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id5

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Posts posted by id5

  1. I am looking into this a bit further.

     

    The scenario is that a buyer purchases from an online coin dealer and has it is sent to an EU address to which it can be received. Now, the buyer could already be there or travels to collect it and brings it back to the UK themselves.

     

    However, if someone else (ie. a friend) brings it to the UK for you and that person receives no financial benefit (profit or costs of travel etc.) and did not purchase the product then is that not O.K.??? I used the procedure relating to gifts as no cash changes hands, between the buyer and friend.

    It is under the Distance Selling set of laws. The 'someone else' becomes the courier regardless of any profit that is in it for them because they are not party to the payments and if they were party then they are at best acting as your import/export agent. If 'someone else' pays for the goods and expects to make a profit or there was a risk that you could refuse to buy the goods then they would become a 'supplier' as they are acting as a business. The 'final destination' is your address not the address of your courier. The amount of VAT is payable at the rate of the country that the final destination is in once the supplier expects to exceed the threshold of that country.

     

    All of the VAT regulations on distance selling were tightened up after the VAT carousel frauds that went on a while ago, although I am sure that there must be a hole in them somewhere I have not found one yet that I can take advantage of legally. It can be still worthwhile though for an individual to take a trip to somewhere else and buy a monster box of Eagles for example.

     

  2. The money laundering regulations come into action at point of transaction ie. at a bank or in this case with Coin Invest Direct.

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    http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/register/...to-register.htm

    If you buy more than €15K of PM's from dealer in one calendar year, or the dealer believes that you will buy more than that limit then the dealer has to take your details including your address under the Money Laundering laws. It is as I said, you become subject to that law. Most dealers in PM's are in the system registered as High Value Dealers and will have been told to report all cash purchases above that amount as suspicious activity. Some will even refuse that purchase because of the overhead involved and the risk of inspection to their business.

     

    If you want to collect PM's from many different dealers then it is possible but most probably not worth the profit

     

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    As for someone bringing something from the EU for you, that is just fine as long a you are not paying them or their "out of pocket" expensenes, then it remains as a gift.

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    It is only a gift if the buyer is not yourself, sending someone money to buy something for you is not a gift.

     

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    The VAT limit of £68,000, as of 1st May, 2009, is applicable to businesses and not private individual's personal transaction(s).

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    m"]http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/register/...to-register.htm[/url]

    From the link that you provided 'You are in business when, for example: you earn an income by carrying on a trade, vocation or profession'

     

    When you come to sell the PM's you need to apply some thought, this is why I keep on saying in many other threads 'Work out how you are going to sell you PM's before you buy them'. If you sell your PM's (especially silver as it is classed as a commodity and in certain forms cash) with a value is greater than £68K and you are advertising it for sale on eBay or at an auction to gain the best result, then HMRC can take the view that you are 'in the investment business and acting as a sole trader'. At that point you will become subject to VAT law as well.

     

    More often than not as an individual trying something like this once will be fine and you will not be caught but many try it more than once and do get caught.

     

     

  3. I know someone who has done it.

     

    This person flew from Beijing to Manchester via Paris (because these were the cheapest and quickest flights) with a small sack of silver Panda’s. He was prepared to pay VAT when we returned to the UK.

     

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    The route was the cheapest or quickest and would be 'inside of the normal flight patterns' so unless they were of interest for another reason they would not get stopped.

  4. There’s no VAT to pay if you are travelling in to the UK from another EU country....

     

    If you are entering or leaving the UK to and from the EU there is no restriction on cash or a requirement for decleration.

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    Both ziknik and RMC are right where an individual is concerned in the EU but if you move more than €15K in a calendar year you become subject to Money Laundering laws, more than £67K in total value and you become subject to VAT law. If you pay for the goods in the UK by using a UK bank account or from the foreign account of a UK resident and have the goods couriered to you by anyone then you are subject to Distance Selling laws. Trip over any of these and the individual can suddenly become a sole trader and you end up under a whole bunch of other laws.

