Should your trust have it's own bank account?

[giggitygiggity]

It doesn't matter where the money comes from or how it flows. If I go to a gun store and my dad gives me $500 to buy a gun for myself and the cashier sees my dad hand me $500, they can assume I'm making a straw purchase but in reality maybe my dad handed me money for my birthday to buy the gun. And further, they'd find that either one of us are legally allowed to own the firearm.

My attorney never said anything about needing a bank account for a trust and I went with an attorney who specializes in gun law. Furthermore, if that's the case, why does the ATF not take action when they receive a $200 tax stamp from a check addressed from a name other than the trust?

 

[Theohazard]

His attny, recommended he have a separate bank account for his trust. the reasoning being as the TRUST is buying the items and if he pays for his items/stamp(s) out of personal funds it is a defacto straw purchase/illegal transfer.

If that was true, I wonder how it's going to look when he picks up the NFA item and fills out the 4473 in his name and not the trust's name...

 

[pintler]

I'll just join the 'my lawyer, who wasn't drafting his first NFA trust, doesn't see any need for a separate bank account' chorus.

 

[Elkins45]

My trust has authorized me to write a check from my personal bank account.

 

[jmorris]

Should your trust have it's own bank account?

Only if your wife complains about your stamp collecting. However your still going to leave a paper trail.

The first lesson in spousal embezzlement is to not leave evidence...

 

[yugorpk]

Only if your wife complains about your stamp collecting. However your still going to leave a paper trail.

The first lesson in spousal embezzlement is to not leave evidence...

+1 for truth

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Well on that merit, I should be allowed to discuss pickup trucks since my pickup truck is used to cart NFA firearms around.

The correct way to do a trust is a critical issue for legally owning NFA firearms though a trust and is not always clear to people who have not been through the process. This makes trust law and the details of acquiring NFA firearms through a trust an important topic.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

If that was true, I wonder how it's going to look when he picks up the NFA item and fills out the 4473 in his name and not the trust's name...

There is actually a letter you are supposed to attach to you form 4473 but I stopped doing that after even high-volume NFA dealers told me they never heard of it.

Mike

 

[yugorpk]

Never heard of it. The trustee is picking it up and is the one filling out the 4473 . His name and title is on the 4473.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

A trust is not a business, but it used to be a common belief that the following applied to trusts and I've seen it mentioned in several guides.
Form 4473 Question 1 Instructions:

When the buyer of a firearm is a corporation, company, association, partnership,
or other such business entity, an officer authorized to act on behalf of the
business must complete Section A of the form with his or her personal
information, sign Section A, and attach a written statement, executed under
penalties of perjury, stating: (A) the firearm is being acquired for the use of
and will be the property of that business entity and (B) the name and address
of that business entity. If the buyer’s name in question 1. is illegible, the
seller must print the buyer’s name above the name written by the buyer.

Mike

 

[Theohazard]

There is actually a letter you are supposed to attach to you form 4473 but I stopped doing that after even high-volume NFA dealers told me they never heard of it.

Interesting. I've worked at two of the highest-volume NFA dealers on the West Coast and I've been through three ATF audits that involved audits on how we do our NFA paperwork, and I've also never heard of that.

 

[Txhillbilly]

The BATFE really doesn't care where the funds come from,they are just wanting someone to send them $200 for each tax stamp item on a FFA Trust.
I wrote the checks (personal checking account) for my first two items. The suppressor that I purchased a couple weeks ago,the FFL dealer wrote a business check to the BATFE for my items tax stamp,and just added it onto my credit card charge for the suppressor.

 

[atomchaser]

The lawyer who drafted my recent trust advised a separate bank account but I've never followed through on it. I had acquired most of my items prior to having that trust so i didn't see the point. If the government is going to take your NFA items, it will be based on new legislation that prohibits ownership not on some fine point of trust law.