California Private Party Transfers

California law caps what a dealer may charge you to process a private party transfer at ten dollars per firearm. Not a suggested amount — a statutory ceiling, with a Penal Code section behind it and a Level 2 violation on the Department of Justice’s own dealer inspection form for exceeding it. Most people paying for a PPT in California have no idea that number exists.

This page explains the law and cites it. It is not legal advice, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Where a question is genuinely unsettled, or where we could not verify something, this page says so rather than guessing.

What counts as a private party transfer

Section 27545 is one sentence, and the trigger is not what most people assume:

“Where neither party to the transaction holds a dealer’s license… the parties to the transaction shall complete the sale, loan, or transfer of that firearm through a licensed firearms dealer pursuant to Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 28050).”
California Penal Code § 27545

Two things follow that catch people out.

Money is irrelevant. The section says “sale, loan, or transfer.” It is triggered by the licence status of the two parties, not by whether anything was paid. Giving a rifle to a friend as a gift is a private party transfer and requires a dealer. So does lending one, unless the loan fits one of the narrow exemptions listed further down.

It is not limited to handguns. Long guns go through the same process.

Section 27545 has not been amended since the 2010 recodification. The procedure lives in Chapter 5, beginning at § 28050.

What a PPT actually costs — and the $10 ceiling

This is the part worth reading twice, because the money divides into two very different categories and only one of them is negotiable.

The unit matters. The $37.19 in state fees is per transaction, not per gun. The regulation is explicit — 11 CCR § 4001 sets the DROS fee “for one or more firearms transferred at the same time to the same transferee.” The $10 dealer fee is per firearm. So transferring two rifles to one buyer at one appointment is $37.19 + $20, not double everything.

The cap is a hard ceiling, not a guideline

Section 28055 has five subdivisions and they close the door deliberately:

• (a) The buyer “may be required by the dealer to pay a fee not to exceed ten dollars ($10) per firearm.”
• (b) If the dealer ends up storing the firearm for the seller under § 28050(f), the seller may be charged “a fee not to exceed ten dollars ($10) per firearm.” Almost nobody mentions this one.
• (c) “No other fee may be charged by the dealer” except fees under §§ 23690, 28300, Article 3 (beginning at § 28200), and the safety certificate fees in § 31650.
• (d) “The dealer may not charge any additional fees.”
• (e) Nothing stops a dealer charging less.

Subdivisions (c) and (d) state the same prohibition twice, once by exception and once flatly. There is no room in that language for a “handling fee,” a “processing fee,” a “transfer fee” on top, or a storage charge beyond the one in (b).

The Department of Justice enforces this. Its Bureau of Firearms dealer inspection form, BOF 1050, “Firearm Dealer Violation List”, lists as a Level 2 violation: “Firearm Private Party Transfer fees shall not exceed $10.00 per firearm.” Failing to post the fee schedule is a Level 1 violation. Posting the fee schedule is separately required by § 26875, and § 26880 prohibits misstating what the government fees are. The criminal backing sits in § 28070: “A violation of this chapter by a dealer is a misdemeanor.” Section 28055 is in that chapter.

Why it is still $10 in 2026

Because the Legislature never attached an escalator to it. Compare the neighbouring fee sections — §§ 23690(a)(1), 28225(a), 28230(a) and 28233(c) each carry an express clause allowing increases tracking the California Consumer Price Index. Section 28055 has no such clause.

And this is not a section nobody has looked at. SB 715 amended § 28055 in 2021, adding the subdivision (b) storage fee alongside the new § 28050(f) procedure. The Legislature reopened the section, wrote a new fee into it, and still declined to attach an escalator to the $10. Meanwhile the state’s own fees have climbed.

If a dealer quotes you more

Some will, and not always dishonestly — a shop may quote a single “PPT price” that bundles the state fees and the $10 together, which is fine if the arithmetic lands at $47.19 for one firearm. What is not permissible is a dealer charge above $10 per firearm on top of the state fees. Ask for the breakdown. If it does not reconcile, the section to point at is Penal Code § 28055(d), and the fee schedule should be posted on the wall.

One legitimate addition: if the buyer does not hold a Firearm Safety Certificate, § 28055(c) expressly preserves the § 31650 certificate fee, which is $25. That is a real charge and it is lawful on top.

