Capital Gains Tax on gold in the UK depends entirely on the form you hold it in. UK legal tender gold coins, meaning sovereigns minted from 1837 onwards and Britannias, are CGT free: they are sterling currency, and sterling is not a chargeable asset. Gold bars, Krugerrands, Maple Leafs and American Eagles are chargeable, with gains above the annual exempt amount taxed at 18% or 24%. Gold ETFs and ETCs are often treated less favourably again, because most are offshore and the gain can fall to Income Tax instead.
That distinction is worth understanding properly, because it is not a loophole, it has no upper limit, and it cuts both ways. A loss on an exempt coin is not an allowable loss either, which matters a good deal more in a falling market than a rising one.
This guide sets out which coins are CGT exempt and why, how the rules work on the gold that is taxable, what actually has to be reported to HMRC, and what the exemption does not cover. Figures are for the 2026/27 UK tax year. This is general information about UK tax rules, not tax advice.
The rule, and where it actually comes from
The exemption sits in section 21(1)(b) of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992. That section defines what counts as an asset for Capital Gains Tax and includes currency other than sterling. Sterling itself is excluded, because sterling is the yardstick a gain is measured in rather than a thing you can make a gain on.
HMRC applies that directly to gold coins. Its Capital Gains Manual at CG78305 confirms that sovereigns minted in 1837 and later years, and Britannia gold coins, are currency and are exempt for the same reason all sterling currency is exempt. The same page confirms the opposite for Krugerrands: coins that are currency but not sterling are chargeable assets.
Three consequences follow, and they are the reason the precise wording matters more than the headline.
- There is no cap. The exemption is not an allowance or a relief with a ceiling, so there is no amount of sovereigns above which gains start to be taxable.
- It covers the whole gain, not just the metal. Because the coin is currency rather than a chargeable asset, any premium above bullion value, for example on a high grade or a scarce date, sits outside Capital Gains Tax too.
- There is nothing to claim. No election, no box on a return and no relief to apply for, because there is no chargeable gain in the first place.
What produces the exemption is the coin's status as current UK legal tender denominated in pounds sterling. Not purity, not weight, not age, not the reputation of the mint.
One point on permanence, because it is often overstated. The treatment sits in the definition of a chargeable asset rather than in a relief, so changing it would mean amending primary legislation rather than moving a rate or an allowance. That describes the mechanism; it is not a guarantee about the future. Parliament amends TCGA 1992 regularly and could legislate a targeted change to how particular coins are treated. Tax rules change, and no treatment should be assumed permanent.
Capital Gains Tax on gold coins, bars and funds: which is exempt
Most guides split gold into two boxes: legal tender coins and everything else. There are really three, and the middle one is where the money gets lost.
| What you hold | Capital Gains Tax position | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Gold sovereign, 1837 onwards, including half, quarter and double | Outside CGT | UK legal tender, so sterling currency |
| Gold Britannia, all sizes | Outside CGT | UK legal tender, so sterling currency |
| Queen's Beasts, Tudor Beasts, Lunar and other Royal Mint gold carrying a sterling face value | Outside CGT | UK legal tender, so sterling currency |
| Gold sovereign minted before 1837 | Chargeable, chattels rules apply | Not current UK legal tender |
| Gold bars, any size or refiner | Chargeable, chattels rules apply | Tangible movable property, not currency |
| Krugerrand, Maple Leaf, American Eagle, Philharmonic, Kangaroo | Chargeable, and no chattels exemption | Currency, but not sterling |
| Gold ETFs and ETCs | Chargeable, and frequently to Income Tax rather than CGT | Most are offshore; without UK reporting fund status the gain is an offshore income gain |
| Gold mining shares | Chargeable | Standard share rules |
| Gold futures and CFDs | Chargeable | Financial instruments |
Capital Gains Tax on gold coins
Capital Gains Tax on gold coins turns on a single question: is the coin current UK legal tender with a face value in pounds sterling? Sovereigns from 1837 onwards, Britannias, and Royal Mint issues such as the Queen's Beasts, Tudor Beasts and Lunar series all carry a sterling face value, so gains on them sit outside the charge whatever the coin cost and whatever it later sells for. Coins that are not sterling legal tender are chargeable, and they then divide again according to whether they are currency somewhere else, which is where the treatment gets worse rather than better.
The Krugerrand trap
A gold bar is a chattel, so the chattels rules in section 262 can help with it. A Krugerrand is not, because section 262(6)(b) takes disposals of currency of any description outside those rules, and a Krugerrand is currency in South Africa. HMRC states both points on the same manual page.
