Do you pay tax when you sell gold?

The Netherlands: the sale itself is not a taxed source

Dutch income tax has three boxes. For most private individuals the rule is this: gold you own belongs in box 3 – the levy on wealth. That levy concerns what you own on the reference date of 1 January, not what you sell during the year.

So if you sell your gold necklace in March, the proceeds are not a separate taxable event. What changes is the composition of your wealth: the gold is gone and money stands in its place. On the next reference date that money counts instead of the gold.

Jewellery you wear moreover usually falls under movable property for personal use, and then it does not belong in box 3 at all. A safe full of investment coins is a different story from the ring you have on every day.

When it does lie differently

There are situations in which the proceeds do not stay untaxed. The most important:

• You are trading. If you buy and sell systematically with a view to profit, the tax authorities may see that as income from other activities or as a business – box 1, in other words.
• You are selling from a company. Then the rules for the company simply apply, including questions of VAT.
• An inheritance or a gift is involved. The sale itself remains untaxed, but inheritance or gift tax may be due on the acquisition.

Belgium: since 2026 a tax on investment gold, not on jewellery

For jewellery nothing changes. In Belgium there is no capital gains tax for private individuals on the sale of jewellery gold, as long as it concerns normal management of private assets. If you sell the jewellery from your mother’s estate, that falls under it. The same holds for silver, platinum and diamond: the act does not name them.

For investment gold – bars from 995 thousandths and the well-known bullion coins – that has changed since 1 January 2026. The Act of 6 April 2026 taxes the gain on those at 10 per cent as miscellaneous income. Only the increase in value after that date counts, and roughly €10,000 of gains per person remains exempt each year. Which coins are covered, and how the gain is calculated, is set out in capital gains tax on gold in Belgium.

If it becomes speculative – buying and selling in quick succession, borrowed money, a volume that looks like trading – it is no longer normal management and other, heavier rules apply. Here too: an accountant when in doubt.

What we do and do not record

As a precious metal dealer we are obliged to register every transaction and to establish your identity. You therefore always receive a purchase receipt stating the date, the weight, the fineness, the rate applied and the amount paid out.

That receipt is your proof of provenance and of the proceeds. Keep it – if a question comes from the tax authorities, or when an estate is divided, that is the document it turns on.