Bringing gold and/or silver into New Zealand on my WHV

I wanted to bring a little PM for the year that my wife and I would be in New Zealand (starting this August 2011). If someone else has done this, please chime in. It would not be a ton, maybe a few ounces of gold or a 100 or 200 ounces of silver. Am I going to have trouble at customs? I was thinking it would be better to just have some gold coins (less space) but I'd like to have some silver too.

Reason being, instead of buying NZD now (which I should have done in March when I could get $1.40 NZ for one crappy US dollar) I figured it may be just as risky to bank on precious metals to sell for NZD once we're there.
I've waded through their customs website for a half hour and don't have much better of an understanding than I did a half hour ago.

Any suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated from this crowd!

PS: we're very sure we're coming to Australia too!

 

I think gold ounces would be your safest bet. Maybe some Perth Mint, Maples or Gold Phillys.

All Current Legal Tender, all internationally recognised as fine bullion. Also recognised as coinage.

Please don't quote me on this, but if your taking say 2 or 2.5 ounces in your hand luggage, I really don't think its a particularly risky strategy.

I'd be more concerned taking 100oz of silver over, its not exactly inconspicuous having 5x tubes or 10 PM bars in your luggage! Besides with silver, there is also the duties issue to consider, wheras I think gold is a hugely safer bet for attracting attention of the duties people.

I hope that helps,

RD

 

What I was mainly concerned about were the duties/taxes that you mention. So, to the best of your knowledge there are not duties on gold but there are for silver?

Most my gold (under 5 oz) is legal tender somewhere (USA, Canadian, Chinese)

If the silver is also coinage/legal tender (like ASE's, Pandas, Maples) wouldn't it also be duty free?

 

HA, I just realized that since mid march 2011, in terms of USD

gold and silver have gone up 14-14.5%

the New Zealand dollar has gone up 18%

the australian dollar has only gone up 10%

 

That all depends on the duties legislation of the country your going into - silver is taxable in some countries, wheras it isn't in others.

Gold on the other hand isn't usually taxable over the borders of most countries, provided it is .999 fine.

I would advice you to give NZ customs a call to check. There should be a hotline you can call. Just be mindful not to give out your personal or travel details (particularly your passport number) though - they may have a welcoming comittee in the airport for you waiting to do a cavity search

 

There's no tax/duties to pay on gold bullion (99.99% fine) and silver bullion (99.9% fine) in either Australia or New Zealand, but that's no guarantee you won't strike a customs officer who doesn't know the law and causes you some hassle. It's also a grey area whether you need to declare bullion on your customs arrival card at its legal tender value (carrying over $10,000 of currency) or market value.

I'm interested to hear other people's experiences.

 

Yes, I found that according to chapter 71 in sectin XIV of you Working Tariff Document that fine bullion (Ag, Au) does not incur a tariff upon entry. Fine gold coins, legal tender or not in NZ, also do not incur a tariff. Anything that does not fall under that (ie. 22k american gold eagles or other foreign gold) can easily fall under chapter 97 of section XXI which states that anything with numismatic value or interest is free of tariff.

I found what I was looking for!

Still, I'm interested in hearing anyone's experience. I plan to print out both the sections I mentioned in case I run into any "do-gooder" (or possiblly innocently ignorant) customs officer.

 

I just wanted to weigh in and say have a bloody good time over here. Sorry our money keeps increasing in value.

Can't help it lately since its practically backed by milk

 

Thanks a bunch! We intend to. We're landing in Auckland Sept 1st (leaving Los Angeles August 30, I will never experience august 31 2011 ... sort of)
Any silverstackers in Auckland? We plan to be there a bit and travel about the north island for a while, then south island and decide on a place (or places) that we'll stay.

As far as USD/NZD your money is going while ours is going down so double crap for us! Since mid march, gold in USD has gone up $200, in NZD it has gone down $100!!! that's insane. I calculated, in march, I would have been better off pouring all my extra USD into NZD than I would have in silver or gold.

 

$10000 is generally the acceptable amount of cash per person ,aussie gold coins have face value $100 each,just put them in wifes coin purse.declare nothing these coins are LEGAL TENDER.

 

That's about what I was going to do.

 

Just don't get caught with $10,000 face value of gold coins and forget about the $20 of fiat currency in your wallet.

 

Thanks for that knowledge, here is the link to that section 71 ; http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/tariff/theworkingtariffdocument/Documents/Section XIV.pdf


.

 

To add

71.08

7108.20.00 - Monetary
Being gold of a fineness of not less than 99.5 % ................... Free

 

For anyone else interested in this question, NZ law seems pretty clear on this:

First up, PMs are not listed as prohibited imports: http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/prohibited/imports/Pages/default.aspx

Second, the NZ Customs Service Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Finance of Terrorism Act 2009 factsheet (http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/factsheets/Documents/Fact Sheet 13.pdf) states:

So the law appears to be very clear that PMs do not need to be reported as part of the cash reporting requirements.

