Tax Estimator — Calculate Tax on Precious Metal Sales
Coins that are Sterling legal tender — the Sovereign struck from 1837 onwards and every Britannia, gold and silver alike — are wholly exempt from Capital Gains Tax, however long you have owned them.
Bars and foreign coins are chargeable assets. That covers gold, silver, platinum and palladium in equal measure — and it applies to ETCs, ETFs and metal funds as well.
The rate is 18 % or 24 % for 2026/27, depending on how much of your basic rate band is left. There is no holding period — owning the metal for longer does not make the gain exempt.
Every individual has an Annual Exempt Amount of £3,000 per tax year (TCGA 1992 s.1K). It cannot be carried forward: if you do not use it, you lose it.
An allowance, not a cliff edge
Only the part of your gains above £3,000 is charged. Realise £3,001 and you pay tax on £1, not on the whole £3,001. Several countries work the other way round with a threshold that pulls the entire gain into charge — the UK does not.
The allowance covers all your chargeable gains in the tax year combined — bullion, shares, a second property, crypto and other chargeable assets share the same £3,000.
- 1. Keep your purchase paperwork — Record the acquisition date, price and any dealing costs (invoice, bank statement).
- 2. Buy legal tender where you can — Sovereigns and Britannias carry no CGT at all — the single largest saving open to a UK investor.
- 3. Claim your losses — Allowable losses reduce chargeable gains, but only if you claim them — normally within four years of the end of the tax year.
- 4. Use both allowances as a couple — Transfers between spouses and civil partners are made on a no gain, no loss basis, so a couple can use two Annual Exempt Amounts.
- 5. Silver carries VAT — Silver, platinum and palladium are bought with 20 % VAT. Investment gold is VAT exempt (VATA 1994 Sch. 9 Group 15).
* Exempt because the coin is Sterling legal tender (TCGA 1992 s.21(1)(b); HMRC CG78305). Check the denomination struck on each coin before you rely on it.
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Capital Gains Tax — Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992
Gains on precious metals held by a UK individual are dealt with under the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992. Bullion is not singled out for special treatment: a gold bar is a chargeable asset in the same way as a holding of shares or a second home. What makes the UK unusual is the carve-out that follows from the coin itself — anything struck as Sterling legal tender falls outside the charge altogether, whilst an identical weight of gold in bar form does not.
Why legal tender coins escape the charge
A disposal of currency in sterling is not a chargeable disposal (TCGA 1992 s.21(1)(b)), and HMRC confirms in its Capital Gains Manual at CG78305 that coins which are currency in the United Kingdom are covered. In practice that means the Gold Sovereign struck in 1837 or later and the whole Britannia range in gold and in silver, because each carries a sterling face value. Sovereigns struck before 1837 are treated as chargeable assets, so the date on the coin matters.
Everything else is inside the charge: bars of any size, Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, Philharmonics, dental and scrap gold, and financial products that merely track the metal price. The difference is worth real money on a large holding, which is why the choice of product matters more in the UK than the choice of moment (see Coins, Bars and Paper Gold).
When HMRC treats you as a trader instead
Capital Gains Tax applies to investment. Buy and sell often enough and with enough organisation and HMRC may decide you are carrying on a trade, in which case the profit is charged to Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance instead — and the legal tender exemption, which is a Capital Gains Tax rule, gives you no protection at all. The courts weigh the so-called badges of trade; no single one is decisive.
- ◆ Frequency of transactions — an occasional disposal looks like investment; a repeated, systematic pattern of buying and reselling looks like a trade
- ◆ How the purchase is financed — borrowing that can only be repaid by selling the metal on points towards trading
- ◆ Organised selling — a shop front, an online storefront, a stall at fairs or advertising all suggest a business rather than a private holding
- ◆ Motive and modification — buying specifically to resell at a profit, or breaking up and reworking metal to make it more saleable, both point away from investment
In practice: rebalancing your own holding once or twice a year — selling silver to buy gold, say — is investment. Daily dealing on price swings, funded by credit and run like a business, is not. If you are near the line, ask a tax adviser before the tax year ends rather than after.