How a PPT actually runs, step by step

Both parties go to the dealer together. DOJ’s position is that dealers are required to process private party transfers on request, and § 26825 makes agreeing to “act properly and promptly in processing firearms transactions pursuant to Chapter 5” a condition of holding a licence.

One real exception, and it is not widely known: § 28065 provides that “a dealer who does not sell, transfer, or keep an inventory of handguns is not required to process private party transfers of handguns.” A long-gun-only shop can decline your handgun PPT lawfully. Call ahead.

1. Both parties appear in person. (§ 27545)
2. The seller hands the firearm to the dealer, who takes custody of it for the duration. (§ 28050(b))
3. The buyer presents clear evidence of identity and age. (§ 27540(c))
4. The buyer presents a Firearm Safety Certificate. (§§ 27540(e), 26840(a))
5. Handgun only — the buyer presents California residency documentation: a utility bill no more than three months old, a residential lease, a property deed, or military permanent duty station orders. The list is not closed — § 26845(b) also allows “other evidence of residency as permitted by the Department of Justice.”
6. The dealer submits the DROS and DOJ checks state records, Department of State Hospitals records and NICS. (§ 28220)
7. Fees are collected. (see above)
8. Handgun only — the buyer performs a safe handling demonstration before a DOJ-certified instructor. (§ 26850) Two exceptions: § 26850(f) excuses a handgun being returned to its owner, and (h) excuses the people exempted from the safety certificate by § 31700.
9. A firearm safety device requirement applies — § 23635(a) reaches this expressly, “including a private transfer through a dealer.” You satisfy it by taking an approved device, or by already owning a § 23650 gun safe and presenting an original receipt or other proof of purchase (§ 23635(b)), or by buying an approved device within 30 days and presenting it with the receipt (§ 23635(c)). A bare affidavit is not the route.
10. The 10-day waiting period runs while the dealer holds the firearm. (§ 27540(a)) Note that the clock is 10 days from the application or from the submission of any correction or fee DOJ asks for, “whichever is later” — so a data error on the DROS restarts it.
11. The dealer delivers the firearm unloaded and either securely wrapped or in a locked container. (§§ 27540(b), 28050(c))

You are entitled to a copy, and you should not have to ask. Section 28210(e)(1) requires the dealer to provide the purchaser a photocopy of the register at the time of delivery, and § 28210(f) requires that in a private party transfer the seller also be given a photocopy, at the time the seller signs. The dealer must redact the purchaser’s personal information from the seller’s copy and the seller’s from the purchaser’s. If nobody hands you one, ask.

On the waiting period: § 27540 was repealed and re-added by AB 1078, and leginfo currently shows two versions. The operative one is marked operative April 1, 2026. Its opening clause is what reaches a PPT — “A dealer, whether or not acting pursuant to Chapter 5… shall not deliver a firearm to a person.” Worth stating plainly because it gets garbled elsewhere: AB 1078 did not change the waiting period. Subdivisions (a) through (e) are word for word identical in both versions. Only the multiple-purchase trigger in (f) was rewritten, alongside the operative-date clause in (g).

How many private party transfers can I do?

This is the most-searched question on the topic and the most commonly answered wrongly. There are two different limits and they bind two different people.

Selling: fewer than six transactions, and no more than 50 firearms, per calendar year

Almost every page on this subject gets the mechanism wrong, so it is worth walking through properly. The limit is real, but it does not come from the section people cite, and it is not a limit on private party transfers as such.

Start with the rule nobody mentions. Penal Code § 26500(a) prohibits any person selling, leasing or transferring firearms without a dealer’s licence, and § 26500(b) makes a violation a misdemeanor. On its face that would outlaw selling your own rifle.

What rescues you is § 26520, and it is two sentences long:

“(a) Section 26500 does not apply to the infrequent sale, lease, or transfer of firearms. (b) As used in this section, ‘infrequent’ has the meaning provided in Section 16730.”
California Penal Code § 26520

And § 16730 supplies the numbers, with both prongs required:

“‘infrequent’ means both of the following are true: (1) The person conducts less than six transactions per calendar year. (2) The person sells, leases, or transfers no more than 50 total firearms per calendar year.”
California Penal Code § 16730(a). A “transaction” is a single transfer of any number of firearms.

