Goods & Services Tax (GST)
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) - 'Goods and Services Tax Ruling Goods and Services Tax: What is ‘precious metal’ for the purposes of GST?' GSTR 2003/10
Key Points
For Australian GST purposes precious metal is defined as:
- Gold with a fineness (purity) of at least 99.5%
- Silver with a fineness (purity) of at least 99.9%
- Platinum with a fineness (purity) of at least 99%
To be GST free the item/s:
- Must be in an investment and tradeable form. An item that is capable of being held as an investment, and tradeable bearing internationally acceptable marks identifying the metal, fineness (purity) and quality.
or
- Exported outside of Australia.
Items that attract Australian GST:
- If an item is not usually traded for its metal value only then it will attract GST within Australia.
- An item must have the character of the metal rather than the thing made from the metal, jewellery for example falls outside of this definition under the ruling and attracts GST.
- While jewellery made of gold, silver or platinum may be held as an investment, the term must be read in the context of the precious metal definitions.
- Collectable items such as coins, determined by rarity, condition and beauty are not traded by reference to their metal value and therefore attract GST.