PrintThe current biweekly tax schedule is an unnecessary burden to gun manufacturers that has cost them millions of dollars. Some manufacturers must take out commercial loans to cover the cost of tax payments while manpower to fill out forms and oversee biweekly tax payments is expensive and time consuming. Resources that could be used for employing more workers, research and development of new technologies and spending for marketing and promotional activities is instead channeled into paying biweekly taxes.
America's leading firearms manufacturers are seeking support to rectify a provision of the Internal Revenue Codes regarding the timing of the firearms and ammunition excise tax (FAET) used to fund wildlife conservation in America. CSF is working with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and other conservation organizations to bring about this change.
This change would right a longstanding inequity that has placed firearm manufacturers in a unique tax payment category (other manufacturers who pay into the 'user pay' Pittman-Robertson and Wallop-Breaux trust funds pay quarterly taxes) and places domestic manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage with regard to overseas firearm producers. Changing from bi-weekly to quarterly schedules like other industries could free as much as $22 million annually for manufacturers to invest and contribute to industry growth, which also expands the FAET base.
Conservation dollars are precious and we must preserve the health of the U.S. firearms industry. A stronger industry shed of this unfair tax burden will be able to reinvest resources in areas that will make them more competitive. Increases in firearm sales will pour additional money into the Pittman-Robertson Fund, thereby providing even more tax dollars for states to protect their natural resources.
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