So the structure is:

• Section 27545 tells you how to transfer — through a dealer. Complying with it satisfies § 27545 and nothing else.
• Section 26500 tells you whether you may be in the business at all, and § 26520 is the numeric shelter an ordinary private seller relies on. (Others exist for narrower situations — § 26515 for someone disposing of inherited firearms within 60 days, § 26525 for gun-show sellers.)

Using a dealer does not buy you out of § 26500. That is the misconception this page exists to correct. You can run every one of your sales through a licensed dealer, do everything else perfectly, and still be over the line at the sixth transaction in a calendar year — because the shelter in § 26520 is keyed to frequency, not to procedure.

Note the counting rule, because it cuts in your favour: a “transaction” is a single transfer of any number of firearms. Selling ten rifles to one buyer at one appointment is one transaction. Selling one rifle on seven occasions is seven.

Both prongs must hold. Five transactions totalling 60 firearms fails prong two. Six transactions of one firearm each already fails prong one — the shelter needs fewer than six.

Note also that § 16730 says “as used in Section 31815 and in Division 6 (commencing with Section 26500)” — which is why it reaches both the licensing shelter here and the conditions attached to the dealer-free exemptions such as the intrafamilial transfer at § 27875(a)(1) and the family loan at § 27880(b). One definition, doing two jobs.

Where a court would draw the line for someone selling regularly but staying under the numbers, we cannot tell you — we found no published case construing § 26520 against § 16730’s numbers. If you are near the threshold, that is a question for a lawyer.

Buying: three firearms in any 30 days

The buyer-side limit is § 27535, and it changed recently. As of April 1, 2026 the number is three, not one:

“A person shall not make an application to purchase one or more firearms that would result in the purchase of more than three firearms cumulatively within any 30-day period. This subdivision does not authorize a person to make an application or applications to purchase a combination of firearms, completed frames or receivers, or firearm precursor parts within the same 30-day period.”
Penal Code § 27535(a), as added by AB 1078 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 570), operative April 1, 2026

It covers all firearms, not just handguns. And critically:

Private party transfers count toward that limit. Section 27535(b) contains fourteen exemptions and none of them is a general PPT exemption. The only two that mention private party transactions are narrow: (b)(8), where the seller is under a legal or court-ordered obligation to relinquish all firearms, and (b)(9), where the seller is an estate’s personal representative, a holder of a decedent’s property transferring under Probate Code § 13101, or a trustee distributing on a settlor’s death.

Where the California DOJ gets this wrong

We check the state’s own published material against the sections it cites, because it is what most readers find first. On private party transfers it does not hold up.

It tells you PPTs are exempt from the 30-day purchase limit. They are not.

DOJ’s California Firearm Laws Summary (2021 edition), still linked from the Bureau of Firearms pages today, states under “One-Gun-per-30-Days Limit” that exemptions “include pawn returns, intra-familial transfers, and private party transfers.” A table on the same page repeats it, marking the limit as not applying to private party transfers.

That is wrong three ways against today’s law. The number is three, not one. The scope is all firearms, not just handguns and semiautomatic centerfire rifles. And there is no general private party transfer exemption in § 27535(b) — we read all fourteen paragraphs of the operative version. A reader relying on that document would believe their PPT purchases are uncapped. They are not.

The consequence is not trivial but it is also not catastrophic: § 27590(e) sets a ladder for § 27535 violations — an infraction with a $50 fine for a first offence, $100 for a second, and a misdemeanor for a third or subsequent. The more likely outcome is simply a denied DROS and a wasted trip.

Its public FAQ gives two different numbers as “the DROS fee,” in adjacent answers

One paragraph says the total state fee is $37.19 and “the DROS fee is $31.19.” Another says the allowable fees are “not to exceed $47.19 ($37.19 DROS fee and $10.00 PPT fee).” Both call a different number “the DROS fee.” Only the first is right — § 28233(a) and 11 CCR § 4001 both fix the DROS fee at $31.19. The $37.19 is the sum of three separate fees.

