The relationship bw gold and tax

What happens regards the taxman if you manage to find gold consistantly?

Gday artrix

Its no matter how much you find its only what you sell that will attract the attention of the taxman, and that will only apply if you are on a pension or benefit, others could give you more details on what the amount is, but I believe it is quite substantial before you have to declare it.

As it is seen as a hobby the taxation department are not interested, if you are consistantly selling gold say on ebay or something, they could see it as a business, but then again I believe that if you sell it for a buy it now price then this does not apply, but if you sell it at auction it is seen as a business.

I think it may be a can of worms for the taxman so they most likely think its best left alone, its more likely than not that a large percentage of operators dont find enough gold to pay for the equipment they use, so for the taxation dept to tax you on what you find then I would imagine that you would also be able to claim the costs you incured to find the gold. and equipment etc.

If there was an easy way they could get their grubby little bum scratchers on some of our loot they would be doing it already, I am absolutely sure about that.


cheers

stayyerAU

For most of us the taxman would treat it as a hobby and leave us alone, however I believe that if you are
on a Govt. pension and sell gold the cash you receive then becomes part of you assete base and could affect the amount of pension you get. My thoughts only and may be incorrect.
Cheers Greg.

Artrix,
I received tax advice a year or so ago that any gold you find and sell is not taxable. If you get more then $50,000 in income from your gold you must declare it on your tax return. (you just need to declare it...you will not pay tax on it.) Even if you find a few hundred thousand worth you should be OK.

All of the above assumes your detecting is a hobby. ie do not claim any prospecting related expenses and do not list your occupation as a prospector or similar... ever. You should also have a main job/business other then the income from prospecting.

Re pensions and other government payments..i do not know if these are effected by gold income. Check out the ATO or centrelink websites for your particular "benefit" and conditions maybe

Of course if you are a fulltime professional prospector and its your only occupation and you are earning over $50,000 from gold, you are probably better off having an ABN, a business name and claiming all your prospecting costs, detectors, picks, fuel, vehicle etc as expenses.

Tributer

Thanks for the reply thats good news if I ever manage to find anything?

Gday


I believe that if you are on goverment payments like the pension, unemployment benefits, or disabilty payments, you have to declare your finds, but like Tributer said its in the region of $50,000 or more, thats about what I had thought I had heard previously but wasnt sure so I didnt mention it.

I dont know if this is the same for all types of benefits so it would be worth checking into it if you think that it might effect you, as some of you will remember a few years back centrelink went headhunting in the Kalgoorlie area and it went down like the domino effect, there were some prospectors prosecuted, and others investigated for not declaring their gold income to centrelink but I dont think it involved the taxation department.

From what I heard on the grapevine it all started with one hapless prospector being dobbed in to centrelink by a jilted ex partner, he had made over $100,000 in gold, I dont know over what period of time that was, but he had to repay about $40,000 back to centrelink.

cheers


stayyerAU

Goodday All
I know with wild game anything under 20G's in a season & it is a hobby Over & you pay tax & can claim expenses.
Cheers Greg

I was told that natural gold was tax free the first time it is sold. Any subsequent sales are taxable. So if you buy a big nugget as an investment you will have to pay tax when you sell it.

This was third hand from a friend so it may not be true.

Dicko.

G day all

I was told the same as Dicko if you dig it up and sell it to a registered gold buyer you don't have to declare it to anyone including centrelink.
It's only when you auction it or sell it to someone not registered that it will attract tax.

Brett

Good day All.
I wish I was finding enough gold to have to worry about tax. I wouldn't tell anyone.
Cheers Greg

Hi Guy's, I remember those 2 old fellers in Victoria finding about $600,000 worth not long after the 4500's came out. You can actually watch the TV segment of it on youtube. At the end of the show they comment that their find was tax free. Maybe it's the government protecting itself from us lol? IE if we had to pay tax on it then surely we'd be able to claim expenses, like equipment fuel etc etc etc. Now wouldn't that be a blast! Of course for those investing in gold to try and make a few bucks I'd say you would have to pay capitol gains just like any other investment. But then how would they know of any private sales? Just remember to keep your bank transactions below 10k. And if in the future you were found to have a 100k worth of nuggets under your pillow, how is the tax man going to prove you din't find them yourself? I am very new to detecting, but want to do a lot more. I found my first nugget in the WhipStick a few weeks ago, about 8.8 grammer so I dont think I will worry about telling the tax man about that one!

Cheers all, happy and successful hunting

B

Congratulations on your first find 'SerialDelta' an 8 grammer is a nice first find,and must motivate you to find more What gear were you using re detector / coil size / just for interest thanks.Good luck with future finds.

Cheers Bill

I think that there are two sections to this subject, You don't pay tax on the gold you sell,but I believe that if you are on a Gov't pension and the money from the sale goes into your bank account then that becomes an asset and could effect the amount of pension you receive.In WA if you sell gold to AGR the proceeds must go into a bank account.
Cheers Greg.

Hi Bill, yes it was a very lucky find considering I didn't really have a clue what I was doing lol. I had hired a 4500 from Coiltek in Maryborough, it had a coiltek round 14" on it. It was a try before you buy thing, so now I have my name down but don't expect to get it for at least 3 or 4 months. Was tempted a few times by E bay, but when I am spending that sort of dough I want a new one!
There is really no other feeling that comes close to brushing the dust off a nice little nugget... I think that means I am done, hook line and sinker. It was just north of the Notley camp ground turn off on the left.. only about 25 meters from the road. If you go there and find an empty hole with 3 large chunks of quartz laying next to it thats where she was. (I took the dirt and panned for fines but got nothing)

Hi Greg, yes I think you'd be right about pensions.. and in this day when the ATO and other Gov't offices would spend half a million to investigate and prosecute someone who didn't declare a few grand worth of gold it would definitely be in best interests to suss it out if you may be in that situation....... I'd even go so far as to record the conversation lol.

Cheers all

B

If you are on a pension or the dole you must inform Centre Link if you sell gold. This is only if you sell it to a gold buyer, if to a private individual no one is going to know about it. If you sell to a gold buyer they must take your details off your drivers license and Centre Link will be notified by the ATO.

I think the top limit you can sell without having to declare it is about $38,000. But this is not actually what you sell but the actual turnover which includes what you sell and includes all costs incurred in the recovery of gold. ATO doesn't really want to know about is they would end up owing you money.

Cheers, Granite