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- GOLD AND THE IRS
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- A new Internal Revenue Service ruling may stir
- thousands of coin dealers -- who stopped selling bullion
- products in the 1980's because of burdensome reporting
- requirements -- to once again sell bullion without fear
- of running afoul of government regulations.
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- The new regulation "Revenue Procedure 92-103" states
- that information returns filed on Form 1099-B are only
- necessary when sales are equal to or exceed Commodity
- Futures Trading Commission contract sizes. For gold
- bars, the contract or sales size is 1 kilo (32.15 oz.)
- with fineness of at least .995. For 1-ounce gold Maple
- Leafs and 1-ounce gold Krugerrands the sales size is 25
- coins. No other gold investment products are subject to
- IRS reporting. Amounts for silver, platinum, and
- palladium products are also detailed in the ruling.
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- Since a 1982 IRS ruling, it was widely assumed that
- all retail bullion sales required a report to the IRS.
- The cost and burden of that reporting, coupled with
- increased government audits and rigid but arbitrary
- enforcement, has caused perhaps as many as 5,000 small
- coin dealers and metals brokers to leave the precious
- metals bullion business in recent years, according to the
- Industry Council for Tangible Assets which fought for ten
- years to change the regulations.
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- Many of the thousands of coin dealers who stopped
- selling bullion products out of fear, confusion and
- uncertainty over the previous ruling should now feel
- sufficiently confident to reestablish sales and service
- to their customers.
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- The prospect of thousands of coin dealers and
- bullion brokers reemerging as active sales entities for
- bullion, bar and coin products can be viewed as a highly
- positive development not only for the coin dealer
- community but the precious metals industry as a whole.
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