Its “$47.19 maximum” is wrong against the section it cites

Section 28055 — which DOJ cites in the same answer — expressly preserves at subdivision (c) the safety certificate fees in § 31650. A buyer who needs an FSC can lawfully be charged $47.19 plus $25. The stated maximum is not the maximum.

To be scrupulously fair to DOJ on the first item: that summary was correct when it was published. The 2021 version of § 27535(b) contained a general private party transfer exemption at paragraph (b)(8) — “Any transaction conducted through a licensed firearms dealer pursuant to Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 28050).” AB 1483 (Stats. 2023, Ch. 246) deleted it, operative January 1, 2025, and replaced it with the two narrow paragraphs described above. The Legislative Counsel’s Digest to that bill says so in terms: it “would delete the private party transaction exemption to the 30-day prohibition.”

So the criticism is not that DOJ wrote something false. It is that a document describing a repealed exemption is still the one linked from the Bureau of Firearms pages today, and a reader who finds it has no way to know the law moved underneath it.

The practical takeaway is narrow: on private party transfers, treat the state’s published summaries as something to verify rather than rely on, and go to the section itself.

The handgun Roster does not apply — and why that matters

This is the single most commercially important fact about California private party transfers, and it is two lines of statute:

“Article 4 (commencing with Section 31900) and Article 5 (commencing with Section 32000) shall not apply to any of the following: (a) The sale, loan, or transfer of any firearm pursuant to Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 28050) of Division 6 in order to comply with Section 27545.”
California Penal Code § 32110(a)

Article 5 is the Unsafe Handgun Act — the Roster of Certified Handguns. A private party transfer through a dealer is exempt from it.

In practical terms: the used handgun market is the main route by which an ordinary Californian can lawfully acquire a handgun that is not on the Roster. A dealer cannot sell you a new one. Another private citizen can transfer you theirs, through a dealer, and the Roster never enters the transaction. Section 32110 has thirteen subdivisions and several other exemptions — including curio and relic handguns at (g), gunsmith returns, and pawn redemptions — so “only” would overstate it; but for most people buying a handgun, the private party route is the one that is actually available.

The intrafamilial exemption reaches the same place by a different route — § 32110(b) covers transfers exempt from § 27545 under Article 6, but only “if the sale, loan, or transfer complies with the requirements of that applicable exemption.” A PPT has no such conditional attached; complying with § 27545 is the qualifying act.

Handgun and long gun: every difference

Age: 21, with three exceptions that are narrower than you have read

Section 27510(a) bars a licensed dealer from delivering any firearm to anyone under 21. In a PPT the dealer makes the delivery, so this governs. The three exceptions in subdivision (b) have materially different scopes, and most summaries flatten them into one:

• (b)(1) Valid unexpired hunting licence issued by the Department of Fish and Wildlife — covers only “a firearm that is not a handgun, semiautomatic centerfire rifle, completed frame or receiver, or firearm precursor part.” Four categories excluded. A stripped lower is not covered. Since July 1, 2025 DOJ verifies the licence directly with Fish and Wildlife under § 28220(a)(2).
• (b)(2) Honorably discharged from the Armed Forces, National Guard, Air National Guard or active reserves — covers a firearm that is “not a handgun or a semiautomatic centerfire rifle.” Two categories excluded, so this is broader than the hunting licence exception.
• (b)(3) Active peace officers, federal officers and agents, reserve peace officers, and active service members — covers a firearm that is “not a handgun.” Semiautomatic centerfire rifles are included.

Separately, § 27505(a) binds the private seller directly, and its second clause binds everyone: “No person, corporation, or firm shall sell, loan, or transfer a firearm to a minor, nor sell a handgun to an individual under 21 years of age.”

If the buyer is denied

The firearm does not simply go home with the seller, and the rules here are more specific than most people expect.

First, the dealer must try to return it immediately. Section 28050(d) requires the dealer to “forthwith, without waiting for the conclusion of the waiting period” return the firearm to the seller — unless doing so would itself violate § 27500, 27505, 27515, 27520, 27525, 27530 or 27535. That is a seven-section list and any summary giving fewer is incomplete. The ones that actually bite are § 27500, where the seller has themselves become a prohibited person, and § 27505, whose first clause bars transferring any firearm to a minor — so a seller under 18 cannot get their own firearm back this way. The purchase limit will not block a return — § 27535(b)(13) expressly exempts “the return of any firearm to its owner.”

