VAT on gold, silver, platinum and palladium by EU country

Investment gold: exempt

The EU VAT Directive requires every member state to exempt the supply, the intra-Community acquisition and the importation of investment gold from VAT (Article 346).

Investment gold is gold in bars or wafers with a purity of at least 995/1000, and a gold coin of at least 900/1000 that was minted after 1800, is or was legal tender in its country of origin, and is normally sold for no more than 80% above the value of its gold (Article 344).

A member state may exclude bars and wafers of 1 gram or less from that scheme.

The European Commission publishes the list of coins that meet the conditions every year; a coin on that list counts as investment gold for that whole year (Article 345).

Silver, platinum and palladium

For most goods, every EU country applies the standard rate from the table, and it is at least 15%.

Buying from a shop in another EU country

When a shop sends goods to a buyer in another EU country, the sale is treated as taking place in the country where the parcel arrives (Article 33).

That does not apply to a shop established in one EU country that sold no more than €10,000 excluding VAT to other EU countries this year and last year (Article 59c).

Nor does it apply to second-hand goods, works of art, collectors' items and antiques sold under the margin scheme (Article 35).

Imports from outside the EU

Article 103 of the VAT Directive, on the rate for imports of works of art, collectors' items and antiques, has been deleted; member states apply the deletion from 1 January 2025.

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What VAT does to the premium

Sources

• Richtlijn 2006/112/EG (btw-richtlijn), geconsolideerde tekst van 1 januari 2025, EUR-Lex, read on 20 October 2026
• Europese Commissie, Your Europe: Btw-regels en -tarieven, read on 20 October 2026
• Richtlijn (EU) 2022/542 over de btw-tarieven, EUR-Lex, read on 20 October 2026