No Taxes on Gold and Silver Sales in USA ~ December 25, 2023

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This is the official site. 43 states have removed some form of tax. And also made Gold & Silver legal tender. Please study this link. For those who think I am blowing smoke up your a**. https://soundmoneydefense.org/state-legal-tender

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States Continue Removing Sales Taxes on Gold & Silver

To date, 43 states have removed some or all taxes from the purchase of gold and silver. Of the seven states that still apply this outmoded tax to purchases of precious metals, five of them considered legislation to end this tax in 2023. 

Taxing the exchange of Federal Reserve Notes for the monetary metals is an atrocious policy, for several reasons.

States generally don’t tax the purchase of investments. States don’t slap sales taxes on the purchase of stocks, bonds, ETFs, currencies, and other financial instruments. Gold and silver are held as forms of savings and investment. So taxing precious metals penalizes a single class of savers and investors.

Taxing precious metals actually reduces a state’s tax revenues. A Michigan analysis revealed that the sales tax revenue extracted was actually exceeded by revenue lost from conventions, businesses, and economic activity driven out of the state.

And states with sales taxes on precious metals are at a competitive disadvantage to neighboring states that have ended the practice.

Taxing precious metals is harmful to citizens attempting to protect their assets. Purchasers of precious metals generally aren’t fat cat investors. Most who buy precious metals do so in small increments as a way of saving money.

People purchase precious metals, in part, to preserve their wealth against the ravages of inflation. Inflation especially harms the poorest among us, including pensioners, senior citizens on fixed incomes, wage earners, and savers. 

Levying taxes on precious metals is illogical and inappropriate. Purchases of computers, shirts, and shoes are taxable to the final consumer. But precious metals are inherently held for resale, not “consumption,” making the entire notion of taxing their purchase illogical from the start.

More States Want to End Income Taxes on Gold & Silver

In 2019, the Sound Money Defense League teamed up with sound money advocates in West Virginia to eliminate sales taxes on precious metals. Several states have introduced similar legislation since.

A capital gains tax on precious metals is often a tax on imaginary gains.

Under current law, a taxpayer who sells precious metals may end up with a capital “gain” in terms of Federal Reserve Notes. This capital “gain” is not necessarily a real gain, it’s often a nominal gain that results from the inflation created by the Federal Reserve and the attendant decline in the dollar’s purchasing power.

Yet this nominal gain is taxed at the federal level – and, because most states use federal adjusted gross income (AGI) as a starting point for income calculations, this nominal gain is taxed again by the state (in most cases).

Neutralizing punitive income tax treatment of the monetary metals would remove the last major disincentive that stands against the ownership and use of the monetary metals.

Not Just Taxes, States Do More to Restore Sound Money

State legislative efforts don’t end with taxation. Legislation to establish an in-state gold depository, and protect taxpayer reserve funds with gold and silver. Measures that would permit – but not require – the State Treasurer to hold some portion of state funds in physical gold and silver would help secure state assets against the risks of inflation and financial turmoil. These bills have enjoyed grassroots support across several states.

Ultimately, individual states cannot bring soundness to America’s monetary system on their own. The root of the problem is the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, and Congress who have fully embraced fiat money and abandoned monetary restraint.

With the Consumer Price Index running at its highest rate in 40 years, inflation is becoming the most pressing economic issue of our time. States must not waste time in restoring sound money.

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