Hi All, New to the site 2 weeks ago and now realising most of you lot are (as we say here in Pommy Land) Aussies or Yanks. This is a good thing - travel they say (all be it over the web) broadens the mind!! Anyway, I digress. point of post is to let you lot know how expensive it is to buy the shiny stuff here in good old Bankrupt Britain... To buy from a dealer (or in my case a jeweller just up the road from my house) generally costs Spot Price plus approximately 11%. Then the government has you pay A FURTHER 20% on top of that, in the form of VAT ("Value Added" Tax) ...Bastards So, if we use a spot price of 13.89, as is the current rate the Jeweller near me is basing their prices on for purchases made today (and tomorrow, as it's Saturday), You would end up paying 18.55 for a 1 ounce silver bar, listed at 15.46 before VAT. Multiplying the 18.55 by say 1.7 to get AUD and the price equals $31.53AUD per Oz But, on the upside, when you sell it there's no taxation. So here in UK the stuff has to rise 30% over the price you bought it at, before you make any gain. Mind you, it has dropped 2 in the last 2 weeks. Might go pick up a few Bars tomorrow, I get the feeling it'll keep dropping until Tuesday afternoon as (I think) the markets are expecting the US FED Reserve to trim QE. If I can resist I'll wait till Monday and see if it does drop, if it goes up I'll regret not hovering up some cheap(ish) Bars. Hmmm, heads or Tails Sarcastic replies welcome edit;- Get yourself a few Beers and view "Silver and gold - debt collapse" on youtube, . Its by Mike Maloney Oddly, (for an American:lol he;s not trying to sell you anything. Very eye opening info therein.
I hear you and agree the 20% vat on silver bars is very high. Some of the silver bars on flea bay do sell for ( about ) dealer prices, some more, some less. So it would seem that you should get at least most of your vat back when selling. But if selling back to a dealer you will not get back the vat part of the sale. So if you plan on selling back to dealers i think gold is better being vat exempt. Most punters here play their cards very close to their chest, they know vat free options ( Estonia ) I heard. Now watch the comments come in shooting that down!.
Welcome to the forum! Although you guys have tax, you happen to have some silver bars that aren't necessarily available elsewhere in the world. Been eyeing an umicore kilo for awhile now!
Gold carries no purchase tax, but it's subject to CGT when you sell it, assuming you make on the sale. (CGT = 20%) So Better to pay VAT on the purchase price rather than CGT on the sale price me thinks. Either way , they make a buck!! Since I saw that article on a Umicore Gold Bar filled with Tungsten, I have no faith in them TBH, and there's a lot of stories going round about fake silver coins/bars being sold on ebay. Interesting thing here in UK is that you can't buy any PM from any dealer/Jeweller without supplying name/address/email. Presumably so the government can send round "the Boys" when the Fiat collapses. They'll need a shovel, and a Map of the local nature reserve though!!!
Have a lookie http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_HMIc6YD4k&desktop_uri=/watch?v=I_HMIc6YD4k Britt's, Sov's all CGT free, more info on CGT here http://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/info/how-to-buy-gold/paying-capital-gains-tax-on-gold/
As you say gold is not subject to VAT,you have overlooked you have capital gains tax allowance of 10,900 in the year 2013-2014,so you have to be a large buyer of gold to make that profit in a year. Go into the jewellery quarter in Brumie and spend less than 5000 in cash with most dealers and no questions are asked. Like Aus and elsewhere there are lots of cash deals done in the UK
It has been suggested or known that very occasionally a couple of blokes may set up a F2F, where cash is exchanged for silver etc with 'no names, no pack drill'. These buy and sell transactions are VERY rare, and the politburo and Gestapo know nothing of them, this is one of them. No buy price records and no sale records. Just a rumour of course!
Welcome fellow Brit. You will quickly get the silver bug if you check this forum on a regular basis. Buying silver can become addictive and once you have bought, it gives you a real buzz when you see its value increase. However, prices can also fall as I show in my chart posted today and you can loose out if you are forced to sell at the wrong time. The VAT issue is a real pain in the ass compared to stackers in other countries where they pay no tax on silver. Ironic that a dealer will charge you 20% VAT on new silver and 0% VAT on secondhand silver but the selling price is the same ! You will get 20% less if selling back though. At the present time you can buy silver coins in Germany with only 7% VAT. Search this site for lots of past threads and advice on buying in the EU etc. Estonia is zero percent but their premiums can be somewhat higher than the Germans. You need to be buying about 40 ounces to make it worthwhile after paying bank fees and shipping though compared to the best UK prices - check Atkinsons and CoinInvestDirect to gain a benchmark then Apmex and Gainsville to see what others are buying at. If you can purchase in-between then go for it.
With today's exchange rate I get goldstackers at 477 and bullionrock at 560 inclusive of vat for a 1 kilo silver bar. I rather be buying in NZ or Aus for sure. Luck old you fella's
