With the passing of the Big Beautiful Bill, the timing is perfect to apply for and get your Special Occupancy Taxpayer (SOT) license. Commonly referred to as your “Class 3” license. We discussed in detail what impact the BBB will have on sales of silencers, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns in last week’s blog.

The application process for your SOT is much less involved than when you applied for your FFL. In fact, it is quite simple:

Simply fill out the ATF Form 5630-7

Pay the required $500 tax

Wait approximately 2-3 weeks for your license to arrive

The $500 tax is a yearly cost for maintaining your SOT, and the SOT license is valid from July 1st to June 30th of the following calendar year. Also, there is no pro-rating of the $500 tax, so the sooner you apply and get your license the better.

Once you have your SOT, you can begin selling firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA). While there are several classifications of firearms regulated under the NFA, silencers are the largest category of firearms bought and sold in the market by orders of magnitude. Not only are they the largest category of registrations processed, but the silencer market also grew by over 80% in 2024. You read that correctly: while firearm sales have been stagnant and most recently down in year-over-year sales, the silencer market has exploded.

Wait times have gone from a “normal” approval time in 2023 and early 2024 of 6 – 9 months, to just 3-4 days! The spike in market growth was instant and has not subsided since. To understand the increase in market growth, here are the number of ATF Form-4s processed by ATF since 2023:

2023 – 390K forms processed

2024 – 749K forms processed

2025 – estimated to be over 800K

While no one has a crystal ball, industry experts expect sales to double again in 2026 when the $200 Tax Stamp per silencer purchased goes to $0. Manufacturers and distributors have been preparing ever since the President signed the Bill on July 4th and the supply chain should be locked and loaded to keep dealers in stock and sales flying off the shelf.

To learn more about the overall suppressor/silencer market, visit our friends at Silencer Shop. Their team of silencer experts will be happy to walk through the ins and outs of taking advantage of the largest growth market in the firearm industry.

Selling silencers means you’ll be completing more ATF Form 4473s. Completing more 4473s means—if you are still using paper or printing 4473s from an e4473 software—you are going to be taking up that much more space in your backroom and gun vault. That is so 1999.

You must keep every 4473 that is started in your store for the life of your business. That can add up to tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of forms that YOU are responsible for. It’s 2025, and it’s time to modernize your compliance operations by securely and safely storing your 4473s in 4473 Cloud.

You can be fully digital with NO MORE PAPER in your store before the Black Friday craziness of the Holiday Season. Don’t wait, sign up now! You can get your ATF notification completed and start storing 4473s digitally in less than 5 minutes. Click here NOW!