So a Krugerrand gets neither exemption. Not the sterling one, because it is not sterling. Not the £6,000 chattels one, because it is currency. It is the only common form of physical gold that falls between both.
Gold ETFs and ETCs: often Income Tax rather than Capital Gains Tax
Paper gold is treated differently again. Most retail gold ETCs are domiciled offshore, and many do not hold UK reporting fund status. A gain on disposal of an interest in a non reporting offshore fund is an offshore income gain: it is charged to Income Tax at rates up to 45% rather than to Capital Gains Tax, the annual exempt amount is not available against it, and it cannot be reduced by capital losses. Reporting fund status is published by HMRC and varies product by product, so it has to be checked for the specific holding rather than assumed from the label.
If you are weighing up the two Royal Mint options, our comparison of sovereigns and Britannias covers the practical differences, and the gold sovereign guide explains what a sovereign actually is. Fractional coins carry the same status as full ones: a half or quarter sovereign is sterling legal tender in exactly the same way.
How Capital Gains Tax works on the gold that is taxable
Two things have changed since a lot of the pages still ranking for this query were written, and quoting the old figures is the fastest way to get the sums wrong.
The annual exempt amount fell from £12,300 to £6,000 in April 2023, then to £3,000 in April 2024, where it stays for 2026/27. The main Capital Gains Tax rates rose from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24% for disposals made on or after 30 October 2024. A guide still quoting 20% is out of date by nearly two years.
| Item | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Annual exempt amount, individuals | £3,000 |
| Annual exempt amount, most trustees | £1,500 |
| Rate on gains falling in an unused basic rate band | 18% |
| Rate on gains above the basic rate band | 24% |
| Reporting, gains | Chargeable gains above £3,000 have to be reported and the tax paid |
| Reporting on a Self Assessment return, proceeds | Someone already registered for Self Assessment reports disposals of chargeable assets in the return where the total amount sold for exceeds £50,000 |
The £6,000 chattels exemption on bars
A gold bar is tangible movable property, so section 262 applies to it. A disposal for £6,000 or less is exempt, however large the gain happens to be. Above £6,000 there is marginal relief: the chargeable gain is capped at five thirds of the amount by which the proceeds exceed £6,000. A bar sold for £7,500 can be chargeable on at most £2,500, whatever the real gain was.
Two limits on that. The relief applies per chattel, and the onus is on the taxpayer to show that it applies, which means keeping the paperwork. On anything approaching a serious holding the cap sits far above the actual gain and the relief does nothing at all.
What counts as a set
Where assets form a set and are sold to the same person, to connected people, or to people acting together, the disposals are treated as one for the £6,000 test. HMRC's guidance on coins, at CG76881, gives a coin specific meaning: a set is coins comprising complete denominations from a single year, a single reign, or a single period of government. That is directly relevant to date runs and denomination sets, which are often assembled and sold as a unit. It only bites on coins that are chargeable in the first place, such as pre-1837 sovereigns, since sterling legal tender coins never reach the chattels rules and foreign coins are excluded from them.
Pooling and part disposals
Bars of the same type bought at different times and prices are not identified individually when one is sold. Section 104 pools them: the acquisitions are added into a single pool of cost and quantity, and a disposal takes a proportionate slice of that pooled cost, so selling a third of the holding takes a third of the pooled cost rather than the cost of any particular bar. Two matching rules sit in front of the pool. A disposal is matched first with acquisitions made on the same day, then with acquisitions made in the following 30 days, and only then with the pool. Where part of a single asset is disposed of, the cost is apportioned between the part sold and the part retained by reference to their values. None of this arises on exempt coins, which is one practical reason the paperwork on them is lighter.
A worked example, in both directions
Two people each put £50,000 into gold and each sell for £75,000, a gain of £25,000. One held bars, one held sovereigns. Both are higher rate taxpayers and neither has used any of the annual exempt amount elsewhere. The 50% gain is an assumption chosen so the arithmetic is legible. It is not a forecast and nothing here should be read as one.
Investor A: gold bars
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gain on sale | £25,000 |
| Less annual exempt amount | £3,000 |
| Taxable gain | £22,000 |
| Capital Gains Tax at 24% | £5,280 |
| Gain retained | £19,720 |
The chattels exemption is no help here: at £75,000 of proceeds the five thirds cap sits at £115,000, far above the actual gain. A different taxpayer, whose gain fell entirely within an unused basic rate band, would pay 18% on the same £22,000, which is £3,960.