     

    Just keep below the personal transaction €15K limit in the EU or just tell them before hand what you are going to do and go through Customs armed with the declaration, exemption, etc.

     

  5. I’ve heard some despicable* people take advantage of the blue gate

     

    Regional airports are often under staffed and can’t afford to open the red and green gates (especially if no flights from outside the EU ever arrive at the airport/terminal. So you could fly from the USA to Paris, change planes and walk straight through customs on returning to the UK.

     

    * ;)

    Because there are direct flights from the US to UK and then to the regional's you would have to spend a few days in Paris to ensure that you do not get tracked, if you do you may find someone waiting for you to come off the plane. Travelling 'outside of the normal flight patterns' triggers a warning flag which is why drug barons use different mules on different legs of a trip. Fred takes to 'A' Jane takes it from 'A' to 'B', Peter take another load to 'A' then Fred takes it to 'B'. Students are often used because of the free travel and stop offs. They do not have as many people on the desk because they are not often after small fry, they use computers and analytics to discover the routes and track with searches and seizures often happening outside of the airport.

  6. I have never heard of Applejack before....... Wikipedia has got this on it.

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(beverage)

     

    Yep, I can see me giving this a go, Thanks id5 :)

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    Don't you just love it, US, US, US, blah, blah, blah....

     

    Applejack has been made in the Somerset levels from before it had people to emigrate to America, or Romans invading or writing.

  7. ...

    The James Bond attaché case, with 50 sovereigns tucked away in the base, as above. Plus the usual handy special extras of a concealed throwing knife, folding snipers rifle and silencer, ammo and tear gas canister.

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    You just don't want to leave that on the 7:45 to Paddington :lol:

  8. ...

    If the cider works out well, tempted to call it "Incyder trading" or maybe the "Sussex Incyder" any other suggestions are welcome of course.

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    If you get any spare cider then stick it outside in a covered bucket during Winter and each day take the ice out. When the frosts stop filter what is in the bucket to remove the bits. The remainder is AppleJack but FFS if it is a cold winter be careful as it can get a bit powerfull :lol:

  9. I am looking for reasons to buy Gold now, since the seasonal window has a limited number

    of days left, but I find this to be off-putting.

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    Average in over the next few weeks to reduce your risk rather than buying all in a single purchase. If the price falls you can take advantage of the lower price, if the price rises then the earlier purchases will have been bargins.

  10. I wrap my silver coins in cling film and store them in MDF boxes I made myself.

    You can use Cling film or PVC zip baggies for a few months but get the majority of the air out of the bag and store them in the dark, it is sunlight that causes the bag to release hydrochloric acid, best is either an Air-Tite acrylic capsule or an original Mint Mylar plastic tube. Do not store silver coins in paper envelopes, coin albums or the harder plastic flips as they are only good for circulation coins.

  11. An attack on Property wealth coming?

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    Do you think this is unfair?

    The only unfair thing is HOW the money has been spent.

     

    But, of course, the SOLUTION must come from taxing property more heavily.

    Do you see any other choice?

     

    If you want to own property, you better buy it in a country with low debt, and sensible spending.

    This would not be the UK, or the US either !

    Do I think it is unfair? I do at a local tax level where you pay for your services depending on the value of the property that you live in not for the services that you consume. The problem with this type of taxing property is that it taxes un-earned wealth, wealth that does not exist. Tax sales and purchases but not un-earned wealth, you might as well start taxing future earnings as well, rather like the film Minority Report but for money rather than crime.

     

    Do I want to own property? After nearly a decade of renting, my answer would be 'Not unless I am to retire into it, otherwise I will only purchase to rent to others when it becomes a financially sound investment'

     

    Do I see another choice? Not with today's politicians, personally I would do away with the majority of taxes, have a single flat income tax for all, and then increase VAT on purchases. You buy a bigger house, car, you consume more services, etc, you pay more. You buy less, use public transport, produce less waste you, etc, you pay less.

