Investing in gold within an IRA can be a great way to protect your retirement portfolio from inflation and generate tax-deferred or tax-free retirement equity. But not all gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars are approved for an individual retirement account (IRA). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) only allows certain types of gold, silver, platinum and palladium bars and coins to be included in a precious metal IRA. Bullion bars and gold and silver rounds are also allowed in an IRA when they are 99.9% pure.
This generally means that they must be produced by a refinery approved by NYMEX or COMEX or a national government mint. Most IRA custodians don't allow you to have gold in their IRAs. The term gold ira refers to a specialized individual retirement account (IRA) that allows investors to hold gold as a qualifying retirement investment. Investors with gold IRAs can hold physical metals such as bullion or coins, as well as securities related to precious metals within the portfolio. A golden IRA should be kept separate from a traditional retirement account, although the rules involving things like contribution limits and distributions remain the same.
Investors can open gold IRAs through a broker-dealer or other custodian. Do you want to set up a self-directed precious metal IRA? Well, not all gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars are approved for an individual retirement account (IRA). The IRS only approved certain types of gold, silver, platinum and palladium bars and coins. Below is a list of IRA-approved bars that can be purchased for a precious metal IRA account:
- Approved gold investments must be included in a pre-approved list (as detailed above), be 24 karat (1 ounce to 400 oz) pure gold bars.
- American Eagle Bullion gold coins are the only gold coins that are an exception to purity guidelines.
- Products outside these ranges, except American Gold Eagles, are not approved for IRA contributions.
What's more, if the IRS determines that the day your IRA gold entered your home was the “distribution” date, you could end up paying additional penalties and back taxes owed from the time of distribution. Precious metal IRAs are usually self-directed IRAs, a type of IRA in which the custodian allows more diverse investments to be held in the account. There are currently a variety of precious metals that meet the minimum purity requirements that are acceptable for inclusion in a gold IRA account. In addition to protecting a portion of your retirement estate from the devaluing effects of inflation on paper currencies, investing in gold within an IRA also provides you with an opportunity to realize a substantial return on your investment in the long term.
As long as there is gold on this earth, it is not too late to open your own self-directed IRA of precious metals.