If return is blocked, § 28050(f) takes over:

• (f)(1) The seller “may request, and the dealer shall grant,” retention for up to 45 days so the seller can designate someone else to take the firearm. That 45 days is on top of the waiting period, not inside it.
• (f)(2) If a designee is named in time and applies, the dealer processes it as a normal transfer — meaning a fresh 10-day wait.
• (f)(3) If no request is made, or the designee cannot receive it, the dealer “shall forthwith deliver the firearm to the sheriff or the chief of police” where the dealership is located.

Two mechanics the Penal Code leaves open are supplied by regulation. 11 CCR § 4026(c) says the 45-day period “begins when the seller, transferor, or person loaning the firearm requests” retention — the clock starts on the request, not on the denial — and that the seller may designate one person, not a list. The dealer must notify DOJ within 72 hours of retaining the firearm, and again within 72 hours of any delivery to law enforcement (§ 28050(g)).

And the storage is not free: § 28055(b) lets the dealer charge the seller up to $10 per firearm for it.

When you do not need a dealer at all

Article 6 of the Penal Code lists twenty-nine exceptions to § 27545. The ones an ordinary person is likely to meet:

• § 27875 — intrafamilial transfer. Parent to child, grandparent to grandchild, by gift, bequest or intestate succession. Full guide here.
• § 27920 — operation of law. Inheritance, executors, trustees, spousal transmutation.
• § 27880 — family loan up to 30 days, to a spouse, registered domestic partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild, including by adoption or step-relation. Six conditions, including that the borrower hold a Firearm Safety Certificate.
• § 27881 — a loan on the lender’s own residence or non-commercial property.
• § 27885 — a loan in the lender’s continuous presence, three days or less.
• § 27883 — a storage loan at the receiver’s residence, up to 120 days. Operative January 1, 2026.
• § 27882 — a voluntary temporary transfer for suicide prevention. Also operative January 1, 2026, and worth knowing exists.
• § 27890 — delivery to a gunsmith for service or repair, and its return.
• § 27910 — a loan for target shooting on the premises of a licensed range or club, where the firearm never leaves.
• § 27950 — a loan of a non-handgun to a licensed hunter for no longer than the hunting season.

Each of these carries its own conditions, and failing any one of them means the exemption never applied — which puts the transaction back under § 27545 as an unlawful transfer without a dealer.

Out-of-state buyers and sellers

Full guide: California family firearm transfer from out of state: what actually works covers all six scenarios (living gift, sale, inheritance, sending out, moving in, moving out) with the cost stack for each.

Buying from an out-of-state private party: the firearm must be delivered to a California dealer first. Section 27585(a) bars a California resident from importing a firearm obtained outside the state on or after January 1, 2015 without routing it through a California dealer. Subdivision (b) carries fourteen exceptions, and the one most people actually need is (b)(5) — a personal firearm importer who complies with § 27560, which is the route for someone moving to California with firearms they already own. Federal law says the same thing from the other side — 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(5) makes it unlawful for an unlicensed person to transfer a firearm to a resident of another state, with narrow exceptions for bequest and intestate succession, and for temporary sporting loans.

Selling to someone out of state: § 27895 provides the clean route — a California resident may sell, deliver or transfer to a person licensed under 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44 in another state, subject to that section’s conditions. In practice that means shipping to their FFL.

Federal law does permit a licensee to sell a rifle or shotgun face-to-face to a resident of another state under § 922(b)(3)(A), if the transferee meets the transferor in person and the sale complies with the law of both states. That is a dealer’s transaction, not a private one.

Does the 11% firearms excise tax apply to a PPT?

No — not to a genuine private party transfer. This comes up constantly since the tax took effect on July 1, 2024, and the answer is favourable but conditional.

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration states that the dealer is “not considered the firearm retailer and is not responsible” for the sales tax or the excise tax when all four of the following are true: the dealer is completing registration paperwork for a California private party selling to a California purchaser; the seller and purchaser negotiated the terms of sale in advance; the seller brings the firearm to the dealer to meet the statutory requirements; and the dealer never takes title to the firearm.

