No, there are no restrictions on private ownership of gold in the United States. You're only limited by your budget and your common sense. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers that physical holds of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, palladium and titanium are capital assets specifically classified as collectibles. Precious metal prices are mainly determined by supply and demand, but can also be affected by other external influences.
They predict economic instability and use graphs of past performance to “demonstrate that gold, silver or some other precious metal are not only your safest bet, but that they are destined to double or triple their value.” Sell any type of precious metal at a profit and profits will be taxed at a federal rate of 28% or less. The International Council on Tangible Assets (ICTA) has published guidelines according to which precious metals transactions must be reported to the IRS based on negotiations it held with the IRS. Therefore, if you sell your jewelry in ingots for profit, you are subject to the same maximum capital gains rate of 28% for precious metals and must be reported on your income tax return. This means that people in the 33%, 35% and 39.6% tax brackets only have to pay 28% for their physical sales of precious metals.
The IRS has specific rules that determine which precious metal sales require the dealer to submit this form. While many marketable financial securities, such as stocks, mutual funds and ETFs, are subject to short-term or long-term capital gains tax rates, the sale of physical precious metals is taxed slightly differently. Under certain circumstances, the dealer must file a Form 1099-B with the IRS to declare profits paid to a non-corporate precious metals seller. Some investment advisors may even recommend that individual investors also invest small percentages of their diversified portfolios in precious metals.
The truth is that gold and other precious metals are very volatile and past performance is not a good indicator of future returns. Like other commodities, precious metal prices rise as demand increases, so when economic anxiety or instability are high, the people who normally benefit from precious metals are the sellers. These may include inflation expectations, the strength of the dollar against other currencies, geopolitical events, and activity related to commodity markets, such as the price of other precious metals or other commodity prices.