Why Waiting Changes Nothing — and What Does
There is no holding period in UK Capital Gains Tax. A bar sold after a fortnight and a bar sold after twenty years are treated identically: the gain is chargeable either way. What you can influence is not how long you hold but which tax year the disposal falls into, who makes it, and what the asset is. Those three levers do far more for a UK investor than patience ever will.
The asset decides, not the calendar
- ◆ Acquired: 01/15/2025
- ◆ Disposed of: 01/16/2026
- ◆ Held 366 days — irrelevant. A Sovereign or Britannia is → outside Capital Gains Tax entirely
- ◆ Acquired: 01/15/2025
- ◆ Disposed of: 01/14/2026
- ◆ Held 364 days — equally irrelevant. A bar or a Krugerrand is → a chargeable asset
Mind the tax year: the Capital Gains Tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, not from 1 January. A disposal on 5 April and one on 6 April fall into different years and therefore draw on different Annual Exempt Amounts. Splitting a large sale either side of 5 April is the simplest planning step there is.
What actually shifts the bill
- ◆ Date of disposal — it is the date of the contract, not the date you are paid. For an unconditional sale agreed on 4 April and settled in May, the gain belongs to the earlier tax year.
- ◆ Spouses and civil partners — transfers between them are on a no gain, no loss basis (TCGA 1992 s.58). Moving half a holding across before selling lets a couple use two Annual Exempt Amounts and, where one is a basic rate taxpayer, the 18 % rate rather than 24 %.
- ◆ Inherited metal — you are treated as acquiring it at its market value on the date of death, so only the growth since then can be a gain. Inheritance Tax is a separate question and is charged on the estate, not on you as a seller.
- ◆ Gifts — giving bullion away to anyone other than your spouse or civil partner is itself a disposal, and the gain is worked out on market value even though no money changes hands. Gifts of Sovereigns and Britannias sidestep this, because they are exempt in the first place.
The Annual Exempt Amount — an Allowance, Not a Threshold
Each individual has an Annual Exempt Amount of £3,000 for 2026/27 (TCGA 1992 s.1K). Only gains above it are charged, and it resets at the start of every tax year without ever carrying forward. This is worth stressing, because several European systems use the opposite construction — a threshold that, once crossed, pulls the entire gain into charge. The UK allowance never does that.
Threshold or allowance — the difference in practice
A threshold (not the UK rule)
- ◆ Once exceeded, the whole gain becomes taxable
- ◆ £2,999 gain → £0 tax
- ◆ £3,001 gain → tax on £3,001
The Annual Exempt Amount (this is the UK rule)
- ◆ Only the excess is taxable
- ◆ £2,999 gain → £0 tax
- ◆ £3,001 gain → tax on £1 only
Worked example: a £9,000 gain on Maple Leafs
Suppose you dispose of a holding of Maple Leafs in 2026/27 and realise a gain of £9,000, with no other chargeable gains that year:
Basic rate band available
(£9,000 − £3,000) × 18 % = £1,080
Higher rate taxpayer
(£9,000 − £3,000) × 24 % = £1,440
Planning point: had the same coins been Britannias, both figures would be nil. Where the holding is already in bars, splitting the disposal across 5 April uses two years of allowance, and transferring part to a spouse first uses a second person’s allowance and possibly the lower rate as well.
One allowance for everything you sell
The £3,000 is not per asset and not per disposal. It applies to the total of your chargeable gains for the tax year, so bullion competes with everything else you sell:
- ◆ Bars and non-legal-tender coins (gold, silver, platinum, palladium)
- ◆ Cryptoassets — chargeable in the same way, with the same allowance
- ◆ Shares and funds held outside an ISA or pension
- ◆ A second property, and other chargeable assets such as antiques above the chattels limit
Watch the interaction: if you realise £2,500 on bullion and £2,000 on shares in the same tax year, the combined £4,500 leaves £1,500 chargeable — even though neither disposal on its own would have used the allowance up. Allowable losses are set off before the allowance is applied, so a loss can be wasted if you crystallise it in a year you were already below £3,000.
Coins, Bars and Paper Gold — Where the Tax Actually Differs
In the UK the tax outcome turns on what you own and where you hold it, not on how long you have held it. Two investors with the same exposure to the gold price can face a bill of nothing or of 24 % on the whole gain, purely because one bought Britannias or held an ETC inside a tax wrapper and the other bought bars in a general investment account.