  12. An attack on Property wealth coming?

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    This threat, plus the second bubble in property, are two good reasons to sell, if you need them

    There is this sentence that confirms to me where the Liberal Party intend to get the money to pay the UK debt should they have the opportunity as property is such an easy target 'Such property wealth is an excellent indicator of overall wealth, and is especially easy to identify: land cannot be moved or taken offshore, unlike financial assets.' It will drive down house prices as associated taxes, such as Council Tax, increased across all percentiles and not just the top 5%.

     

    I dislike the graphs in the article regarding income as I think that they are misleading. The data comes from individual's earnings but mainly families purchase houses. Families often have one good wage earner and one poor wage earner, occasionally one with a one very good and one poor, most have two average earners. This type of tax should be family based not individual, it would be fairer and help to promote family values.

     

  13. I have been looking at the movement of the gold price this year against the seasonal change in the price of gold over the last five years and come up with this graph for you all to ponder over. As always do you own reasearch but it seems to suggest that the price of gold is under valued and could go up.

     

    gold2009change.jpg

     

     

  14. Surely not - jewelry is neither liquid (unless you melt it! :lol: ) or tradeable, unlike bullion bars or coins, you also generally pay a large premium above spot due to the work that goes into making the jewelry, shop markups etc. I think it's right to perceive jewelry (luxury) purchases as distinct from bullion (investment) purchases.

    Quite true but there is a long history with many cultures where investment gold is jewellery, for example consider Indian dowries. Whilst the Western mind perceives investment gold as one thing others do not. One of my coin contacts is also an Indian jeweller who also reported a similar experience that a lot of jewellery is being sold back and not replaced.

  15. do you think this is because the price spiked more dramatically in £ than $. Meanwhile in the US:

    ...

     

    Quite possibly, the Sterling drop definitely did help to spike the fear factor of impending doom and a run into gold investment. Although gold jewellery is down by the equivalent drop in Sterling yet they are effectively the same thing but it seems perceived differently :blink:

  16. Make of it what you will but I spent some time yesterday talking to people in the coin business and all are experiencing an increase in inventory of gold coins, the number being offered to them has increased quite dramatically. In talking to the sellers the coin dealers are reporting that the main reasons for sale is that people cannot wait for financial Armageddon, gold has fallen and they don’t want to lose any more money, they need the cash for holidays and the classic

     

    ‘It’s all getting better now isn’t it, the TV says so’

     

  17. ...

    The diverse French 20 franc coins are a bit more expensive per gramme than the sovereigns but not a massive difference. The Austrian 8 florin (same size as a 20 franc) is the cheapest of this size of coin.

     

    Are 20 franc coins very popular in the UK or elsewhere? I like the way that several countries had 20-franc coins with exactly the same amount of gold (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Austria for sure - any other countries?).

    They all stem from the earlier ducats that many different countries produced. These in turn all stem from Roman coinage which at the end of its empire was a series of coins made from different metals that weighed approximately 3.4 grams. They are mainly made from 22ct gold because refining techniques during the 1400’s were capable of producing this purity of gold consistently and coins of that carat can also take a reasonable amount of wear and tear.

  18. this is how i understand it* - however, just to remind others, last years eagles and maples dried up within the mintage year

     

    *perhaps id5 can answer fully?

    Mixed replies here folks, my apologies but I am just too frikken busy, if you ever need an answer from me faster can you please PM me, especially at the mo.

     

    So would you advise to buy bars over these coins??

    Britannia's first or the coin of your country because you do not have to pay CGT or similar. Follow this with coins of a different country because when you come to sell them they will not need melting down to prove what they. Everybody is familiar with the coins and there are more coin dealers than bullion silver bar dealers. If they are Chinese Pandas then they may be subject to greater scrutiny as there are quite a few fakes about.

     

    this is how i understand it* - however, just to remind others, last years eagles and maples dried up within the mintage year

     

    *perhaps id5 can answer fully?

