If the Government wants a lot of gold and silver, all it has to do is ring up the miners and tell them that under Section 51(xxxi) the Reserve Bank requires ALL G & S mined in OZ be delivered to the RBA in Sydney. They will have 250 tons of gold inside a year. JMO OC
GSTR 2003/10 was directly in response to the negative impact of the introduction of the GST on the Australian gold industry.
From a markets point of view, 'investing' is putting money (cost) into a specific thing (ex. tools), as to achieve a gain that undoes the cost and more. From a govts point of view, 'investing' is putting money (cost) into collecting a specific tax, as to achieve a tax gain elsewhere, that undoes this specific tax cost, and more. The same applies to taxing silver, or gold, or anything that people may buy as to evade their theft along inflation. Aside of this, they don't really need to collect a specific / open tax on gold/silver, they can achieve the same by just frontrunning those that buy gold/silver. Just look at recent years, and the immense swap dealer position cycles. Swap dealers typically represent govts institutionals. They buy bullion ahead of us and sell bullion before us. A good example of that is the IMF gold purchase from the market in 2008, sold in 2010 back to the market, for some 7 billion dollar more than they paid in 2008. But people became smarter due to the price fluctuations we saw, and maybe they fail to lure bullion collecting people into yet another price uptrend, and may indeed decide to shift to the open tax.
"Hope they don't store that 250tons every year with the BOE." I have little faith in an RBA that holds US$37 BILLION in US Treasuries, AND buying more. If they put the stuff in the BoE or Fort Knox, then it will be stolen within a week, just ask the Germans. They should build a new vault in an Army Base somewhere in OZ. I doubt Stephens will think of that, too busy counting his wages. OC
US Treasury bonds, good as gold! Better than all the gold in Fort Knot. The fort's X is not missing, it's right here on this pirate treasure map. X marks the spot where all that gold is hidden and the map's for sale if anyone's interested. (Bonds are not acceptable as payment for said map.) Darn, had to edit...... Again.
