Congress eliminates $200 federal tax on regulated firearm transfers.
S. 1224 — RIFLE Act · Filed by Tom Cotton (R-AR) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 1, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill repeals the federal excise tax on firearm transfers (currently $200 per transfer under Section 5811 of the Internal Revenue Code). It eliminates the tax effective immediately upon enactment and makes conforming changes to other sections of the tax code that reference the repealed provision. The bill also includes a rule stating that firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act remain outside the jurisdiction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is the repeal of a specific federal excise tax on firearm transfers. The conforming amendments and CPSC rule of construction are technical housekeeping and clarification, not independent policy changes.
- Section 3 rule of construction excludes NFA firearms from CPSC jurisdiction — substantively unrelated to tax repeal.
What the text implies
- Repealing the $200 transfer tax removes a significant compliance and cost barrier to NFA firearm acquisition, potentially increasing the volume of registered NFA transfers.
- The CPSC carve-out in Section 3 prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating NFA firearms under its general authority, even if future administrations or Congress sought to extend CPSC oversight to firearms safety.
- Conforming amendments preserve references to the repealed tax in other sections (5852, 5853, 5854) by inserting 'as in effect immediately before enactment,' which may create ambiguity in how those sections apply to transfers after repeal.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill reduces federal revenue by eliminating a dedicated tax on NFA firearm transfers, shifting the fiscal burden to other taxpayers or reducing public services funded by that revenue. While firearm purchasers benefit from lower costs, the general public bears the cost of foregone federal revenue without a corresponding public benefit or offset.
Who stands to gain
- firearm purchasers and dealers (reduced transfer costs)
- firearms manufacturers and distributors (lower barrier to NFA sales)
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Service, National Firearms Act (NFA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Section 5811 (firearm transfer tax), Chapter 53 (NFA regulations)
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 13 Republicans.
- Apr 1, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 1, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $990,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 76 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Tom Cotton, the sponsor, reported $1,292,206 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Rifle Association of America — $990,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,684 characters) on Sep 27, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress eliminates $200 federal tax on regulated firearm transfers.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1224 Report an error
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