Tax on Gold and Silver in Canada: GST/HST, Capital Gains, and T1135

Last reviewed: November 11, 2026. Sources are linked in the text.

Gold and silver bullion touch Canadian tax law at three separate points, and mixing them together is the most common mistake investors make. There is a sales tax question at the moment of purchase, an income tax question at the moment of sale, and a foreign reporting question for anyone who stores metal outside Canada. Each question sits under a different statute, has its own primary source, and deserves its own answer. This guide works through the three in order and names the CRA source behind each point. This site’s guide to buying gold inside a self-directed RRSP or TFSA, and its guides to the Gold and Silver Maple Leaf coins, each touch the GST/HST purchase exemption in the context of those specific products. This page is the general tax hub: it sets out the purchase, sale, and reporting rules once, in full, so those product-specific guides do not need to repeat the detail.

GST/HST on the purchase: the “precious metal” test

Most bullion sold in Canada is exempt from GST/HST, but the exemption has a precise legal test, and metal that misses it is taxed like any other sale. Under subsection 123(1) of the Excise Tax Act, as explained in CRA’s GST/HST Memorandum 17-1, a precious metal means a bar, ingot, coin, or wafer composed of gold, silver, or platinum, refined to a purity level of at least 99.5% for gold and platinum, or 99.9% for silver (CRA, GST/HST Memorandum 17-1, paragraph 29).

Three conditions apply together, not separately:

• Purity: at least 99.5% for gold and platinum, at least 99.9% for silver.
• Form: a bar, ingot, coin, or wafer that is generally recognized and accepted for trading on Canadian financial markets, bearing a purity mark and the issuer’s or refiner’s identification mark (Memorandum 17-1, paragraph 30).
• Coins specifically must be issued by a government authority and capable of being used as currency (Memorandum 17-1, paragraph 30).

When all three conditions are met, CRA treats the sale as a supply of a financial service, which is generally exempt from GST/HST (Memorandum 17-1, paragraph 31). Metal that falls short, low purity bullion, carat jewellery, scrap, or precious metal sold in granular form rather than bar, ingot, coin, or wafer form, is a taxable supply subject to GST/HST in the ordinary way (Memorandum 17-1, paragraphs 32 and 36).

Exempt and zero-rated sound similar but are legally distinct, and the difference matters to anyone selling metal back, not only buying it. Memorandum 17-1, paragraph 34, zero-rates one specific transaction: a supply of precious metal made by the refiner that refined it, or by the person on whose behalf it was refined, generally the original owner selling it for the first time after refining. Every later resale of that same metal, a dealer selling to a customer, or a customer selling back to a dealer, is exempt, not zero-rated. For most buyers and sellers the practical result is the same, no GST/HST charged either way, but the two categories sit under different provisions of the Excise Tax Act and matter to anyone GST/HST-registered who needs to track input tax credits, such as a refiner or a bullion dealer. An individual selling a used coin back to a dealer is making an exempt supply; only the refiner’s own first sale of newly refined metal is zero-rated.

Metal	Minimum purity	Qualifying form
Gold	99.5%	Bar, ingot, coin, or wafer; government-issued if a coin
Platinum	99.5%	Bar, ingot, coin, or wafer; government-issued if a coin
Silver	99.9%	Bar, ingot, coin, or wafer; government-issued if a coin

Source: CRA, GST/HST Memorandum 17-1, paragraphs 29 to 30.

This same purity and form test is what this site’s RRSP and TFSA guide, and its Maple Leaf coin guides, rely on when they describe which products qualify; it is set out once here so later guides can point back to this page instead of repeating it. Those guides, and this site’s reviews of its two bullion dealer partners, Silver Gold Bull and BullionStar, disclose plainly where a link to a dealer is an affiliate link that may pay this site a commission on a completed purchase at no extra cost to the buyer. The same disclosure applies to any dealer mentioned from this page.

Income tax when you sell: capital gain or business income

Selling bullion at a profit raises a second, entirely separate question under the Income Tax Act: is the gain a capital gain, with only half included in taxable income, or is it fully taxable business income? The GST/HST exemption described above has no bearing on this question. GST/HST is a sales tax under the Excise Tax Act; income tax on a gain is a different tax under a different statute, and nothing about a purchase being GST/HST-exempt says anything about how a later gain will be taxed.

The Income Tax Act does not supply a formula for this distinction, and CRA says so directly. CRA’s Income Tax Audit Manual, Chapter 27, titled “Capital Gain or Business Income?”, states that it is a question of fact whether or not a property is acquired and used on account of income or capital (CRA, Income Tax Audit Manual, Chapter 27.1.1). The manual, together with CRA’s Guide T4037, Capital Gains, directs an auditor, and by extension a taxpayer, to weigh a list of factors the courts have developed, none decisive on its own (CRA, Income Tax Audit Manual, Chapter 27.1.2; CRA, Guide T4037, Capital Gains):

• The taxpayer’s intention at the time the metal was acquired, including any secondary intention to resell at a profit.
• The nature of the property and whether it produces income while held.
• The number and frequency of similar transactions.
• The taxpayer’s period of ownership.
• The taxpayer’s knowledge of, or experience in, the precious metals market.
• Whether the activity relates to the taxpayer’s ordinary business or occupation.
• The time spent researching, monitoring, or trading the metal.
• How purchases were financed, including any reliance on margin or borrowed money.

