Update. Here is their new responce. Tariff heading 71.06 is for silver in unwrought or semi manufactured forms, or in powder form. Minted or investment bars are classified in tariff heading 71.14 and attract 5% tariff duty. I just have everyday 99.9 % silver bars that sell just over spot. What is an "investment bar" ?
Here's the customs page that confirms your info: http://customsrelease.customs.govt....ld-silver-or-platinum-bars-ingots-or-rounds-0 BUT... Check this document carefully to confirm, e.g. 999 gold looks tariff free, but is silver classified differently? : http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/tariff/theworkingtariffdocument/Documents/Section XIV.pdf
Would you think it possible customs NZ could have confusion determining what catagory thay actually have in front of them on any given day ?
You could buy 10 1oz gold coins that have a legal tender face value. That wouldn't add up to more than a few thousand dollars.
Interesting... Then it looks like we have a situation similar to Germany, where silver coins have a different treatment than silver bars in terms of GST, only that here the different treatment is on import duty. Then I would be curious to know what they mean by: "if not purchased recently another method of evaluation may need to be used" What is "recently"? How can this be demonstrated? And in case, in which category do they fall, then? Also, any difference between casted and minted bars? Casted could easily fall into the bars sub-category of the semi-manufactured definition.