I have a few questions about American Eagle coins and IRA's... I kinda have a semi-basic understanding of how an IRA works. I don't have an IRA right now, but plan to start one within the next few years. I already have some Silver and Gold eagles. Can I add these to the IRA, being that they were purchased before hand? Also, how exactly do you add it? Thanks! Josh
I believe there are some (gold) coin based IRAs (well at least one I heard of)... I'll see if I can find the info...
OK... did a quick Google... 'gold coin IRA'... there was some interesting info... the company I recall hearing about was American Church Trust (ACT), it is called out in some of the listing from the Google search... Some interesting reading... I didn't see if you could move your existing AEs into the IRA... but then I didn't read anything for detail...
You can probably move your existing gold eagles into a newly created IRA, but you will be limited by the maximum annual contibution limit Which means you can move about two of them into the account each year. And they will have to be turned over to the trustee, you are not allowed to hold them yourself which means you won't see them again. You can have the trustee buy more gold eagles with any other funds in the account as they come available and you have enough to buy more. You will most likely have to pay storage and insurance fees for the trustee to store your eagles. This may offset or even negate any increase in value of your eagles except in unusual circumstances where the market rises sharply in the short term. And of course in a regular IRA when you take disbursements you will have to pay taxes on any increase in the valuie of the eagles. I don't know if you can put eagles into a Roth IRA.
Excerpt from IRS publication 590: If your traditional ira invests in collectibles, the amount invested is considered distributed to you in the year invested. You may have to pay the 10% additional tax on early distributions, discussed later. Collectibles. These include: • Artworks, • Rugs, • Antiques, • Metals, • Gems, • Stamps, • Coins, • Alcoholic beverages, and • Certain other tangible personal property. Exception. Your ira can invest in one, one-half, one-quarter, or one-tenth ounce U.S. gold coins, or one-ounce silver coins minted by the Treasury Department. It can also invest in certain platinum coins and certain gold, silver, palladium, and platinum bullion. looked into this a few years ago as I am incorporated as a precious metals dealer. I am not just an LLC. I did that in advance of the coming Patriot Acts and for a few tax benefits. When I looked into putting away gold bullion coins into an ira to put off taxes for a future date when my income would be less, I learned that I had no control of the account once I put items into it. Not without severe penalties anyway. Further, I could not have any control over the bullion coins till retirement age. I also had to pay storage fees, administrative fees, and fees with absurd names that served no purpose but to drain my pockets. It became such a nightmare of paperwork, that I gave it up. Now it just sits as "inventory" in my own bank deposit box. I'll deal with profits when sale time comes. My CPA/tax attorney and I worked on this for a few months on and off and I finally just said it. I found that there were so many restrictions, including the amount I could defer from taxes that it just wasn't worth it. I can do it as inventory and hold it the same way with none of the hassles. The IRS really puts the clamps down on these things and simply doesn't want you to have any control over your ira. Just another example of the Feds keeping control of regular folks. I suppose it would be fine if you had an employer that would match funds, though inflation will eat it into swiss cheese by the time you can retrieve it. When you try to do it yourself, they tend to frown on such individual endeavors.
Why would you want to add your PM's to an IRA? I like to keep my coins and bullion seperate from either banks or other investments. Just in case, you know. Eggs in a basket and all that stuff.
I don't think it is so much they don't want you to have any control over your IRA as it is they really don't want you putting physical gold into it. They want you to have you IRA money invested in "Productive" assets that generate growth in the economy such as stocks. If you want to put you money into these more traditional "growth" items, stocks, bonds, CD's etc then you have a LOT more control over the account and the assets in it. What surprises me is that they don't have a special IRA with even more tax benefits that only allowed you to invest the money in governement securities. (Regular IRA is pre tax dollars and you pay taxes on the growth when you withdraw, Roth is post tax dollars and you don't pay taxes on the growth. the special one with maybe a tax break and no taxes later but all the money has to be invested in government securities. In effect you have to give all of your investment money to the government and they promise to pay it back later with interest. After all the government always want to get their hands on your money and they never have any problems making promises that they have no idea how they will keep in the future.) Something else that always worried me about the IRA's, is that once they have your money locked into them the government can then change the rules, which they did a few years after the IRA's were first created. For example right now the Roth is post tax dollars and you pay no taxes on the money when you withdraw it upon retirement. What happens after you have been socking it away for ten years and have built a nice nest egg, and they then change the law so you DO have to pay taxes on the disbursement?