A reader who buys occasionally, holds for years, and sells once looks far more like someone on capital account, where only 50% of the gain is included in income. Someone who buys and sells frequently, borrows to finance purchases, has direct market expertise, or runs the activity alongside a related business looks more like someone earning fully taxable business income, whatever label is used on a tax return. CRA and the courts weigh the whole pattern of conduct, not any one transaction, and it is possible for the same person to have some holdings taxed as capital property and other, differently handled holdings, taxed as business income in the same year.

Because the answer turns entirely on individual facts, this guide cannot and does not tell a reader which category their own transactions fall into. Anyone with a meaningful gain, or who buys and sells with any regularity, should get advice from a professional accountant or tax lawyer before filing, rather than assume a default answer.

Form T1135: does foreign-stored bullion have to be reported?

Form T1135, Foreign Income Verification Statement, is a separate reporting duty layered on top of the income tax rules above, not a replacement for them. Canadian resident individuals, corporations, and certain trusts holding specified foreign property with a total cost of more than $100,000 (Canadian dollars) at any point in the year must file it (CRA, Foreign Income Verification Statement).

Some readers assume bullion is automatically carved out of this requirement. Checked directly against CRA’s own published guidance, that is not an accurate general statement, and it is worth stating precisely because filing the form incorrectly has real consequences. CRA’s own list of what counts as specified foreign property includes “precious metals, gold certificates, and futures contracts held outside Canada” (CRA, Foreign Income Verification Statement, “What property has to be reported”). Form T1135’s own instructions repeat this under the “other property outside Canada” reporting category, listing “precious metals or bullion (e.g., gold and silver) situated outside Canada” as something to report there (CRA, Form T1135 instructions). CRA’s list of specific exclusions from specified foreign property is limited to property used exclusively in an active business, shares or debt of a foreign affiliate, certain exempt trust interests, and personal-use property as defined in section 54 of the Income Tax Act. Precious metals held outside Canada do not appear on that exclusion list.

In practice, this means bullion that a Canadian resident owns personally and stores in a vault located outside Canada is, on CRA’s own published position, specified foreign property and counts toward the $100,000 threshold alongside any other foreign holdings. It is not automatically exempt simply because it is bullion rather than a security or a bank account. Bullion stored in a vault located inside Canada is a different matter: it is not “held outside Canada” in the first place, so it does not fall into this reporting category regardless of value, because the T1135 regime turns on where the property is located, not on what kind of asset it is.

The narrow exclusion for “personal-use property” under section 54 is aimed at things like a vacation property used for personal enjoyment, and CRA keeps that as a separate category from precious metals in its own list. This guide cannot confirm from CRA’s published guidance that investment bullion held for price appreciation would qualify as personal-use property, and readers should not assume it does. Holding bullion indirectly, through a foreign corporation, a foreign trust, or certain pooled foreign storage programs, raises additional reporting questions of its own, which are outside the scope of this guide. Anyone storing bullion outside Canada, personally or through an entity, should confirm their specific filing obligations with a tax professional. This page summarizes CRA’s published position but is not a substitute for that advice.

Frequently asked questions

Do I pay tax when I buy gold in Canada?

Generally no GST/HST, provided the metal meets the “precious metal” test: at least 99.5% purity for gold or platinum, at least 99.9% for silver, in bar, ingot, coin, or wafer form, with coins issued by a government authority. Metal that misses the test, jewellery, low-purity pieces, or metal sold in granular form, is taxed as an ordinary sale. See the GST/HST section above for the exact rule and its source.

Do I pay tax when I sell gold or silver?

Possibly, on any gain above what was paid for it. Whether that gain is a capital gain, with 50% included in income, or fully taxable business income, depends on the facts of how the metal was bought, held, and sold, not on the type of metal itself.

Is my bullion a capital gain or business income?

There is no fixed answer. CRA and the courts weigh factors such as how often transactions happen, how long the metal is held, how much market knowledge and time the owner brings to it, and how purchases are financed. A professional should assess an individual’s own pattern of transactions before filing.

Do I need to report foreign-held bullion on my tax return?

If bullion is held personally in a vault located outside Canada, and total specified foreign property costs more than $100,000 (Canadian dollars) at any point in the year, CRA’s own guidance lists precious metals held outside Canada as reportable on Form T1135. Bullion stored in Canada does not fall under this rule. Holding metal through a foreign corporation or trust raises further questions outside the scope of this guide. Confirm an individual filing obligation with a tax professional.

Sources

• CRA, GST/HST Memorandum 17-1, “Definition of "Financial Instrument"” (paragraphs 29 to 38): canada.ca/…/17-1/definition-financial-instrument.html. Reviewed November 11, 2026.
• CRA, “Foreign Income Verification Statement”: canada.ca/…/foreign-income-verification-statement.html. Reviewed November 11, 2026.
• CRA, Form T1135 instructions (PDF): canada.ca/…/t1135-22e.pdf. Reviewed November 11, 2026.
• CRA, Income Tax Audit Manual, Chapter 27, “Capital Gain or Business Income?”: canada.ca/…/income-tax-audit-manual-domestic-compliance-programs-branch-dcpb-27.html. Reviewed November 11, 2026.
• CRA, Guide T4037, “Capital Gains” (2025): canada.ca/…/t4037/capital-gains.html. Reviewed November 11, 2026.
• CRA, archived Interpretation Bulletin IT-459, “Adventure or Concern in the Nature of Trade”: canada.ca/…/it459/archived-adventure-concern-nature-trade.html. Reviewed November 11, 2026.