Bullion and Customs in 2026: Import Duty, VAT and What Actually Happens at the Border

Buying bullion from a dealer in another country raises a question that almost no dealer answers properly: what happens when the parcel reaches your border?

The honest answer is that it depends on three things — the metal, the destination, and whether the metal qualifies as investment bullion rather than an ordinary commodity. Get those three right and gold usually crosses borders with less friction than a laptop. Get them wrong and you can find a tax bill waiting before the courier will hand anything over.

The single most important distinction: investment gold

Investment gold is exempt from VAT across the UK and the European Union. Silver and platinum are not. That one asymmetry explains most of what follows, and it is the reason European portfolios skew so heavily toward gold.

The exemption is not automatic — the metal has to meet a definition. Broadly, and this is consistent across the UK and EU:

• Bars and wafers of a fineness of at least 995, in weights accepted by the bullion markets.
• Coins of a fineness of at least 900, minted after 1800, that are or have been legal tender in their country of origin, and normally sold at a price not exceeding a modest margin over the open-market value of the gold they contain.

Britannias, Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, Eagles, Philharmonics and the standard LBMA-accredited bars all qualify comfortably. A heavily marked-up commemorative or a proof coin sold at several times its metal value may not — the price test exists precisely to exclude collectables dressed as bullion.

Duty versus VAT — they are not the same thing

People use these interchangeably and they behave completely differently.

	Customs duty	Import VAT / GST
What it is	A tariff on the goods crossing the border	Consumption tax charged on import
On investment gold	Generally zero in most major markets	Exempt in UK/EU
On silver	Generally zero	Normally charged at the standard rate
Who collects it	Customs, via the carrier	Customs, via the carrier
When you pay	Before release	Before release

The practical consequence: for gold, the paperwork matters more than the money. For silver, the money matters. A silver order that would be perfectly economic domestically can stop making sense once import VAT lands on top — see our separate guide to why silver costs more in Europe than gold.

The commodity codes that decide everything

Customs does not read your invoice description, it reads the code. Bullion sits under Chapter 71 of the Harmonised System:

• 7108 — gold, unwrought or in semi-manufactured forms
• 7106 — silver
• 7110 — platinum and the platinum group
• 7118 — coin

A shipment declared under the wrong heading is the most common cause of a bullion parcel being held. If you are importing on your own account rather than buying delivered-duty-paid, this is the detail to get right.

Carrying it yourself: the declaration thresholds

If you travel with bullion rather than having it shipped, declaration rules apply — and gold is increasingly treated the same as cash.

• European Union: anyone entering or leaving the EU carrying €10,000 or more in cash must declare it. The current cash-controls regulation explicitly widened the definition to include commodities used as highly liquid stores of value — gold coins and bullion among them. Travelling into or out of the EU with gold above that value and saying nothing is a declaration offence, not a tax one.
• United States: travellers must report monetary instruments over $10,000 to CBP. The treatment of bullion has been inconsistent over the years, and CBP's own guidance has historically asked for gold to be declared. The safe course is to declare it.
• United Kingdom: £10,000 or more in cash must be declared when entering or leaving the UK from outside the common travel area.

Declaring is not taxation. It is a form. The penalties are for not filling it in.

Countries where importing gold is genuinely hard

Most of the world treats investment gold gently. A few do not, and it is worth knowing before you order rather than after:

• India applies substantial import duty on gold and strict limits on what returning residents may bring in duty-free. It is the standout exception among major markets.
• Several jurisdictions apply GST or VAT to silver and platinum even where gold is relieved, so a mixed order can be taxed unevenly.
• Some countries restrict private bullion imports entirely or require a licensed importer.

We ship worldwide, but if your destination is unusual, ask us first. It costs nothing to check and it avoids a parcel sitting in a customs shed.

How we handle it

Orders leave with accurate customs documentation and correct commodity codes, declared at true value. That last point occasionally disappoints people, so it is worth being blunt: we will not under-declare the value of a shipment. Under-declaration is customs fraud, it voids the transit insurance that protects the parcel, and it exposes you personally as the importer of record. A saved tax bill is not worth an uninsured kilo of gold and a customs investigation.

What we will do is document the shipment correctly so that gold qualifying for investment relief is treated as such, which is where the real saving legitimately sits.

Practical guidance before you order across a border

1. Check whether your destination taxes silver differently from gold. In most of Europe it does, and the gap is large.
2. Confirm who is importer of record. If it is you, any duty or import VAT is billed to you before release.
3. Prefer investment-grade product — standard sovereign coins and accredited bars — over commemoratives, if tax treatment matters to you.
4. Budget for the carrier's clearance fee. Even at zero duty, couriers charge an administrative fee for clearing a formal entry.
5. Do not split an order to stay under a threshold. Structuring shipments to avoid declaration is an offence in its own right in most jurisdictions, quite separately from whatever tax you were avoiding.

The simplest route, honestly

For most cross-border buyers the friction disappears if you buy gold rather than white metal, stick to recognised investment-grade product, and let the dealer ship it properly documented and insured. At $4,504.10 an ounce on our live feed as this was written, a single 1 oz coin carries more value than most parcels that cross a border all year — and it does so, in most of the world, tax-free.

Silver is where the arithmetic changes. If you are buying silver into an EU or UK address, work out the VAT before you compare prices, not after.

This is general information rather than tax advice, and thresholds and rates change. For anything material, confirm the current position with your own customs authority or an adviser in your country.