However, another possible relevant restriction is the $700 limit on personal goods concession (http://www.customs.govt.nz/features/charges/dutyfree/Pages/default.aspx):

We've already seen that gold and silver are duty-free under Section XIV of the New Zealand Working Tariff Document: http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/tariff/theworkingtariffdocument/Documents/Section XIV.pdf

This leaves GST. The Inland Revenue Department website's page for 'GST (Goods and Services Tax) - Exempt Supplies' (http://www.ird.govt.nz/gst/additional-calcs/calc-spec-supplies/calc-exempt/#gsp) says:

So, where does that leave us?

For this question:

Tick 'No'.

For this question:

Tick 'Yes'.

And perhaps have printouts of Section XIV of the New Zealand Working Tariff Document, and the 'GST (Goods and Services Tax) - Exempt Supplies' page on you. Of course, if the (usually pleasant and helpful) staff of NZ Customs Service wish to inspect your PMs, you may wish to request a private room for this, as well as having two Customs officers in attendance (I don't know if that's standard procedure for them, but it protects both them and you).

Hope that helps!


[Obligatory disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. This shouldn't be taken as advice, but just what I managed to find, and how the law reads to me. I've given all the relevant links I know of so you can do your own research! And if anyone finds out something contrary to any of this, please post here so that we're all better informed.]

 

For anyone who's interested, I recently tested all of the above while taking some gold and silver into NZ - and all panned out as the law/website research above said it should.

Summary/key points:

- Gold and silver are not considered to be cash or instruments - this was confirmed by the Customs officer who gave me my secondary screening / interview.

- NZ Customs do expect you to declare if you are bringing in more than $700 of PMs.

- I was directed by the frontline customs agent to go to the secondary screening - although it was unclear whether this was due to the PMs, or any of the other items I'd declared. Even though the traveller ahead of me was being belligerent and uncooperative, when it was my turn, the Customs officer remained pleasant and respectful. They did ask how many PMs I was bringing in, what their value was, their fineness, why I was bringing them in, and so on. While this seems a little out of line of needing to work out whether they are investment bullion or not, I just assumed they were also wanting to more generally 'check me out' and possibly screen for money laundering, so I answered truthfully and succinctly. When I mentioned that I'd researched the cash and instruments definition, GST rulings, and tariff info - and that I had the relevant sections printed out and with me - the Customs officer broke into a grin and said, 'Well, if you've gone to that much effort, then you know what you're doing. Go on through, and have a nice day.' End of interview! And no request to see any of the PMs, or search my luggage.

If only the idiots at Australian security were half as professional on my departure ... but that's another story.

 

Greetings, new member here. I want to thank this thread as it has been valuable to me on my recent trip from Canada to NZ.

Bricklayer's post is exact. Upon arriving in NZ, the customs worker at the declaration area I spoke to (at the front desk) was aware that gold was GST free. Though being new, he showed a copy of my purchase of the gold to his supervisor. He came back saying nothing is to be done other than to make a note on my declaration file (on computer) that I did bring gold in. I don't believe quantity or amounts were entered in as it was all quite informal.

I would also like to add that upon each security screen (in both in Canada and NZ), their x-ray machines did show up the gold wafers however, I was told that they can't see through it. I assume gold must be quite dense like lead and must come up on their screens in a different colour. Particularly the guy said they just want to see inside between the gold wafers (if anything was hiding in between).

Departing Canada was relatively straight forward and really, no formal way of declaring was required at the airport. I enquired to the security person at the departure gate and she didn't know and wasn't aware, she simply said if there's any issue, the people at the security x-ray screening will advise you. After going through, the 1 guy had an idea and told me "yes, it is quite pricey" and had a quick look (along side at a separate table - to ensure the public didn't have prying eyes and ears). After that, you just board the plane.

Arriving in NZ, the 1st declaration officer (at the podium) I mentioned I had gold on me and was way over the $700 mark. She directed me to the declaration queue and when I approached the desk, I explained what I had and showed all my documentation. I explained I was under the impression that gold is a "Zero-rated" good as shown on the printed documentation off IRD's website. He was aware of that but wasn't sure about the 'money currency' aspect. I then showed a print out of NZ's anti-laundering act documentation and he said yes that's the one he was thinking of. I explained I couldn't find any wording in it regarding to precious metals. With the proof of purchase, he went to his supervisor and quickly came back saying nothing is to be done other than to input my arrival details saying I brought in gold.

In transferring to the domestic flight, a worker at the security screening knew what I had in the bag and just wanted to check. The conversation was very casual, I mentioned "ah so you must have a good idea what's in this bag", he replied, "I've never seen before...". We went aside where the table was partitioned (again away from public eyes and ears), yet no mention of the word "gold" was spoken. I showed and he saw and had a nice smile on his face and away I go. If it's of any interest, he was of 'East Indian / South Asian" decent.

I'm still amazed on the logic of why precious metals isn't GST taxed when brought in to NZ? What is the reason or motive? Is it because the Reserve Bank of NZ holds no gold reserve? I've heard of others in the US say that moving gold in/out of the US is difficult.

 

Most countries don't charge tax on gold bullion. There might be more paperwork involved in the US, but no tax there either.

 

True but what is the reason for not taxing the gold? Like any product that comes into a country, there's a value of some sort where taxes are levied. I can not think of other goods (apart from precious metals) that does not attract any form of taxation - so where does the logic come from? The precious nature itself doesn't hold as diamonds too are precious and they attract tax.

 

Have you ever heard the saying " dont question good fortune"