When completing a Form 1 application for the manufacture of an NFA item on which you will be paying the applicable tax, the text accompanying Question Number 1 always causes confusion for the new collector.
“So what exactly is so confusing?”
Well … For starters, it tells you to make your check or money order out to ‘The Department of the Justice’.
When first reading this, everyone immediately says to themselves “What’s the deal with the awkward wording? Is it really supposed to be The Department of the Justice?”
The answer of course is “No. It is not.”
“So how did that wording make it onto the Form 1?”
While I cannot say for sure, most NFA collectors seem to agree that when the text was updated from ‘The Department of the Treasury’, someone just deleted ‘Treasury’ and replaced it with ‘Justice’.
But the awkward wording is not the only problem with this text. What generates far more concern for the observant applicant is that this text directly conflicts with the instruction sheet which accompanies Form 1.
On the first page of the instruction sheet, the instruction regarding remittance reads as follows:
g. Remittance. If the application is subject to the making tax, a check or money order, made payable to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in the amount of $200.00 must be submitted with the ATF Form 1. Do not send cash.
Based upon the experience of countless friends, my recommendation to my clients is to make all payments payable to BATFE. No one to my knowledge has ever encountered a problem with having such a payment rejected.
Disclaimer: This information is presented for educational purposes only and does not give rise to an attorney-client relationship. Additionally, I am licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia and this answer may not be appropriate for other states. You should always consult an attorney licensed to practice law in your state who is familiar with NFA trust planning before making decisions about your own estate plan.
