So, my friend has applied for his 07 FFL and I am also listed as a responsible person on the application.

When we did our initial interview with our examiner she said it was a requirement to register with ITAR and then the Department of State would tell us what if any our fee would be.

I went on the website and filled out most of the application but when I get to the end I am pretty sure it is going to want $500 for the current COVID reduced fee down from $2250.

Is this correct? I thought as long as we didn't manufacture Machineguns, sliencers, linked ammunition, etc. we would not need to register with the Department of State?

I don't want to not do something our examiner explicitly told us to do.

Also, if we did register and made a bunch of stuff regulated by ITAR could we drop our registration next year if the fees go back up to $2250 and retain ownership of those items after our registration expires?

Thank You for your advice.

ATF has no legal authority to tell you to register, or to decide if you need to register. It is not "required", unless you are making controlled items. A whole bunch of items came off he USML last year so like you said unless you are mfg NFA stuff you should be OK. I would hold off until that occurs. You only have to register for the years in which you are making stuff on the list.

ITAR underwent a bunch of changes in the past few years.

Do your homework.  Don’t be surprised if your atf lady has out of date info.

Time was, ITAR cost over $2 grand, they tried to stick-it to gunsmiths working on cowboy action shooting guns, and it applied to DVDs like art of the carbine.  Hopefully much of that changed.

Hope your next interview goes well.

This

ITAR is seldom an issue