Pirate Poop #4

by Joe Blow   

Exclusive to STR

Paying Taxes on Gold Bullion Coins

“Q: Do I have to pay taxes if I sell my gold bullion coins for a profit?

“A: Yes, if you hold gold as an investment, and later sell it at a profit, you will have either a long-term or short-term taxable gain.”

But this is not how a Pirate thinks. A Pirate will tell you that when he pays $580 of legal tender for a one-ounce gold Eagle he only receives $50 of legal tender in return. He will then tell you that he just paid a very hefty $530 tax to the U.S. Mint (via a coin dealer) for the privilege of swapping green ink on paper for real money. Anyone who thinks that he may also potentially owe the IRS an additional tax later is seriously deluded.

Here’s a Pirate’s short list of why this is so:  

• - If you are a collector, not an investor, this IRS rule does not apply.

• - The U.S. Mint and the IRS do not track purchases or sales of gold bullion coins.

• - The coin dealer does not report purchases or sales of gold bullion coins.

• - You can still buy gold bullion coins anonymously for cash.

• - You are not required to report any purchases or sales of gold bullion coins.

• - Unless you tell someone, nobody knows if you have any gold bullion coins.

• - No system exists to document when your coins were bought or sold.

• - No system exists to document the price you paid or received for your coins.

• - People move all the time; records often disappear in the process.

• - With age, one tends to forget minor details, like dates and prices.

• - The capital gain tax only applies if you sell your coins, not if you give them away.

• - Gold bullion coins make great gifts for birthdays, graduations, and weddings.

• - The Salvation Army kettle always needs another Santa.

• - Fundamental IRS Rule: You never pay the same tax twice.

• - Who in their right mind would pay a tax to swap real money for ink on paper?

• - You are just plain stupid, you always buy high and sell low.

• - You simply can’t recall where you buried those coins; must be Alzheimer’s.

• - Not only is this just a potential tax, it is also totally unenforceable.

• - The IRS does not take inflation into account for the capital gain tax.

• - When the IRS audits you, you won’t have a record of any coin sales.

• - Unless the price of gold really skyrockets, the hefty federal tax that you already paid to the U.S. Mint more than covers the small tax on any potential taxable gain.

Or, as any Pirate will simply tell you, “What gold bullion coins?”

JCN: Know Where You Are

A successful Pirate knows where he is at all times. This means more than where you are on the map; it also means where you are in the cycles of time. A Pirate acts in such a way to benefit from the time and place in which he finds himself.  

According to William Strauss and Neil Howe in their insightful book, The Fourth Turning—required reading for any serious Pirate—there are four seasons in each 80–100 year cycle of history. Like the seasons of the year, there are corresponding Seasons or Turnings of history. The character of each Season is driven by the lineup of four Generational types. The same pattern has been repeating in Anglo-American history since the War of the Roses. Their website is a wealth of information.

The Seasons that we are currently passing through are:

1. The High – in our case, the post–WW II High, 1946 to 1964.

2. The Awakening – the cultural wars of 1964 to 1984.

3. The Unraveling – 1984 to 2005? If you are not feeling this, you will never be a Pirate.

4. The Crisis- 2006? to 2025? Read any newspaper; the climate, the economy, social Balkanization, and the very real threat of radical Islam all quickly come to mind as just a few examples of many possible flash points.  

Being out of position or out of season spells disaster. If you don’t know where you are on the chart, you will run aground. If you don’t know the current season, you could find yourself planting corn in November and expecting to harvest it in March.

In other words, if you don’t know where you are, you will: a.) invest in the wrong things, b.) be in the wrong place, and c.) count on a safety net that will not be there. 

“To everything there is a season.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

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