Capital Gains Tax on gold
If you sell a few rings or a chain, you almost certainly owe no tax: any piece of jewellery, or set sold together, sold for £6,000 or less is free of Capital Gains Tax (CGT), the tax on a profit when you sell something. British gold coins, sovereigns, half sovereigns and Britannias, are never taxed at all, because the law treats them as British money. Bars, scrap and foreign coins such as Krugerrands follow the same £6,000 rule as jewellery. Sold for a little more than £6,000, only part of the profit can be taxed, and everyone has a tax-free allowance of £3,000 a year on top; what is left is taxed at 18% or 24% depending on your income, for 2026 to 2027. For gold you inherited, the cost is what it was worth when the person died. The calculator applies those rules to a sale price, a cost and your income. Gold by Carat is an independent site, not a gold buyer or a dealer, and this is not tax advice.
Example: Capital Gains Tax, 2026 to 2027
£0.00
Sold for £6,000 or less: no tax to pay
| Profit on the sale | £2,000 |
Assumes no other gains this tax year. Not tax advice.
Figures and rules checked by the site’s publisher, Radif Partners · How the values are worked out · Editorial policy
Three kinds of gold, three answers
British coins: never taxed
Sovereigns and Britannias are never taxed when you sell them. They are legal British money, and the tax law says British money is outside Capital Gains Tax, so selling them produces neither a taxable profit nor a loss you can claim. This is the best-known tax advantage of British gold coins and the reason many investors prefer them to bars.
Jewellery, bars and scrap: free up to £6,000
A piece sold for £6,000 or less is free of tax. In the law, jewellery, bars and scrap are “chattels”, which simply means personal belongings you can pick up and move, and the government’s guidance lists jewellery and coins among them. The rule gives two reliefs. A profit on a piece sold for £6,000 or less is not taxed. Sold for a little more than £6,000, only a small part of the profit can be taxed: for a ring sold at £7,000, at most £1,667 of the profit counts, whatever you paid for it. (The rule: the taxable profit is capped at 5/3 of the amount above £6,000, here 5/3 × £1,000. The calculator above does this for you.) the government shows a worked example. A set sold to the same person, or to people connected to each other, counts as one piece, so splitting a set between sales does not multiply the limit.
Foreign coins: taxed like jewellery
Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, Eagles and Philharmonics are money in their own countries, but not British money, and HMRC, the UK tax office, says foreign money can be taxed. As coins, they also fall within the personal possessions rules, so the £6,000 limit applies to each sale. Larger sales are taxed like any other gain.
More detail below: tap a heading to open it.
Capital Gains Tax on gold: worked examples
Below £6,000 a sale is tax-free; just above it, only a small part of the profit is taxed.
Each line takes the profit, keeps only the part the law lets be taxed, takes off the tax-free allowance of £3,000, and taxes what is left at 18%.
| Sale | Profit | Profit that can be taxed | Minus tax-free allowance | Left to tax | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ring sold for £5,500 | £4,000 | None: sold for £6,000 or less | – | – | £0.00 |
| Necklace sold for £8,000 | £5,000 | £3,333 | − £3,000 | £333.33 | £60.00 |
| 100 g bar sold for £12,000 | £6,000 | £6,000 | − £3,000 | £3,000 | £540.00 |
| 20 sovereigns sold for £18,000 | £9,000 | None: British coins | – | – | £0.00 |
| 5 Krugerrands sold for £15,000 | £7,000 | £7,000 | − £3,000 | £4,000 | £720.00 |
The rates and allowance for 2026 to 2027
The first £3,000 of profit each year is tax-free; the rest is taxed at 18% or 24%. Every person has this tax-free allowance. Profits above it are added to your income for the year. As long as your income plus that profit stays under £37,700, not counting the first part of your income that is tax-free, the profit is taxed at 18%; any part above is taxed at 24% (the rates). That is why, when a sale leaves some profit to tax, the calculator also asks for your yearly income: it only decides which rate applies. For a sale of £6,000 or less it does not ask. It assumes you have no other gains in the year; if you do, the allowance may already be used.
What you can deduct
Your profit is the sale price minus what the gold cost you and the costs of selling. The cost is what you paid, including what the dealer charged above the gold value and any VAT you could not get back. For gold you inherited, it is the value at the date of death; for a gift, usually the market value when you received it. Costs of selling, such as auction fees or valuation fees, are deductible too. Keep receipts: without them HMRC can question the cost you use. The inherited gold page covers estates in more detail.
Reporting
A small, tax-free sale usually needs no paperwork. If your profits are within the £3,000 tax-free allowance and your total sales are within HMRC’s reporting limits, you may not need to report. Otherwise, gains are reported through Self Assessment (the yearly online tax return) or the other routes GOV.UK describes, by the deadlines it sets. This page gives the general rules; a tax adviser can confirm how they apply to your case.