(Tallahassee, Florida) - By signing sound money legislation earlier this week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ended Florida’s discriminatory practice of assessing sales taxes on small purchases of gold, silver, platinum bullion and coins.
Florida’s House Bill 7031, a bill by the House Ways and Means committee, was considered by multiple House and Senate committees before passing overwhelmingly out of both chambers and reaching the governor’s desk.
This bill removes the arbitrary $500 minimum purchase size for citizens to qualify for any sales tax exemptions on precious metals as of August 1, 2025.
Florida had been one of only five states in the United States maintaining only a partial sales tax exemption – leaving in force a tax on small purchases of precious metals.
Once Florida’s full exemption taxes effect next month, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York will be the only states still levying this “poor tax” which singles out and punishes small-time precious metals purchasers.
Kentucky recently passed a full sales tax exemption on the monetary metals, and a new Connecticut law establishes a full exemption as of July 2027.
The national backlash against taxing constitutional money is accelerating given today’s environment of rising inflation and geopolitical conflict.
Jp Cortez, executive director for the Sound Money Defense League, explained that “by eliminating sales taxes on purchases of precious metals under $500, even people of humble means can access the benefits of storing one’s wealth in gold and silver. Removing taxes on precious metals, thereby allowing individuals to save and invest freely, is the most impactful thing Florida can do to restore sound money.”
“Inflation continues to harm Americans nationwide due to financial mismanagement by the Federal Reserve and by the politicians in Washington DC. Florida is latest state to give citizens greater ability to protect themselves,” said Money Metals Exchange CEO Stefan Gleason, whose company, Money Metals Exchange, has helped lead sound money policy efforts across the nation for over a decade.
States have been removing sales taxes from monetary metals for the following reasons:
- Taxing precious metals is unfair to certain savers and investors. Gold and silver are held as forms of savings and investment. States do not tax the purchase of stocks, bonds, ETFs, currencies, and other financial instruments, so it makes no sense to tax monetary metals.
- Levying sales taxes on precious metals is illogical because gold and silver are inherently held for resale. Sales taxes are typically levied on final consumer goods. But precious metals are inherently held for resale, not “consumption.”
- Taxing gold and silver harms in-state businesses. It’s a competitive marketplace, so buyers in states with precious-metals sales taxes often take their business to neighboring states that have eliminated or reduced sales tax on precious metals. Coin conventions also tend to avoid the sales tax states.
- Taxing precious metals is harmful to citizens attempting to protect their assets. Purchasers of precious metals aren’t fat-cat investors. Most who buy precious metals do so in small increments as a way of saving money. Precious metals investors are purchasing precious metals as a way to preserve their wealth against the damages of inflation. Inflation harms the poorest among us-including pensioners, Floridians on fixed incomes, wage-earners, savers, and more.
Including Florida, 44 U.S. states now fully or partially exempt gold and silver from the sales taxes. That leaves 6 states and the District of Columbia as the primary jurisdictions that still harshly penalize citizens seeking to protect their savings against the serial devaluation of the Federal Reserve Note.
2025 has become another successful year for sound money policies across the country. In addition securing the above-mentioned Florida, Kentucky, and Connecticut sales tax exemptions, the Sound Money Defense League secured passage of a Wyoming establishing a state gold reserve, The group also prompted Idaho to reaffirm gold and silver as constitutional money while exempting them from the state capital gains tax. Alabama also declared gold and silver to be legal tender.
Img credit: Nicolas Raymond/Flickr
