Can You Contribute Gold Coins to an IRA?
An Individual Retirement Account (IRA) may hold physical precious metals provided that certain funding requirements and IRS rules are fulfilled, including meeting eligibility requirements such as being traditional pretax or Roth and no yield yield are present.
Metals held within an IRA are usually stored with an approved depository by a custodian who charges annual and storage fees to hold and protect its assets.
Eligibility
Treasured metals can make an invaluable addition to an IRA; however, it is important to remember that an account consisting solely of gold coins or bars does not provide adequate diversification of your retirement portfolio. Therefore, precious metals should only account for a small percentage of overall investments. Furthermore, you should store any IRS-approved gold in an IRS depository such as Oxford Gold Group or American Hartford Gold.
Rolling over your traditional IRA or 401(k) into a precious metals IRA can be an attractive solution, enabling you to transfer pretax funds without incurring taxes or penalties and use those funds in your new account for purchases of precious metal assets approved for investment.
Numismatic or semi-numismatic coins do not qualify for IRAs; this includes the American Eagle coin and South African Krugerrands. Furthermore, the IRS requires that coins approved for an IRA possess at least 99.5% fineness level while bullion bars produced from accredited refiners, assayers or manufacturers must possess 99.9% fineness levels for approval.
Taxes
Many investors are turning to gold as an inflation hedge in their retirement accounts, making it an appealing investment choice. It’s essential that investors understand all tax implications associated with investing in this form before making an acquisition decision.
Gold IRAs provide you with an alternative means of purchasing precious metals with pretax or posttax funds and safely storing them with an IRS-approved depository. They exist as separate accounts from your regular IRA and may contain different contribution limits.
Gold IRAs typically incur higher fees than regular IRAs and you’ll need to cover storage and insurance costs as well as possible markup on sales costs which varies by vendor.
Important to remember when investing in precious metals with an IRA account are that only approved precious metals, like bullion or coins, are permitted for investment – jewelry and collectibles aren’t accepted either! Furthermore, by age 72 you’ll need to start taking required minimum distributions out of your IRA in order to avoid incurring a 50% excise tax penalty.
Fees
Precious metals IRAs come with their own set of regulations and require special handling. For instance, only certain gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion coins and bars are eligible to be put into an IRA by the IRS; furthermore they must meet specific fineness standards to qualify.
As physical precious metal cannot be kept at home, IRA custodians must coordinate a handoff of physical coins to an approved depository. Failure to do so would constitute an illegal transaction that incurs taxes under IRS rules, so transference is critical.
Custodians for precious metal IRAs often charge additional fees to handle and store physical precious metals, which may include an initial setup fee, ongoing account maintenance charges and a flat storage rate. You should always inquire with any gold IRA company for more details regarding their fees so as to avoid hidden charges as well as markups charged on top of the price of desired precious metals.
Storage
If you are planning to invest in a Gold IRA, be sure to select a full-service company that takes storage seriously. In an ideal scenario, your precious metals should be secured within an IRS approved depository – this service typically handles any related fees as well as providing comprehensive customer education.
Keep in mind that the IRS requires precious metals held within an IRA be stored with an approved custodian at a depository that meets their regulations, such as size, management capabilities and recordkeeping practices of vaults.
If you break these rules and store gold coins purchased through an IRA at home instead of within an IRA, the IRS could consider this a distribution and assess penalties in addition to income taxes. As such, keeping coins outside an IRA is never recommended because you won’t enjoy its tax-deferred status and potential benefits.
Categorised in: Blog