    The marketing blurb says that the silver Britannia is a bullion coin silver but the reality is that they need to stay within the bounds of the coinage laws otherwise it would be sold as a medal. It is a numismatic coin and the price will go up slowly overtime. They are numismatic collectors pieces and should be treated as so to retain as much value as possible.

     

    :o OMG: My beautiful Britannia’s have gone WHITE.

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    This is contamination, an oxide or chloride, either there is something in the bag construction or in the air in your environment that is causing the silver to tarnish faster than normal.

     

    Britannia silver I believe is part silver part copper. 95% Silver, 5% Copper. But the Britannia is made up so it contains 1 troy ounce of silver.

     

    The green residue is characteristic of copper oxidation.

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    100% correct and yes they will all tarnish over time

     

    Hmm.. I think using PVC or anything containing PVC is bad for silver (tarnish) I read somewhere the more flexible a platic pocket is, the more PVC it is likely to contain. I keep my eagles in the tubes from the mint mostly, but some of my older coins have tarnished a bit. You say they went white?? - can you post a pic?

     

    this from somewhere else: warning- untested!!!

    You can also get a non-toxic polish by putting your silverware in a bowl with water, some vinegar, some salt and a sheet of tin foil.

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    Silver is a bit of a bugger for keeping over the long term. Whatever you store them in must be airtight and the best is either an Air-Tite acrylic capsule or an original Mint Mylar plastic tube. You can use PVC zip baggies for a few months but get the majority of the air out of the bag and store them in the dark, it is sunlight that causes the bag to release hydrochloric acid. Do not store silver coins in paper envelopes, coin albums or the harder plastic flips as they are only good for circulation coins. If you have a coin that is contaminated with oxides / chlorides, then take a deep breath and relax, the damage is already done your coin will never be UNC or FDC again :(

     

    Should you clean it? No, as a professional coin dealer will always be able to tell if it has been cleaned and will mark its price down accordingly. Those with fewer scruples would use the recipes below and sell it on. Not a coin but I remember selling a ZX-10 that had no 4th gear to a town based bike dealer, I guessed correctly that he wouldn't be able to get it up to cruising speed in a built up area as that bike did 65mph+ in 1st, he would have struggled to get 4th without a dual carriage way. In some cases 'Caveat emptor' can be a solution.

     

    For cleaning then Chis_ct's recipe will work but is not a good solution because the added salt can cause a further reaction later on. For both types of chloride / oxide on a real bullion coin, not a numismatic I would put an aluminium foil layer in a small bowl and then a mix of a teaspoon of lemon and four teaspoons of olive oil followed by the coin. It should take about 30 minutes for the chloride / oxide to dissolve but remove it as soon as it has and then wash it in hot water. The olive oil helps seal the surface and prevent the chloride from attacking the coin again. If the problem is more acute then use sodium thiosulfate which you can get from your photography shop as it is a common dark room chemical or better 'safety pickle' which is sodium bisulfate and can be brought from eBay or jeweller supply shops.

     

  19. When it comes to declaring CGT on switching between gold, silver and currencies held at GM, can anyone clue me in?

    You are obliged to inform HMRC when you make a gain in CGT, normally at the end of your tax year. You only have to account for it when you withdraw funds from GoldMoney to another bank account. Sometimes it is worth taking the hit on the spread costs to make sure that you use your full CGT allowance each year.

     

  20. I dont think they do. The graphed version of the table is showing relative changes? The purchasing power of gold did not fall as shown at the end of the graph it just increased more slowly whereas silver increased much more rapidly.

     

    From 1920 to 1979 the table shows the purchasing power of

     

    gold increased 283 times

     

    Silver increased 268 times

     

    When the two consecutive periods are joined, you can see the relative growth but data gives the impression that it would have been advantageous to swap silver for gold to gain greater purchasing power from 1934 to 1979, where in reality from the graph of detail that I produced it shows that this was not really the case.

     

     

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