Investor B: gold sovereigns
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gain on sale | £25,000 |
| Capital Gains Tax payable | Nil |
| Gain retained | £25,000 |
The same comparison, scaled
On the same assumptions and at the higher rate:
| Amount invested | Gain | CGT on bars at 24% | CGT on sovereigns | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £50,000 | £25,000 | £5,280 | Nil | £5,280 |
| £100,000 | £50,000 | £11,280 | Nil | £11,280 |
| £250,000 | £125,000 | £29,280 | Nil | £29,280 |
| £500,000 | £250,000 | £59,280 | Nil | £59,280 |
Every figure in that table assumes a gain that may not happen. Values fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you paid: as at 21 August 2026 the gold price is £3,390.98 per troy ounce, roughly a quarter below its late January 2026 peak. Gold investment is not regulated in the UK, so there is no FCA protection, no Financial Services Compensation Scheme cover and no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change.
The same example with a 50% fall
The symmetry is the whole argument of this page, so here is the other direction on the same numbers. Each investor puts in £50,000 and sells for £25,000, a loss of £25,000.
| Item | Gold bars | Gold sovereigns |
|---|---|---|
| Amount invested | £50,000 | £50,000 |
| Sale proceeds | £25,000 | £25,000 |
| Loss on sale | £25,000 | £25,000 |
| Allowable loss to carry forward | £25,000 | Nil |
| Tax that loss could save at 24% | £6,000 | Nil |
That £6,000 is the tax a £25,000 allowable loss could save if, and only if, there are later chargeable gains taxed at 24% to set it against. A carried forward loss with nothing to use it against is worth nothing. Scaled on the same basis:
| Amount invested | Fall of 50% | Allowable loss on bars | Allowable loss on sovereigns | Tax that loss could save at 24% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £50,000 | £25,000 | £25,000 | Nil | £6,000 |
| £100,000 | £50,000 | £50,000 | Nil | £12,000 |
| £250,000 | £125,000 | £125,000 | Nil | £30,000 |
| £500,000 | £250,000 | £250,000 | Nil | £60,000 |
Both tables are illustrations on assumed figures, not forecasts, and neither is a projection of what gold will do. Unlike an ISA or a pension there is no annual contribution limit on any of this, and no wrapper, no compensation scheme and no guarantee either.
How much gold can I sell without reporting it in the UK
Three separate questions get tangled together under this heading: whether a sale is taxable, whether it has to be reported, and whether a dealer's identity checks tell HMRC anything. Separating them produces a clean answer to each.
Selling exempt coins: nothing to report, at any value
Selling sovereigns or Britannias does not produce a chargeable gain, so there is nothing to enter on a tax return. No threshold, no ceiling, no disclosure. Selling £500,000 of sovereigns is no more reportable than spending £500,000 of sterling out of a bank account.
The £50,000 proceeds condition does not reach them either, because it counts proceeds from disposals of chargeable assets, and a sovereign is not one.
Selling taxable gold: what has to be reported
- A chargeable gain above the annual exempt amount. Where total chargeable gains for the tax year, after allowable losses, come to more than £3,000, there is Capital Gains Tax to pay and the gain has to be reported.
- Proceeds above £50,000, for people already inside Self Assessment. HMRC's rule is that someone registered for Self Assessment reports gains in their tax return if the total amount the assets were sold for was more than £50,000, even where the gain is small, nil or a loss. It is a condition attached to completing a return, not a separate trigger that pulls someone who does not file one into filing.
The mechanics: someone who already files a return reports on the capital gains pages by 31 January after the end of the tax year. Someone who does not file a return but has tax to pay can use HMRC's real time Capital Gains Tax service, open until 31 December after the end of the tax year, or register for Self Assessment instead. A loss has to be notified within four years of the end of the tax year in which it arose if it is to be carried forward.
Dealer identity checks are not tax reporting
The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 apply to defined categories of business rather than to every dealer. A bullion dealer accepting cash of 10,000 euros or more in a single transaction, or in linked transactions, is a high value dealer and has to register and carry out customer due diligence. A dealer taking payment only by bank transfer is not automatically inside the same regime, though banks and payment providers run their own checks, and many dealers verify identity as a matter of policy.
Either way, those checks are a compliance obligation sitting on the business. They are not a tax disclosure about the customer, and they do not create a reporting threshold for gold. Buying gold is not a reportable event for tax at any amount.
