Learn which gold, platinum, palladium, and silver bullion selling transactions are mandated to be reported to the IRS (for tax purposes) and what kind of bullion buying falls under current Anti-Money Laundering Laws (applicable to either suspicious or cash and cash equivalents high volume transactions).

If bullion buying privacy and bullion selling privacy is important to you, the following information should be enlightening and helpful within the United States (and most AML compliant nation states).

If you are a US citizen and believe capital gains taxes on gold and silver savings is not in line with Constitutional law, perhaps also encourage your US Congressman to sign on to this developing  HR 6790 bill which could potentially repeal such future taxes if passed.

PLEASE NOTE:
In the USA, all applicable capital gains taxes are to be paid regardless if the bullion transaction is private or not.

Whether private or reported, no bullion product sales are exempt from any applicable capital gains taxes (state or federal). Consult your tax professional on any bullion sales losses or gains you may have.

As for IRS bullion reporting when... 

Have you ever wondered why many online bullion dealers will not accept large payments in cash or cash equivalents?

Why do banks fill out Currency Transaction Reports on their clients if they want to deposit or withdraw more than $10,000 USD in one transaction or the equivalent within a small time frame?

Why do banks, casinos, money service businesses, and financial institutions file Suspicious Activity Reports?

Gold AML Policy & Gold KYC Roots

The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 is often referred to as ‘Anti-Money Laundering Law’ or AML for short. The intention of this legislation occurred under the Nixon administration, and is purportedly in existence to thwart and track suspicious activities and capital flows which might signify money laundering, tax evasion, drug dealing, terrorism, and other criminal activities.

While many commercial banks are often alleged to have done exactly this, many individuals and various other companies are often prosecuted and convicted of money laundering crimes.

Knowing your customer (KYC) is now critical for any financial institutions ( e.g. banks, brokerages, etc. ) who want to remain in business long term.

Is there any government reporting when buying Gold, Silver, or other Precious Metal bullion products from bullion dealers?

Bullion dealers are not required to report any compliant bullion buying transactions to any government agencies.

Almost all competent high volume online bullion dealers purposely set up their payment policies to minimize suspicious order potentiality. Most competant high volume bullion dealers want to avoid manual would-be daily inspections required which could produce additional costs, time requirements, and energies expended by bullion dealer staffs in order to properly report any suspicious gold, platinum, palladium, silver bullion or other customer buying transactions to government agencies.

By in large, within the retail online bullion dealer industry, we would educationally guess that the high 99-percentile of customer bullion orders are never reported to any government agencies. Let us further explain our belief and why we believe this most likely remains so.

Online Bullion Dealer Payment Privacy

Online bullion dealers often stipulate that they only receive large payments from currency sources which are already within the AML compliant, KYC regulated financial system (e.g. bank wire transfers, personal checks, business checks, PayPal, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, ACH transfers, Bitcoin, etc).

Cash or cash equivalents like cashier’s checks, traveler’ checks, or postal money orders are often accepted by online bullion dealers but with stipulations regarding whether they are private or not. See IRS 8300 rules for further details as to why.

List of Reported Bullion Purchases (Gold, Palladium, Platinum, Silver)

PAYMENT METHOD	REPORTABLE AMOUNT	IRS 8300 REPORTED
Credit Card	No Amount	No, never
Debit Card	No Amount	No, never
Personal Check	No Amount	No, never
Business Check	No Amount	No, never
Bank Wire Transfer	No Amount	No, never
PayPal	No Amount	No, never
ACH	No Amount	No, never
BitCoin (via BitPay)	No Amount	No, never
Traveler’s Checks	$10,000 USD and over	In 1 purchase or multiple related customer purchases (gold dealer discretion)
Money Order	$10,000 USD and over	In 1 purchase or multiple related customer purchases (gold dealer discretion)
Bank Draft	$10,000 USD and over	In 1 purchase or multiple related customer purchases (gold dealer discretion)
Cashier’s Check	$10,000 USD and over	In 1 purchase or multiple related customer purchases (gold dealer discretion)
Cash or (cash equivalents)	$10,000 USD and over	In 1 purchase or multiple related customer purchases (gold dealer discretion)

Note that any Structuring of payments for Gold, Silver, or other Bullion requires SARs

Bullion buying privacy requires that paying customers do not structure gold, silver, or other bullion purchases with cash or cash equivalent payments totaling over $10,000 USD (i.e. by combining multiple cashier checks, postal money orders, cash, or cash equivalent funds) and or engaging in other suspicious activities.

