Gold Spot: 1,962.10 | -0.1% |
Silver Spot: 23.62 | 0.2% |
Written by retirement experts Pat Collins and John Halloran
Chances are, at some point, you will want to liquidate your gold or silver IRA account. So it’s only logical you have a plan to do so.
To help guide you through the process, the Certified Gold Exchange retirement account team created this overview on how to sell precious metals within your Self-Directed IRA.
When you sell precious metals with the Certified Gold Exchange, we check pricing with over three thousand gold bullion dealers to find the highest buyback of the day. And then we beat that price. Additionally, we send you a link to the highest gold or silver bids, so you have complete confidence you are receiving the highest price of the day for your sale.
CGE and our major trading partners also have accounts with the Delaware Depository and other IRS-approved depositories serving Self-Directed IRA custodians. Therefore you will never pay costly shipping and insurance charges when you sell gold IRAs with us.
If you have a Traditional IRA, you are responsible for paying taxes upon taking distributions. If you have a Roth IRA, you are not.
A distribution is when you take funds out of your IRA account. That amount is added to your taxable income for the year.
Additionally, if you are under 59.5 years of age, you will pay an additional 10% penalty on early distributions.
If you create a taxable event, you can elect to withhold both Federal and State taxes on your Distribution Request form.
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) are the minimum amount you must withdraw from your existing IRA (or any other non-Roth accounts) each year once you turn 72 years of age.
Every year your IRA custodian will send you the exact amount you must take as an RMD. This figure is calculated based on your account balance at the end of the preceding year divided by a distribution period determined from the IRS’s “Uniform Lifetime Table”.
You have until April 15th of the following year to take your RMD. If you fail to take your RMD in the allotted time, the amount not withdrawn is taxed 50%.
When you receive your RMD notification from your IRAs custodian, simply contact your precious metals company and inform them of the amount you must withdraw. You will then follow the same steps as above to liquidate the appropriate amount of metal. Your dealer will also provide you with a Distribution Request form in the amount of your RMD.
You can then select how you would like to receive your distribution payment. Most IRA custodians will send an ACH payment and check for free but will charge a fee to send a wire.
A unique feature of Self-Directed precious metal IRAs are “in-kind” distributions. “In-kind” simply means you opt to take physical possession of a portion of your metal rather than sell it and receive cash.
To take an “in-kind” distribution of silver and gold coins, you’d simply contact your dealer and provide them with the amount of your RMD. They will then complete a Distribution Request form that reflects the amount of gold and silver you’ll need to withdraw to satisfy your RMD.
Your custodian will provide you with a shipping quote from either UPS or FedEx for you to approve. You can pay for the shipping via a credit card over the phone.
Once your precious metals arrive, you’ll want to store them in either a safety deposit box or a safe at home.
But remember this is a distribution, so you’re still liable for the taxes. You have the option of paying the taxes out of pocket or selling a portion of your precious metals to raise the proceeds.
It may seem that there are quite a few moving parts when it comes to selling a gold IRA. But you can rest assured that the Certified Gold Exchanges gold IRA retirement experts have executed 1000’s of transactions to date. We’ll hold your hand and guide you through the sale every step of the way.
Disclaimer: Like all investments gold and silver IRA accounts carry risk. Additionally, they don’t pay a dividend or interest, so they are not suitable for anyone needing to generate income. The only way to profit is to hold the metals long enough to pass your break even point and then liquidate.