Selling gold to buy a home

[Rafael Garcia]

Hello, I have a client that has 500k in gold that will be selling it in order to purchase a property. Not sure how that will affect him personally for tax purposes, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do it to minimize his taxes (if any)? Asset protection?

Any information would be appreciated.

[Jon Holdman]

Its not as anyone reports their "personal balance sheet" to the IRS. Unless you're being chased for back taxes, the IRS doesn't go snooping in your bank accounts to see how much cash or other assets you have.

Any gains on the gold (net from selling the gold less the purchase price and any costs on the purchase) are subject to capital gains tax. Short of doing something underhanded, its going to be pretty tough to avoid those. You can't do a 1031 into the house because 1) its not a "like kind" exchange and 2) you can't live in a 1031 asset.