A gold IRA or precious metal IRA is an individual retirement account in which physical gold or other eligible precious metals are stored for the benefit of the IRA account holder. It works in the same way as a regular IRA, except that it holds physical investment coins or bars instead of paper assets. In a Gold IRA, you can hold real physical gold. It must comply with IRS standards and be held by the IRA trustee, not the IRA owner.
It must also be stored in an IRS-approved depot. Gold IRA rules require that you store suitable precious metals with a national depositary, bank, or an IRS-approved third-party trustee. Your custodian bank can refer you to an approved institution and handle the gold transfer as part of setting up your Gold IRA. Some gold IRA companies describe their offerings as varied because you can include more than one type of precious metal in them.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows holders of self-managed IRA accounts to purchase bars and coins minted from gold or other approved precious metals such as silver, platinum, or palladium. Money Reserve’s Gold Standard Precious Metals IRA program combines traditional gold and silver protection with the modern convenience of an IRA. The Gold IRA also coordinates the involvement of the financial company, which is appointed as the account custodian, and the depository where the precious metals you purchase are stored. A Gold IRA must be managed separately from a traditional retirement account, although the rules regarding things like contribution limits and payouts remain the same.
If you choose to fund the account with assets that are currently in another IRA, the Gold IRA company will help you manage the rollover (more on this process below). With a designated IRA specialist, Allegiance Gold staff can help you determine whether your account is eligible for a transfer. Since you buy your precious metals to keep in the IRA, with pre-tax dollars, you’ll be taxed when you make distributions (similar to other tax-deferred retirement savings instruments). Be sure to review the list of allowed gold objects with your custodian bank before adding gold to your IRA.
The
precious metals in a gold IRA are usually coins and bars, some of which have higher premiums than others. However, the IRS has introduced additional tax filing and accounting requirements for self-managed gold IRAs because of the more complicated assets they own. Gold IRA companies are essentially brokers that sell IRS-approved coins and bars of gold and other precious metals so that you can invest a Gold IRA. A Gold IRA is a type of self-directed individual retirement account (IRA) that allows you to own gold bars.
Gold IRAs follow the same general rules as traditional IRAs when it comes to tax benefits (traditional or Roth), contribution limits, and payout rules.