Sunday 20 December 2009

Tax on Silver but not Gold…?


Tax on Silver but not Gold…?
I’ve often wondered why there is a tax on silver in the UK but gold is tax free, the tax on silver at present is 15% but rising to 17% after the New Year does put some people of investing in silver bullion and so they would rather invest in gold bullion… The main reason that there is VAT on silver is that it is more of an industrial used metal and used by a variety of industries where as gold has a limited use due to cost, Unless your into silver for the very long term, it is better to buy silver in the UK rather than from overseas such as the US or Canada for example, this is because of the customs and shipping costs.

Buying Silver in the UK…

Firstly there are not very many silver bullion dealers in the UK. You can buy silver in the form of coins and bullion bars on eBay where individuals and dealers generally trade, the issue here is that the premiums can be high and if you want to buy silver for investment or to retain asset value, you need to look for that silver with the lowest premium, that’s not to say you cannot get some bargains on eBay as you can.

Old Silver Coins…

One way to buy silver cheaply is to buy old silver coinage whether its British, European or North American it doesn’t really matter as the premiums can be quite low on them, with a little bit of knowledge one can easily find and buy various types of silver coinage from early British .925 sterling silver from the pre 1920s to the debased silver British coinage after the 1920s at 50% silver (From 1947 silver was taken out of British coinage). A good point to make on silver coinage is that there is no VAT on this type of silver…