All these very same compliance statutes also apply to any local brick and mortar coin shops, bullion dealers, money service businesses, pawn shops, etc.

It is up to the discretion of each business to track and report any suspicious activity, cash, or cash equivalent structured payments for physical precious metal bullion products.

Is there any government reporting when selling gold, silver, or other bullion products to bullion dealers?

Within the USA, this depends upon:

• the specific bullion products being sold to the bullion dealer
• the specific quantities of bullion products being sold to the bullion dealer
• the specific time-frames of multiple bullion products being sold to the bullion dealer
  
  

Gold IRS 1099-b and Silver IRS 1099-b Qualifying Sales

If you sell your bullion to a bullion dealer the question said bullion dealer must ask themselves is what product you are selling them, in what volumes, and within what timeframe(s)?

Within the USA, whether selling bullion to a dealer online or in a brick and mortar store, the customer to dealer bullion selling privacy rules are all the same.

Specific quantity thresholds and types of bullion products when sold to bullion dealers in the United States are deemed reportable on IRS-1099B forms.

When selling to a US based bullion dealing company either in one transaction or in multiple within small time frames, the following current minimum reportable IRS-1099 B bullion transactions are as follows:

REPORTED IRS BULLION ITEMs SOLD (customers selling to US based bullion dealers)	MINIMUM FINENESS	MINIMUM BULLION IRS REPORTABLE AMOUNTs (not structured)
Gold bars / rounds	0.995	32.15 troy oz or more
Silver bars / rounds	0.999	1000 troy oz or more
Platinum bars / rounds	0.995	25 troy oz or more
Palladium bars / rounds	0.9995	100 troy oz more
1 oz Gold Maple Leaf Coins	as minted	25 troy oz or more
1 oz Gold Krugerrand Coins	as minted	25 troy oz or more
1 oz Gold Mexican Onza Coins	as minted	25 troy oz or more
Constitutional US 90% Silver Coins	as minted	$1,000 face value bag, any combination of various sized coins

At the time of producing this document ( October 2018 ), every other government issued bullion coin not explicitly listed above, remains fully exempt from US based bullion sales to bullion dealer IRS 1099B reporting requirements.

If you sell the required volume of reportable products to a US based bullion dealer, they the bullion dealer specifically is required to fill out an IRS 1099B Form with your applicable tax information (social security information and or passport ID information for international customers outside the USA).

Silver Selling Privacy

There are many modern silver bullion products which remain currently exempt from US bullion dealer IRS 1099B report requirements. Based on current statutes, you can currently sell any and all government minted .999 silver bullion coins to US based bullion dealers, and those government issued silver bullion coins are exempt from IRS 1099B bullion dealer reporting requirements.

The following popular silver bullion coins are currently IRS 1099B exempt when sold to US based dealers:

- American Silver Eagle Coins & ATB Silver Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Armenian Noah’s Ark Silver Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Austrian Silver Philharmonic Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- British Royal Mint Silver Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Canadian Silver Maple Leaf Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Chinese Silver Panda Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Mexican Silver Libertad Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- New Zealand Mint Silver Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Perth Mint Australian Silver Coins (any sizes and volumes)

Gold Selling Privacy

For many modern made gold bullion coins, IRS 1099B reporting exemption and privacy also extends to the following gold coins sold in any quantities to US based bullion dealers:

- American Gold Eagle Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- American Gold Buffalo Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Austrian Gold Philharmonic Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- British Royal Mint Gold Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Chinese Gold Panda Coins (any sizes and volumes)

- Perth Mint Australian Gold Coins (any sizes and volumes)

Platinum Selling Privacy

Based on current statutes, you can currently sell any and all government minted .999 platinum bullion coins to US based bullion dealers and those government issued platinum coins are exempt from IRS 1099B bullion dealer reporting requirements.

Palladium Selling Privacy

Based on current statutes, you can also currently sell any and all government minted .999 palladium bullion coins to US based bullion dealers and those government issued palladium coins are both exempt from IRS 1099B bullion dealer reporting requirements.

AGAIN... YOU MUST NOTE:
Whether a bullion purchase or a bullion sale is private and or reported, no bullion product sales are exempt from any applicable capital gains taxes (either state or federal). Regardless of whether you make a capital gain or a capital loss on the transaction(s).

Consult your tax professional on any and all bullion sales losses or gains you may have past, present, or future.