Anyone who wants to store precious metals outside the EU sooner or later comes to two names: Switzerland and Singapore. Both work, but they do not work the same way, and the difference matters more than it seems at first glance. If you are still considering more fundamentally which location suits your situation at all, start one level higher: with the overview Where to store precious metals.
In a Swiss bonded warehouse, the tax is deferred. In Singapore, it never arises in the first place.
The real difference
A bonded warehouse is a piece of land treated for tax as though the goods had never entered the country. As long as your silver lies there, no VAT is due. If you take it out and release it into free circulation, it becomes due. So the advantage depends on nothing ever changing.
Singapore chose a different path. Since 1 October 2012, investment precious metals have been exempt there from Goods and Services Tax, Singapore's VAT. Not postponed, not suspended, but exempt. The exemption applies to imports just as to supplies within the country, it applies expressly to commercial and private imports alike, and exports from Singapore are zero-rated. From a tax point of view, you therefore do not need a bonded warehouse in Singapore for investment metals, because the tax that such a warehouse would merely defer never arises there in the first place.
In practice this means: you can store your metal there, sell it, rearrange it or export it again, without a consumption tax on the metal's value arising at any point. Even if you want to buy gold directly in Singapore, no Goods and Services Tax is charged on investment metal, because the exemption applies equally to supplies within the country. For silver, which in the UK carries VAT at the standard rate of 20%, that is the whole point.
What counts as investment metal, and what fails
This is where it gets concrete, and where most people who decide on their own lose money. The exemption does not apply to precious metals in general, but only to what Singapore's tax authority defines as investment precious metals under its rules. The criteria are narrow.
For bars, ingots and wafers:
- Gold of at least 99.5 per cent, silver of at least 99.9 per cent, platinum of at least 99 per cent fineness.
- Tradeable on the international bullion market.
- Made by a refiner on the current or former Good Delivery list of the London Bullion Market Association, or for platinum on the corresponding list of the London Platinum & Palladium Market.
- Bearing a mark recognised internationally as a guarantee of quality. Bank-branded bars meet this, as long as the refiner behind them is accredited.
- No decorative bars, no collector's bars.
For coins, the same finenesses apply; in addition, the coin must be or have been legal tender in its country of origin, and it must appear on the official list. Proof finishes, collector's and numismatic editions of the same coin are expressly excluded, because their price is set by rarity and finish and not by the metal.
And one restriction that surprises many: palladium is not covered. Gold, silver and platinum yes, palladium no.
What this means in practice: a silver bar from a refiner that is not listed is not investment metal in Singapore, but ordinary goods. Old coin holdings in 800 or 835 silver fail. Britannia silver coins meet the required fineness only from the 2013 mintage onwards; older years do not. Anyone moving a mixed collection without sorting it first ends up paying tax on part of it that could have been avoided.
This is one of the points at which a consultation typically pays for itself, long before jurisdictions and structures come into it.
The calculation most people get wrong
A client had a large silver position in Germany and wanted it held in Singapore. His first thought was the obvious one: sell in Germany and buy again in Singapore.
That is almost always the expensive option. You sell at one dealer's buying price and buy at another dealer's selling price. The spread between these two prices is considerably wider for silver than for gold. On a large position, such a round trip quickly adds up to six figures, and for nothing. In the end you hold the same metal as before.
Transporting around four hundred kilograms cost about EUR 15,000. Compared with the round trip, he saved a six-figure sum.
The thought behind it runs through all our work: a move is not a disposal. Ownership does not change, the position stays exactly as it is, only the place changes. A sale followed by a repurchase, by contrast, is a real economic transaction, with dealer spreads, with tax consequences and with the risk that you buy back in at a different price between sale and repurchase.
For smaller holdings, the calculation tips. Silver has a low value density, and transport and insurance cost the same per kilo whatever the price. When a move pays off depends on the size of the position, on the metal and on the spread you would actually pay. That calculation should be made before you sell, not after.
The border, and why you should not fly it yourself
Two sides need looking at: leaving where the metal is now, and the import into Singapore.
At the EU's external border, gold counts in law as cash. Gold bars, nuggets and clumps of at least 99.5 per cent and gold coins with a gold content of at least 90 per cent count as cash. Anyone leaving the EU with them worth EUR 10,000 or more must declare them in writing, unprompted. Silver and platinum are not on this list of cash; they travel as goods under the ordinary customs rules. Leaving Great Britain, gold is not cash for the UK's £10,000 cash declaration; there, too, it travels as goods. The details are in our article on gold, customs and the EUR 10,000 rule.
