on a transfer I dont get into it with them.
     

    rseymorejr

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 28, 2011
    26,007
    Harford County
    Not on the firearm purchase price itself but on the transfer fee the FFL I use does charge the MD 6% rate... Seems odd but I think they do it more so as a CYA because of the paper trail a transfer generates and the potential for the state to get nosy if they wanted too.

    I buy plenty of stuff with no paper trail from them and half the time they round down to the nearest dollar so they dont have to deal with change... so their collection of sales tax on a transfer I dont get into it with them.

    So they charge sales tax on non-taxable things and don't charge sales tax on taxable things?
    LOL! I hope they're not that loosey goosey with their FFL records
     

    Johnconlee

    Ultimate Member
    Mar 8, 2019
    1,149
    Mechanicsville
    If you can use an ffl that doesn't charge tax then transfer through them. My question to those that do tax is what amount are you taxing ? If I were an ffl I would be asking the comptrollers office for a clear answer on this. I think there was a thread years ago about a shop charging tax and they had been told in writing from the comptrollers office that they had to collect tax because the item was crossing the sales counter in MD. If memory serves me correctly that shop was beat up pretty good on here for doing it, but they are still in bussiness.
     

    Deep Thought

    Active Member
    Jan 27, 2013
    575
    Columbia, MD
    If you can use an ffl that doesn't charge tax then transfer through them. My question to those that do tax is what amount are you taxing ? If I were an ffl I would be asking the comptrollers office for a clear answer on this. I think there was a thread years ago about a shop charging tax and they had been told in writing from the comptrollers office that they had to collect tax because the item was crossing the sales counter in MD. If memory serves me correctly that shop was beat up pretty good on here for doing it, but they are still in bussiness.

    Wow. Not the shop's fault if the comptroller told them that. Tax issues certainly are complex, confusing, and sometimes non-sensical.
     

    135sohc

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 27, 2013
    1,157
    So they charge sales tax on non-taxable things and don't charge sales tax on taxable things?
    LOL! I hope they're not that loosey goosey with their FFL records


    The opinion of the comptroller would probably be that MD's 6% 'use' tax is applicable since a firearm is a physical item and you are using it in the state...

    Every time you purchase taxable tangible goods from businesses outside of Maryland, whether in person, over the phone, or on the Internet, the purchase is subject to Maryland's 6 percent use tax or 9 percent alcoholic beverage tax if you use the merchandise in Maryland.

    A firearm requires records aka 4473 so there is no 'hiding' the transaction from an audit if someone ever poked around. Certainly nobody should be paying the sales tax on the price of a firearm twice and if an FFL was doing that, they should be outed.

    If I'm just buying a box of ammo or something and paying cash more often then not whatever the total amount is they just round it down to the next whole dollar so nobody has to deal with loose change... There not using a barcode scanner or any sort of electronic inventory control to generate a receipt (and for consumables like that I don't care about a receipt) so sure the state gets shorted a few cents here and there :innocent0 IDGAF and the ffl does not either :) The welding supply I go to is the same way, pay cash and if you don't need a receipt. The price tends to be cheaper :)

    I'm gonna wager many FFL's do charge the 6% on a transfer but they have it calculated into their fee and rounded up/down to the nearest dollar or other convenient amount and nobody thinks twice about it.
     

    Sampson

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 24, 2013
    1,638
    White Marsh
    I've used home-based and store front FFL's and never paid tax during the transfer. Both of these are fairly close to Kingsville.
     

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