How to avoid Capital Gains Tax on gold, honestly
The phrase is misleading, and worth correcting rather than playing along with. There is nothing to avoid on a sovereign, because there is no charge on it in the first place. Parliament put sterling outside Capital Gains Tax in 1992 and HMRC states the position openly in a published manual. Choosing an asset that a tax does not apply to is not the same as arranging affairs to escape one that does.
On the gold that is taxable, these are the factors that change the bill. They are set out as general rules, not as steps to take: which of them apply, and whether any of them makes sense in a particular case, depends on circumstances this page cannot see. A qualified adviser can look at those; a web page cannot.
- The form of the gold. UK legal tender coins are outside the charge and bars and foreign coins are inside it, and nothing else on this list has a comparable effect. The trap is that moving from one to the other is itself a taxable event. Selling bars in order to buy sovereigns is a disposal of the bars, and any gain on them becomes chargeable in the year of sale, so a switch made on tax grounds can crystallise immediately the charge it was meant to sidestep. There are also dealing costs and a spread on both legs.
- The annual exempt amount. £3,000 of gains per person per tax year, not transferable to another year, and gone on 5 April if unused.
- The tax year in which a disposal falls. Gains falling in different tax years each have their own annual exempt amount. Whether to sell at all is an investment decision rather than a tax one, and prices move independently of tax years.
- Transfers between spouses and civil partners. Transfers between spouses or civil partners living together are made on a no gain, no loss basis, which can bring a second annual exempt amount and a different rate band into play. The transfer has to be genuine and outright, and HMRC looks at substance rather than form.
- Allowable losses. Losses on chargeable assets are set against gains of the same year and carried forward if unused, provided they are notified within four years of the end of the tax year in which they arose. Losses on exempt coins do not count, as the next section explains.
- Records. A gain is measured against acquisition cost, so the cost that can be evidenced is the cost that counts.
What does not work: calling a bar a coin; splitting one sale into slices to stay under £6,000 with the same buyer; buying through a company on the assumption that the personal position simply carries across; and assuming any of this touches Inheritance Tax, because it does not.
The part that only matters in a falling market
Because a sovereign is not a chargeable asset, a loss on one is not an allowable loss. It cannot be set against gains on shares, on property or on anything else. The exemption is symmetrical, and in a year when gold falls, the symmetry is not working in the holder's favour.
An investor who bought bars and sold them at a £20,000 loss has £20,000 of allowable losses to carry forward against future gains. An investor who bought sovereigns and lost the same amount has nothing to carry forward. That is a real cost, and it is rarely mentioned alongside the exemption.
The market context belongs here rather than in a footnote. Gold reached its high for this cycle in late January 2026. As at 21 August 2026 the price is £3,390.98 per troy ounce, roughly a quarter below that peak. Values fall as well as rise, you may get back less than you paid, and past movements in the gold price are not a guide to future movements.
The tax treatment of a sovereign is a reason to prefer one form of gold over another. It is not a reason to buy gold, and it does nothing to reduce how far the price moves.
Gold investment is not regulated in the UK. There is no FCA protection, no cover from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and no recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
VAT: the second exemption, and the 180% test
Investment gold is exempt from VAT, which is a separate rule with separate conditions. A coin qualifies as investment gold if it was minted after 1800, is of a purity of at least 900 thousandths, is or has been legal tender in its country of origin, and is a description of coin normally sold at no more than 180% of the open market value of the gold it contains. HMRC also publishes a list of qualifying coins in VAT Notice 701/21A, and coins on that list qualify by name.
Sovereigns are 916.7 fine. Britannias have been 999.9 fine since 2013 and were 916.7 fine from 1987 to 2012. All of those clear the 900 thousandths test comfortably, so the fineness change makes no difference to the VAT position.
The 180% test looks at what that description of coin normally sells for, not at what one particular example fetches. A high grade coin trading above bullion does not drop out of the VAT exemption for that reason alone.
Two things people get wrong here.
- VAT and Capital Gains Tax are separate rules that happen to overlap, not one rule. A Krugerrand is VAT exempt investment gold and still fully chargeable to Capital Gains Tax. The two definitions are not the same test and do not produce the same list.
- Silver is not investment gold. Silver Britannias are UK legal tender, so they are outside Capital Gains Tax, but VAT applies on purchase. That changes the arithmetic on silver considerably, and it is why the two metals are not comparable on tax alone.