On the Singapore side, the tax exemption itself is straightforward, the formalities are not. Anyone bringing investment metal in their hand luggage manages without a permit up to a total weight of half a kilogram. Above that, even a private importer needs an exemption permit before import, to be presented at the checkpoint on arrival; private individuals can have it applied for through a local freight forwarder. Half a kilo of silver is roughly one larger bar. Anyone moving metal seriously is outside this rule immediately.
That is why, in practice, a move works differently. A secure logistics company first takes the metal into a professional high-security vault; for our clients in Germany, that is usually in Frankfurt. From there it travels on as an insured secure transport, from vault to vault, to Singapore. The customs formalities lie with the service provider, who handles them every day. You do not touch the bars and you stand at no border. How this route works in detail, what it costs and from what size of position it pays off compared with a sale is set out in our article on moving precious metals abroad.
That is not only more comfortable, but for larger holdings also the only option that is clean from an insurance point of view. A private journey with six-figure metal values in the boot is as a rule not covered.
The vault, and why the form of safekeeping decides
For asset protection, one question matters more than any tax question: do you own a particular bar, or do you own a claim against someone?
With allocated storage, also called segregated storage, your pieces are clearly assigned to you by number and weight. They lie separately, they are not lent out, they are not part of the custodian's balance sheet. With pooled storage, you hold a share in a holding and therefore a claim. In normal times you notice no difference. In the scenario for which people hold precious metals at all, it is the only difference that counts.
The same applies to whether the metal lies inside the banking system or outside it. Anyone holding precious metal as protection against exactly the institutions that close or seize up in a crisis should not store it in their vaults.
In Singapore, we work with a provider that runs exactly this model: its own high-security vault, physical receipt of the customer's bars, segregated storage, no link to a bank. That is a different approach from platforms through which you buy a share in a common holding. Both have their place. For asset protection, the first is the right one.
Why Singapore and not only Switzerland
The honest answer is: often both, and for different parts of your wealth.
For clients in Europe, Switzerland is closer, more familiar and, when it matters, quicker to reach. Singapore is further away, and for some questions that is exactly the point. A holding in Zurich is legally outside the EU, but geographically and politically closely intertwined with it. A holding in Singapore is not.
Then there is the structural difference from the start: the Swiss model rests on a customs procedure that has to be complied with and whose tax treatment depends on administrative practice. How quickly that can change was demonstrated by Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance in April 2026, when it rewrote the VAT rules for customs warehouses. Swiss vaults were not affected; German ones very much were. Anyone who has read both understands why a genuine exemption is more stable than a procedure. What exactly changed is set out in our article on bonded warehouses in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
What we do
We run neither vaults nor secure transport. Specialists do that, and rightly so.
What we do is the decision that comes first. Which jurisdiction suits your situation, which vault and which form of safekeeping, in what form the metal has to be for it to be favoured at the destination at all, and whether a move pays off compared with what you are planning right now.
For the client above, exactly this calculation was the entire value of the consultation. Otherwise he would have paid a six-figure sum in dealer spreads, only to own the same metal in the end. For others, it is the sorting of the holding, because part of it does not meet the criteria and would become expensive at the destination.
And then there is the question nobody likes to ask: what happens to it on death, on divorce, on enforcement. A vault abroad is not an end in itself. It is part of a structure and should fit it.
If you want to take an existing position out of the country, or are considering buying outside the EU straight away in future, this is exactly the conversation worth having, before you sell anything.
👉 Book an appointmentFrequently asked questions
Is gold in Singapore really tax-free?
Yes, and permanently rather than deferred. Since 1 October 2012, investment precious metals in Singapore have been exempt from Goods and Services Tax, both on import and on sale within the country, for businesses and private individuals alike. Exports are zero-rated.
Which bars and coins count as investment precious metals in Singapore?
Gold of at least 99.5 per cent, silver of at least 99.9 per cent, platinum of at least 99 per cent, tradeable on the international bullion market, made by a refiner on the current or former Good Delivery list of the LBMA, or of the LPPM for platinum, bearing an internationally recognised quality mark and neither decorative nor collector's bars. Coins must also be or have been legal tender in their country of origin and appear on the official list.
Is palladium exempt in Singapore too?
No. The exemption applies to gold, silver and platinum. Palladium is not covered and is treated like ordinary goods.
May I bring precious metals into Singapore in my hand luggage?
Up to a total weight of half a kilogram without a permit. Above that, even as a private individual you need an exemption permit before import, to be presented on arrival. Half a kilo of silver is roughly one larger bar, so this route is unsuitable for a serious move.
Which is better, Switzerland or Singapore?
Often both, for different parts of your wealth. Switzerland is closer and quicker to reach, but for tax it rests on a customs procedure. Singapore is further away, politically and geographically decoupled from the EU, and the exemption there is not the result of a procedure but a genuine tax exemption.