All four, not three. And there is a trap attached:

Consignment is not a private party transfer. CDTFA’s own FAQ answers this directly: when a private seller brings a firearm to a dealer and asks the dealer to find a buyer, the dealer is the retailer and is liable for sales tax and the excise tax. The distinguishing condition is the second one — terms negotiated in advance. If you have not already found your buyer, you are not doing a PPT.

But “the dealer owes nothing” is not “nobody owes anything.” CDTFA’s answer continues: in that situation “the private party seller would owe the sales tax unless the transaction qualifies for an exemption” — pointing to the exempt occasional sale rule in Regulation 1595. Most one-off private sales will fall there, but a seller reading only the headline would take away that no tax exists at all, and that is not what CDTFA says.

CDTFA also states the excise tax base excludes state fees such as DROS, the Firearms Safety fee and the Safety and Enforcement fee.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a private party transfer cost in California?

$47.19 for one firearm — $37.19 in state fees plus the $10 maximum dealer fee. Add $10 for each additional firearm in the same transaction, and $25 if the buyer needs a Firearm Safety Certificate. A dealer charging more than $10 per firearm for their own service is exceeding the cap in Penal Code § 28055.

Do both people have to be there?

Yes. Both parties appear in person at the dealer. The seller hands the firearm over and the dealer keeps it through the waiting period.

Is there a waiting period on a private party transfer?

Yes, the full 10 days. Section 27540 applies to a dealer “whether or not acting pursuant to Chapter 5,” which is the clause that reaches PPTs.

How many guns can I sell privately in a year?

Fewer than six transactions and no more than 50 firearms per calendar year. Both prongs. That comes from § 26520, which shelters “infrequent” sellers from the dealer-licensing requirement in § 26500, using the numbers in § 16730. Going through a dealer does not exempt you from it — § 27545 governs how you transfer, § 26500 governs whether you may be in the business. A transaction is a single transfer of any number of firearms, so one appointment for ten rifles counts once.

How many can I buy?

Three firearms cumulatively in any 30-day period, and private party transfers count. The limit rose from one to three on April 1, 2026.

Can I buy an off-Roster handgun this way?

Yes. Section 32110(a) exempts private party transfers from the Unsafe Handgun Act. Section 32110 carries other exemptions too — curio and relic handguns, gunsmith returns, pawn redemptions — but for most people buying a handgun, the private party route is the one actually available.

Can I give a gun to a friend without a dealer?

No. Section 27545 covers “sale, loan, or transfer” and is triggered by the parties’ licence status, not by whether money changed hands. A gift to a friend is a private party transfer. A gift to your adult child is a different exemption entirely.

What if the buyer fails the background check?

The dealer returns the firearm to the seller immediately unless one of seven listed sections blocks it. If blocked, the seller can request a 45-day hold to name one designee, and that clock starts when the request is made. If nothing is arranged, the firearm goes to the local sheriff or chief of police.

Does the 11% excise tax apply?

Not to a genuine PPT meeting all four of CDTFA’s conditions. It does apply to a consignment sale, because the dealer is the retailer in that case.

Finding a dealer who will do it

DOJ takes the position that dealers must process private party transfers on request, and § 26825 makes prompt processing a condition of holding a licence — but a shop that keeps no handgun inventory may lawfully decline a handgun PPT under § 28065, and dealers vary a great deal in how willing and how quick they are, and some quote figures that do not reconcile with the $10 cap. It is worth calling ahead and asking for the breakdown before you both drive out.

Find a licensed FFL dealer in California →

Last verified against primary sources: August 2026, then independently re-checked line by line against the operative statutory text. Sections 27535 and 27540 were replaced by AB 1078 operative April 1, 2026, and both currently display two versions on the Legislative Information site — the operative ones are those marked operative April 1, 2026, which is why those two are cited rather than linked. Sections 27882 and 27883 became operative January 1, 2026. Where this page could not verify something — notably how a court would treat a seller sitting exactly on § 16730’s threshold — it says so rather than filling the gap.

Related California transfer guides

• What you need to transfer a gun in California — DROS, safety certificate, waiting period, the general overview
• California intrafamilial firearm transfer — the CA-to-CA parent/child/grandparent path, BOF 4544A and the $19 fee
• California family firearm transfer from out of state — living gifts, inheritance, moving in and out, shipping rules