What the exemption does not cover
The sterling currency point is narrow. It answers one question about one tax. These are the places it does nothing.
Inheritance Tax
Gold coins sit in an estate at market value like anything else, and Inheritance Tax is charged at 40% above the available nil rate bands. Legal tender status is irrelevant here. Lifetime gifts of coins are potentially exempt transfers and fall out of the estate after seven years, on the usual terms. Being outside Capital Gains Tax is not the same as being free of tax, and the distinction is worth stating plainly.
Corporation Tax
A company is charged corporation tax on its chargeable gains using the same definitions in TCGA 1992, but whether coins are held as an investment or as trading stock changes the answer completely, and getting value back out of the company carries its own tax cost. The personal position does not simply carry across. Take advice before buying coins inside a company.
Gold held in a SIPP
Investment grade gold bullion is a permitted investment for a self invested personal pension: broadly, bars of a form and weight accepted by the bullion market and of a purity of at least 995 thousandths, held by the scheme rather than personally. Gold coins are generally not in that category. They are tangible movable property, which counts as taxable property for a registered pension scheme and can carry heavy tax charges on the scheme and the member.
Inside a pension the Capital Gains Tax comparison falls away in any case, because a registered pension scheme does not pay Capital Gains Tax on its investments. What matters instead is the pension treatment going in and coming out, and whether a provider will hold the asset at all, since many will not. This is technical and provider specific, so take advice before instructing anything.
Trading rather than investing
If HMRC concludes that someone is trading in coins rather than holding them, profits are trading income and Capital Gains Tax is not the relevant tax at all. Frequency, organisation, how purchases are financed and intention at the point of buying all feed into that judgement. Occasional disposals out of a long held holding are not trading. A repeated pattern of buying in order to resell can be.
Leaving and returning to the UK
The temporary non residence rules can bring gains realised while abroad back into charge on a return to the UK within five years, for assets held before leaving. Exempt coins are unaffected, because there is no chargeable gain to bring back. Bars and foreign coins are not.
Death
Death is not a disposal for Capital Gains Tax, and whoever inherits acquires at probate value. That resets the base cost on taxable gold, which is genuinely useful. It does nothing about the Inheritance Tax charge on the same coins.
Records worth keeping when nothing is reportable
Nothing is reportable on exempt coins, which is precisely why the records matter. There is no annual return creating a paper trail on the holder's behalf. Records worth keeping include:
- Purchase invoices showing the date, the price paid and exactly what was bought.
- Certification details. On NGC or PCGS graded coins the certification number identifies that individual coin and can be checked against the grading service's own database rather than taken on trust.
- Storage and insurance documentation, including where the coins are held and under what terms.
- Sale invoices and settlement records.
These carry the weight if there is ever a need to show what was held, when it was bought and what was paid: for an insurer, for executors, for a future adviser, or if the rules change one day and an acquisition cost suddenly matters.
Where graded coins fit
Bullion Club deals in independently graded Royal Mint gold: sovereigns and Britannias, sealed and certified by NGC or PCGS, each carrying a serial number that can be verified against the grading service's own records rather than taken on a dealer's word.
The tax position is straightforward. The coins are UK legal tender, so gains sit outside Capital Gains Tax, and because the exemption attaches to the coin's currency status rather than to its metal content, any premium a graded coin carries above bullion sits inside the same exemption. Coins meeting HMRC's investment gold definition, which includes a purity of at least 900 thousandths, are also exempt from VAT on purchase.
The honest caveat travels with that. A premium is only worth what a buyer will pay for it later, and premiums compress as well as expand. Grading tells you what the coin is; it does not tell you what it will be worth. Values fall as well as rise, past price movements are not a guide to future ones, and gold investment is not regulated in the UK.
Around the coins: insured delivery, or segregated storage, with the terms set out in writing before purchase, and buy back on coins bought from us at prevailing market rates. Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 225 verified Feefo reviews.
To work through how any of this applies to an existing holding, or to something you are considering, book a call. There is no obligation, and we will say plainly where coins are not the right answer.
About this guide
Written and maintained by the Bullion Club editorial team, and checked against the legislation and HMRC guidance listed below. Last reviewed 21 August 2026, against the rates and allowances in force for the 2026/27 tax year. It is scheduled for review after the next Budget, and sooner if HMRC guidance changes.
