On 1099-Tax Reporting Requirements For Half Ounce Gold Transactions

07-21-2010 • ZeroHedge.com

Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Form 1099s will become a means of reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the purchases of all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year. Precious metals such as coins and bullion fall into this category and coin dealers have been among those most rankled by the change. This provision, intended to mine what the IRS deems a vast reservoir of uncollected income tax, was included in the health care legislation ostensibly as a way to pay for it. The tax code tweak is expected to raise $17 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Pat Heller, who owns Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., deals with around 1,000 customers every week. Many are individuals looking to protect wealth in an uncertain economy, he said, while others are dealers like him. With spot market prices for gold at nearly $1,200 an ounce, Heller estimates that he'll be filling out between 10,000 and 20,000 tax forms per year after the new law takes effect. "I'll have to hire two full-time people just to track all this stuff, which cuts into my profitability," he said. An issue that combines gold coins, the Obama health care law and the IRS is bound to stir passions. Indeed, trading in gold coins and bars has surged since the financial crisis unfolded and Obama took office, metal dealers said. The sudden interest into gold tax reporting requirement is occurring as gold selling companies are increasingly being put under a regulatory microscope: The recently revealed investigation by California authorities into consumer complaints against Goldline International, which has used Beck as a pitchman, and Superior Gold Group (which has not) has put a spotlight on what one liberal leaning politician, Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., calls the "unholy alliance" between gold coin sellers, such as Goldline, and conservative talk personalities, such as Beck. Beck, who through his spokesman, Matt Hiltzik, declined to comment for this story, and Goldline marketers portray gold coins as a better alternative to owning bullion in the event that the U.S. government ever decides, as it did under FDR in 1933, to make it illegal for private citizens to own physical gold. At that time, the U.S. dollar was still pegged to the price of gold; the gold standard was abandoned during the Nixon administration.

2 Comments in Response to On 1099-Tax Reporting Requirements For Half Ounce Gold Transactions

Comment by Powell Gammill

Entered on: 7/21/2010 9:48:19 PM

In 17 months, how little gold will it take to hit $600?

Comment by Trouser Chili

Entered on: 7/21/2010 9:44:33 PM

Is there a penalty for filing these forms if you're not self-employed and don't own a small business and didn't spend over $600? Because I'm interested in flooding the IRS with paper that they cannot handle. I'm thinking that creating piles and piles of transactions with random data from random people would be an excellent idea.

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