Can an LLC Own Precious Metals?
Investment in precious metals can be an excellent way to protect retirement savings from inflation while diversifying retirement funds. A Self Directed IRA is often the vehicle used for this investment strategy.
Gold IRA LLCs have become an increasingly popular way of purchasing and storing precious metals legally allowed under IRS rules, although this trend could fall foul of IRS restrictions.
Asset Protection
Precious metals have become an integral component of retirement account diversification strategies to safeguard against inflation. When held directly in one’s name, however, precious metals could become vulnerable to seizure by lawsuits or creditors seeking debt repayment or judgment settlements.
An LLC is the perfect way to safeguard precious metals against such risks, since if you are sued and judgment creditors want access to them they would first need to go through an extremely challenging legal battle before getting their hands on your precious metals – an easier and safer solution than seizing your personal assets directly.
Physical precious metals tend to fare much better when placed within an LLC than financial assets such as stocks or bonds, due to lower counterparty risk and reduced counterparty risk. An experienced asset protection attorney can assist in setting up such an entity in order to safeguard your safe assets and IRA accounts; or help retitle existing bank accounts into the trust.
Taxes
Precious metals have quickly become a go-to investment strategy for retirement account investors looking to diversify their holdings and combat inflation. Some IRA owners even use precious metals as asset allocation.
Concerns have been expressed that using a self-directed IRA to purchase gold coins or bullion and taking physical possession could constitute an untaxable distribution, so Wyoming (or Nevada) LLCs should be utilized when making such purchases.
Properly formed LLCs allow judgment creditors to only obtain charging orders which allow them to access distributions from your company – rather than taking your physical possessions which would then become taxable at sale time. With an LLC also comes greater ease when buying and selling precious metals due to clear chain of title.
Chain of Title
Chain of Title (CoT) refers to a record that documents ownership history for real estate or assets like vehicles or intangible assets like farming or timber rights as well as intellectual property such as music or film. Accurate recording of titles helps establish legal ownership and avoid potential problems when selling an asset later.
Precious metals purchased through an IRA must generally be stored with a “bank.” To help guide self-directed IRA owners when it comes to storage requirements for precious metals owned by their account, the IRS provides regulations known as the Home Storage Requirements for Precious Metals in their white paper entitled “Home Storage Requirements for Precious Metals” that should be carefully read before investing any property into one.
According to the white paper, banks must maintain a qualified escrow bank account and both parties involved (buyer and seller as well as subsequent owners) must be eligible to participate in a Section 1031 exchange transaction. Otherwise, taxes on capital gains could apply during any subsequent transactions related to that particular property transaction.
Distributions
As an LLC is structured as a flow through tax entity, when they recognize any gains they pass them along to members as profit distributions in various forms: cash, stock or physical property – this includes precious metals purchased and sold.
Precious metals may be sold at any time and for any price; however, their tax liability at point of sale depends on how they were acquired; typically this would be determined by how much was paid upfront for an item.
By using an LLC owned IRA to buy and store precious metals, you can avoid paying the high transaction fees that a Custodian charges. Money entering and leaving an LLC bank account goes straight through to purchases without the need for Custodial services – potentially saving thousands in transaction fees alone! Plus, title to assets remains under its protection as ownership remains with an IRA owned LLC.
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