This page is general information about how UK tax rules apply to gold, not tax advice, and it does not take account of anyone's circumstances. Rates, allowances and reliefs change, and the treatment of a holding depends on residence, other gains and how the asset is held. Speak to a qualified tax adviser before acting on anything here. Gold investment is not regulated in the UK: no FCA protection, no FSCS cover, no Financial Ombudsman Service. Values fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you paid.
Sources
- Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, sections 21 and 262
- HMRC Capital Gains Manual, CG78305, foreign currency and CG76881, coins and bank notes
- HMRC, Investment gold coins, VAT Notice 701/21A
- HMRC, Capital Gains Tax rates and annual exempt amount, 2026/27
- HMRC, reporting and paying Capital Gains Tax
Frequently asked questions
Do you pay Capital Gains Tax on gold in the UK?
It depends entirely on the form. UK legal tender gold coins, meaning sovereigns minted from 1837 onwards and Britannias, are outside Capital Gains Tax because sterling currency is not a chargeable asset under section 21(1)(b) of TCGA 1992. Gold bars and foreign coins such as Krugerrands are chargeable, with gains above the £3,000 annual exempt amount taxed at 18% or 24% in 2026/27. Offshore gold ETCs are frequently charged to Income Tax instead.
Are gold sovereigns exempt from Capital Gains Tax?
Yes, provided they were minted in 1837 or later. HMRC's Capital Gains Manual states that sovereigns minted in 1837 and later years are currency and exempt like all sterling currency. Half, quarter and double sovereigns carry sterling face values and qualify on the same basis. Sovereigns minted before 1837 are not current legal tender, so they fall outside this treatment and are handled under the chattels rules instead.
How much gold can I sell without reporting it to HMRC?
There is no limit on exempt coins. Selling sovereigns or Britannias produces no chargeable gain, so there is nothing to report at any value. On taxable gold, reporting is required where total chargeable gains for the tax year exceed the £3,000 annual exempt amount. Separately, someone already registered for Self Assessment reports disposals in their return where the total amount the assets were sold for was more than £50,000, even if there was no profit.
Is there a limit on how much CGT-free gold I can hold?
No. The exemption is not an allowance, so it has no ceiling and cannot be used up. It comes from the definition of a chargeable asset, which excludes sterling currency, rather than from a relief with a cap attached. A holding of £50,000 or £5,000,000 of sovereigns produces the same Capital Gains Tax position. That contrasts with an ISA at £20,000 a year or a pension annual allowance of £60,000.
Are gold Krugerrands CGT free in the UK?
No, and they are treated less favourably than many people expect. A Krugerrand is South African legal tender, so it is currency but not sterling, which makes it a chargeable asset. It also cannot use the £6,000 chattels exemption, because section 262(6)(b) takes disposals of currency of any description outside the chattels rules. A Krugerrand therefore qualifies for neither exemption. The same reasoning applies to Maple Leafs, American Eagles and Philharmonics.
Are gold bars exempt from Capital Gains Tax?
No. Gold bars are not legal tender, so gains are chargeable at 18% or 24% above the annual exempt amount. Bars are chattels, so the section 262 exemption covers a disposal of £6,000 or less, with marginal relief capping the gain at five thirds of the excess above £6,000. On any substantial bar that cap sits far above the real gain and provides no help. Identical bars bought at different times are pooled under section 104.
Do I pay Capital Gains Tax if I give gold coins to my children?
Gifting UK legal tender coins is not a chargeable event, so no Capital Gains Tax arises. Gifting bars or foreign coins is a disposal at market value and can produce a chargeable gain even though no money changes hands. Inheritance Tax is a separate matter for both: a lifetime gift is a potentially exempt transfer and falls out of the estate after seven years, on the usual terms. Take advice on larger gifts.
Could the Capital Gains Tax exemption on gold coins be removed in a Budget?
It could. The exemption sits in the definition of a chargeable asset in TCGA 1992 rather than in a relief, so changing it would mean amending primary legislation rather than moving a rate, but Parliament can legislate a targeted change, as it already does elsewhere in the Act for currency. Nothing here should be read as a view on what a future Budget will do. Tax rules change, which is a reason to keep purchase records.
Can I claim a loss if my gold sovereigns fall in value?
No, and this is the overlooked side of the exemption. Because a sovereign is not a chargeable asset, a loss on one is not an allowable loss and cannot be set against gains on other assets. Someone who held bars and sold at a loss has a loss to carry forward; someone who held sovereigns has nothing. The exemption works in both directions, and in a falling market that is a genuine cost.
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