I started the process in TX about a month ago. This is my experience so far...
• $300 for LLC filing and doing the forms yourself which is pretty easy ($308 if you pay with credit card)
• If you don't act as your own registered agent then it's another $40-150 a year.
• $200 for FFL Application fee
• $5 per card for fingerprints at the cop shop
• $1 for DIY passport photos. The State Department has a webpage to format a photo as a passport photo. (
Passport photo tool)
• Texas sales tax permit (free)
• Texas Unemployment tax if you pay wages to anybody other than yourself
• Federal EIN (free)
You'll need to bring your EIN with you and a resolution to open a bank account if you open an account for the LLC
The IOI (at least mine did) will want to see your LLC certificate from the state as well as your LLC Operating Agreement.
Insurance depends on your situation as does zoning and city/county permits.
$20 for an A&D book unless you make your own in Excel or use software which can get pretty expensive.
Safe obviously depends on how big/fancy you go. You can just as easily go with a cheap $100 from Academy and satisfy the requirements of the ATF.
Little things here and there such as office supplies you may want/need, where you're going to store your completed 4473s, multiple handgun/rifle sales forms etc.
If you're going to take credit cards you need to decide on who to use for processing. You can't use PayPal or Square as it's against their terms. You can get a full blown processing machine which will be about $20+ a month plus the terminal if they approve you. If you want something like PayPal or Square you can use EMS+ (plusbyems.com) as they allow FFLs. They'll send you a swiper to plug into your phone and they have an app to process the transactions as well as a web based virtual terminal.
If I think of anything I missed I'll be sure to post it.