The question comes up in almost every first conversation, and it comes with an uneasy undertone, because both camps are loud online. Some say that of course you have to report precious metals stored abroad. Others say that of course you do not. Rarely is anything backed up.
This page does it the other way round. It lists which duties really exist and what they hang on. It draws the line to the automatic exchange of information. And at the one point where the legal position is open, it says that it is open, instead of settling for one of the two comfortable answers.
The first dividing line: owning is not an event
The UK tax return asks about income and gains, not for an inventory of your belongings. There is no annual statement of assets in which you would enter what lies in which vault. We found no rule in our research for this page that makes the mere possession of precious metals reportable.
That is worded on purpose. It is the finding of a search and not a guarantee, and the difference matters enough to write it down.
What does exist are duties that hang on events. Five of them matter for a holding abroad, and each one is clearly regulated.
The five events
| Event | What applies |
|---|---|
| Sale with a gain | Gold bars and non-sterling coins such as Krugerrands are chargeable assets for capital gains tax; there is no holding period after which a gain becomes tax-free. Gains above the annual allowance of £3,000 are taxed at 18% or 24%. UK legal tender gold coins, sovereigns minted from 1837 and gold Britannias, are sterling currency and exempt. Where the metal is stored plays no part |
| Crossing a border with gold | Into or out of Great Britain, gold is not cash for the £10,000 cash declaration, which covers notes, coins, bearer bonds, travellers' cheques and certain cheques; it travels as goods. At the EU's external border, gold of EUR 10,000 or more counts as cash and must be declared unprompted, in both directions; the same applies between Northern Ireland and non-EU countries. Silver and platinum are not on the EU's list of cash |
| Shipping as goods | Metal sent abroad by a carrier rather than carried by you leaves the country as an export, with the customs declaration that goes with it |
| A gift | Giving metal away is a disposal for capital gains tax at its market value on the day of the gift. For inheritance tax, no tax is due on a gift if you live for seven years after making it, unless it goes into a trust |
| A death | The executors value the estate and report it to HMRC. The simplified route for excepted estates is closed as soon as the assets outside the UK exceed £100,000 in gross value; then a full account is required. Inheritance tax is due by the end of the sixth month after the death |
Anyone who goes through this list sees the pattern: the rules attach to transactions, not to states of affairs. None of them requires you to report the holding as such. All of them require you to handle the transaction in question correctly.
The line to the automatic exchange of information
Now to the part most people are really asking about: the common reporting standard under which states inform each other about accounts, implemented in the UK through the International Tax Compliance Regulations.
What is reported are financial accounts. A financial account is an account maintained by a financial institution. One kind of financial institution is a custodial institution: an entity that holds financial assets for the account of others as a substantial part of its business, with at least twenty per cent of its gross income coming from holding those assets and the related services.
These three links are in the rules and can be looked up. Everything else hangs on them: if what a vault operator holds is not a financial asset, it is not a custodial institution, it maintains no financial account, and there is nothing to report.
The point beyond which we do not write
So the answer stands or falls on a single definition, and that definition is not clear.
HMRC's guidance names as financial assets securities such as shares and bonds, commodities, swaps, insurance and annuity contracts and interests in partnerships, together with interests in any of these. Excluded are direct interests in real property and cash.
Whether a silver bar that you own directly and that lies in a vault counts as a "commodity" in this sense, or whether commodity contracts and derivatives are meant, the guidance does not say. We looked through HMRC's manual on the exchange of information for a statement on physical bullion and found none.
At this point we could make it easy for ourselves. One comfortable answer would be that physical goods are of course not financial assets, so nothing is reported. The other would be that anything not excluded must be covered. Both would be a deduction, not evidence, and for a statement of this weight that is not enough.
So we say nothing on it here, and we tell you how it would be settled: with a written answer from HMRC, or through the tax adviser who has the specific provider contract in front of them. Either is a matter of weeks, not months.
What is clear, by contrast
Two things belong next to this, because they are often confused with the same question.
A bank account abroad is beyond dispute a financial account. Anyone who sells and leaves the proceeds in a foreign account is within the scope of the information exchange from that moment, with nothing doubtful about it. The sale is the threshold at which a thing becomes a balance. More on this under Selling precious metals abroad.
And the reporting question is not the tax question. Whether something is reported says nothing about whether it is taxable. If you are UK resident, you are normally taxed on your foreign income and gains as well, whether or not an authority learns of them by an automated route. Mixing up these two questions is the most expensive mistake in this whole field.