How each form is treated
| How you hold it | Legal Basis | Capital Gains Tax |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereign and Britannia (Sterling legal tender) | TCGA 1992 s.21 | Exempt from CGT |
| Gold ETC held in a stocks and shares ISA | TCGA 1992 s.21 | Outside CGT* |
| Investment-grade bullion held in a SIPP | TCGA 1992 s.21 | Outside CGT* |
| Bars and non-UK coins (Krugerrand, Maple Leaf) | Chargeable asset | 18 % / 24 % above the allowance |
| ETCs and metal funds in a taxable account | Chargeable asset | 18 % / 24 %, no coin exemption |
| Mining shares outside a wrapper | Chargeable asset | 18 % / 24 % on gains; dividends taxed separately |
| Other Royal Mint legal tender (Lunar, Queen’s Beasts) | TCGA 1992 s.21 | Exempt from CGT |
* Gains realised inside a stocks and shares ISA or a registered pension are outside the scope of Capital Gains Tax. Physical bullion cannot be held in an ISA; HMRC does permit investment-grade gold bullion in a SIPP, subject to your scheme’s own rules.
The legal tender exemption in detail
The exemption is not a concession for bullion — it is a consequence of the coin being money. Because sterling currency is not a chargeable asset (TCGA 1992 s.21(1)(b)), a coin with a sterling face value is outside the charge whatever it is made of and whatever it is worth. HMRC sets the position out at CG78305 and names the Sovereign and the Britannia expressly. The Sovereign qualifies from the 1837 issue onwards; earlier Sovereigns do not.
Two consequences follow that investors regularly miss. First, the exemption is about the coin, not about the metal: a silver Britannia is exempt whilst a silver Maple Leaf of identical weight is not. Second, it is a Capital Gains Tax exemption only. It does not touch VAT on the purchase, it does not apply if HMRC decides you are trading, and it gives no relief from Inheritance Tax.
Silver cuts both ways: a silver Britannia is free of Capital Gains Tax but was bought with 20 % VAT, which the metal price has to make good before you are even. Investment gold carries no VAT. Weigh the two effects together rather than looking at the exemption on its own.
Records and Reporting — What HMRC Expects
On a chargeable disposal you carry the burden of proof. You need to show what you paid, when, and what it cost you to buy and sell. Without that, the acquisition cost you can deduct is whatever you can actually evidence — and a gain worked out on proceeds alone is a very expensive way to lose a receipt.
What to keep
- ◆ Purchase invoices — date, description, weight, fineness and price paid. For online orders, keep the order confirmation and the payment record together.
- ◆ Sale documentation — the dealer’s purchase receipt or sale confirmation showing the date and the proceeds.
- ◆ Item-level records — where you hold several identical items, note which ones you actually disposed of and be consistent about it. Serial numbers make this straightforward for bars.
- ◆ Storage and custody paperwork — vault contracts and statements that evidence continuous ownership, especially for allocated storage abroad.
- ◆ Costs of acquisition and disposal — dealing fees, assay costs, insured postage and valuation fees are deductible, but only if you can show them. Keep the bank statements too.
How long to keep records, and how to report
Gains are reported through Self Assessment on the Capital Gains summary pages, SA108. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April and the return is normally due by the following 31 January, which is also the date the tax is payable. You must report a disposal where tax is due, and also where your total proceeds exceed the reporting threshold HMRC sets for the year even if no tax arises — check the current figure on GOV.UK before deciding you need not file. Keep your records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year, or five years after the 31 January filing deadline if you are in Self Assessment.
- ◆ Scan everything — thermal till receipts fade within a few years. A dated scan in a backed-up folder outlives the paper.
- ◆ Photograph serial numbers — store the image alongside the invoice so a bar can be matched to the purchase it came from.
- ◆ Keep a running schedule — acquisition date, item, weight, fineness, cost, costs of purchase, and disposal date and proceeds. That schedule is what the SA108 pages are asking for.
If a receipt has gone: bank and card statements, email confirmations and dealer records can stand as secondary evidence. HMRC will accept a reasonable, consistently applied basis provided you explain it — an unexplained figure invites enquiry. Where you have genuinely no evidence of cost, say so on the return rather than guessing quietly.