|
|
|
|
|
Goldbugs Beware! The tax man cometh!
|
|
 |
This Link is located in the Public Channel Contrarian Stock Market News and Views.
Posted by lucretius 121 days ago (contrarianprofits.com). Views: 6
Tags: stock market news contrarian investing financial ideas stock ideas |
|
Money Morning’s Keith Fitz-Gerald brings us a sobering look at investing in gold. If there is a moral to the story, it’s that nothing is what it seems anymore – not even gold.
Keith Fitz-Gerald (Money Morning):
Millions of investors who bought gold in the last 12 months are undoubtedly very happy at the moment – considering that the yellow metal has risen 60% since last November to a recent close of $1,138.60 an ounce on Monday.
But chances are good that many won’t be smiling when they discover just what the taxman has planned for their gains.
Unbeknownst to most investors, gold is considered a collectible not a capital asset. In plain English, this means that despite the fact that many people believe they are investing in gold, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) believes that they are collecting it.
This is no small distinction and hurts investors because it means that gold does not qualify for the 15% maximum tax bite that most of us employ as a matter of routine when we mentally calculate profits earned on investments held for more than a year. That 15% cut for Uncle Sam is the long-term capital gains tax rate that applies to most stock or mutual fund investments.
Precious metals are a completely different story. Profits from these “investments” can be subject to a 28% maximum tax rate if held for more than 12 months. And if they are sold in less than a year, the profits count as ordinary income.
The long and the short of it “is that as a result of gold’s spectacular run-up, many investors may have a tax problem they haven’t counted on when they go to sell,” said Gary E. Ham Jr., of the Oregon-based accounting firm of Jones & Ham PC
This may be especially true for investors who have piled into such asset-backed, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD), the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) and the iShares COMEX Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU), for example, because precious-metals ETFs are set up as something called a “grantor trust.” According to Barron’s, ETF investors are treated as owning undivided interests in the actual metal that’s owned by the fund. Therefore, when an investor sells shares in the ETF, the tax code treats that investor as having sold a share of the metal backing the fund.
Click here to continue reading this article on Money Morning.
View Original Article
< Prev Item | Next Item >
|
|
|
|
|
|