The new EU register is something else again
Since the EU anti-money laundering package of 2024 there has been a further route, and it is regularly lumped together with the information exchange.
EU member states must set up centralised automated mechanisms that make it possible to identify quickly who holds or controls payment and bank accounts, securities accounts, crypto-asset accounts and safe deposit boxes. The text draws its own reach: it covers safe deposit boxes held by credit or financial institutions within the territory of the state concerned. The financial intelligence units get immediate and unfiltered access, as do the supervisory authorities; the tax authorities are not on the list. The regulation of the same package, which applies directly from 10 July 2027, also expressly prohibits credit and financial institutions from keeping anonymous safe deposit boxes. This applies in the EU, including the Nordic member states and Benelux; the UK is not bound by it.
Three conclusions follow, and none of them is spectacular:
- It is money laundering prevention, not an exchange of tax data. Anyone who builds an argument for or against a storage location from it confuses two sets of rules.
- An operator outside the banking system is not covered by this registration, and one outside the EU certainly is not. That is no recommendation, it is the reach of the rule. What follows from it for the choice of safekeeping is set out under Bank safe deposit box or high-security vault.
- It changes none of the five duties above. They exist whether or not anyone knows about the holding.
What you should keep so that none of these questions becomes a problem
What stands out is that almost every one of the duties above hangs on evidence, not on wording. Anyone who has the following four things in order can act on all five events, and without advice.
- Purchase receipts with dates. They establish your base cost, and so the size of any gain when you sell. Without them you cannot show what you paid, and the burden of proof is on you. This is by far the most common practical mistake.
- The holdings register. Which pieces lie with which operator, under which contract number. During your lifetime it gives you an overview, and for your executors it is the only chance of finding the holding at all. How this works in an estate is set out under Precious metals in an estate.
- Customs and transport documents. Once metal has crossed a border, the record of it belongs with the purchase receipts. Years later it answers a question nobody thinks of at the moment of transport: where the holding came from.
- Proof of payment. For the purchase as well as for later proceeds. It is the thread by which a transaction can be reconstructed when someone asks.
Together that is one folder. It costs an afternoon, and in exactly the situations that could become unpleasant it replaces a discussion with a document.
A note on the reach of this page: it describes the UK position. If you are resident in another country, in the Nordics or Benelux for instance, your own rules apply, especially on deadlines and reporting duties, and they belong checked there rather than taken over from here.
The two mistakes that regularly follow from this
"It isn't reported, so it isn't taxable." That is the most dangerous equation in this field, and it is wrong. The tax liability arises from the transaction, not from the authority knowing about it. Anyone who does not declare a taxable gain has a problem that has nothing to do with reporting routes.
"It's unclear, so it doesn't apply." The opposite direction holds up just as badly. An unsettled definition does not produce an exemption. Anyone building a large position whom the question affects settles it, rather than living with it.
What we do
We are not tax advisers and we give no tax advice on individual cases. What we do is the sorting that comes first: which of these duties your situation touches at all, where your records are sufficient for it, and which questions belong with an adviser before you build something rather than after.
For the great majority of clients, the answer is unspectacular and reassuring: four of the five events never happen to them, the fifth is settled with a form, and the open question of definition does not affect them, because their holding is kept in a way that means it does not arise. Friedrich A. Hennegriff goes through this with you and also tells you where there is nothing for you to do.
👉 Book an appointmentFrequently asked questions
Do I have to tell HMRC that I store gold abroad?
We found no rule in our research that makes the mere possession of precious metals reportable. The UK tax return asks about income and gains, not for an inventory of your belongings. Duties arise at events: a sale with a gain, a border crossing, a gift, a death.
Is a storage space abroad reported like an account?
What is reported are financial accounts, that is accounts maintained by a financial institution. Whether a pure vault operator can be a financial institution at all depends on whether physical metal is a financial asset in the sense of the rules. The rules do not answer that clearly, and we found no HMRC guidance on it. We therefore assert neither of the two possible answers here.
And if I sell and the money stays abroad?
Then the question is clear. A bank account abroad is beyond dispute a financial account and is reported under the automatic exchange of information. The sale is the moment a thing becomes a balance and a different set of rules applies.
What about the new EU register for safe deposit boxes?
That is money laundering prevention, not an exchange of tax data. EU member states must set up centralised mechanisms that also cover safe deposit boxes, but only those held by credit or financial institutions within their territory. Access goes to the financial intelligence units and the supervisors, not to the tax authorities.