How are gold and silver taxed when you sell in Canada?

Canada tax guide · rules as of

If you hold gold or silver as an investment, the profit when you sell is usually a capital gain, and one-half of it is added to your income for the year: the inclusion rate in section 38 of the Income Tax Act. The gain is what you received, less your selling costs, minus the adjusted cost base of the units sold, which comes from the average cost in Canadian dollars of all your identical items. A loss is denied, in whole or in part, if you, or someone affiliated with you, acquire the same or an identical item within 30 days before or after the sale and still own it, or have a right to acquire it, 30 days after (the superficial-loss rule). If buying and selling metal is a business for you, all of the profit is business income instead.

This page sets out the federal rules that apply when an individual resident in Canada sells physical gold, silver, platinum or palladium, with the section of the Income Tax Act or the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publication behind each one. Amounts are in Canadian dollars. Provincial and territorial income tax, and holding metal inside a registered account such as a TFSA or an RRSP, are not covered here. For the sales tax you pay, or do not pay, when you buy, see sales tax on bullion in Canada.

How much of a gold or silver gain is taxed in Canada?

One-half of a capital gain on gold or silver is taxed in Canada: section 38 of the Income Tax Act makes half of the gain a taxable capital gain, which is added to your income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate. In the same way, half of a capital loss is an allowable capital loss. The fraction does not depend on how long you owned the metal, and Canada has no separate rate for precious metals or collectibles, as the United States does.

Because only half of the gain is included, the tax works out to half your marginal rate applied to the whole gain. For example, a gain of $10,000 adds $5,000 to your income, and at a combined federal and provincial marginal rate of 40% that is $2,000 of tax, or 20% of the gain. The 40% rate is only an illustration; yours depends on your income and your province. A large gain can also bring the alternative minimum tax into play, which the CRA explains under line 41700 of the return.

50% The share of a capital gain added to your income. The inclusion rate in section 38 of the Income Tax Act. It is the same for every metal and every holding period.

What is the adjusted cost base (ACB) of gold or silver?

Your adjusted cost base (ACB) is what your metal cost you, including the dealer premium and any commissions or fees to buy it, averaged over all the identical items you own. Section 47 of the Income Tax Act works the average out again at every purchase: the total adjusted cost base of the units you already own plus the cost of the new ones, divided by the number of units you own afterwards. Selling takes units out at the average cost, so the average of the units left is unchanged, unless a loss on the sale is denied under the 30-day rule below.

A worked example, computed by the same engine TaxStack Canada uses. The figures are examples, not real prices: two purchases of 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf coins at all-in prices, dealer premium included, then a sale of 6 with $120 of selling fees.

StepCoinsTotal cost (ACB)Per coin
Buy 10 at $3,00010$30,000$3,000
Buy 5 at $4,50015$52,500$3,500
Sell 6 at $6,0009$31,500$3,500
Selling 6 coinsAmount
Proceeds: 6 × $6,000$36,000
Less selling fees−$120
Net of selling fees$35,880
Less cost: 6 × $3,500−$21,000
Capital gain$14,880
Taxable capital gain (half)$7,440

The selling fees are deducted from the proceeds; they never change the average cost, which is still $3,500 a coin for the 9 coins left.

The CRA’s capital gains guide calls properties identical when each is the same as all the others, and gives shares of the same class of one company as the usual example. Its archived bulletin on the question, IT-387R2 (Consolidated), asks whether items are the same in all material respects, so that a buyer would have no preference for one over another, calls that a question of fact, and treats bullion and certificates of the same metal as identical. For bullion, the plain case is the same product in the same weight, such as 1 oz Gold Maple Leafs; neither source says whether different products of one metal, a coin and a bar for instance, are identical, so whether they can be averaged together is a question for a tax professional.

How do you convert a purchase made in US dollars?

Convert a purchase made in US dollars to Canadian dollars at the exchange rate for the day you bought, what you received at the rate for the day you sold, and selling costs at the rate for the day you incurred them. The CRA takes the rate the Bank of Canada quotes for that day, or for the closest earlier day when it quotes none, such as a weekend; for a day before 1 March 2017 it says to use the Bank of Canada noon rate, and it also accepts some other published rates that meet its conditions. A gain can therefore come partly from the exchange rate, even if the metal’s price in US dollars did not move.

What is the superficial-loss rule, and does it cover bullion?

The superficial-loss rule stops you claiming a capital loss if you, or a person affiliated with you, acquire the same or an identical item in the period from 30 days before the sale to 30 days after it, and you or they still own it, or have a right to acquire it, at the end of that period. Section 54 of the Income Tax Act defines it for the disposition of any property, not only shares or securities, so it covers physical gold and silver. The US wash-sale rule is narrower in this respect: it covers stock and securities, so it does not reach physical metal.

The loss is usually not lost. It is set to nil for that sale and added to the adjusted cost base of the items bought back, so it lowers the gain, or adds to the loss, when those items are sold; if an affiliated person bought them, it is added to that person’s cost instead. Purchases in the 30 days before the sale count as well as those after it, so a regular monthly purchase of the same product can trigger the rule, and so can an order that has not been delivered yet, because a right to acquire an item is treated as an identical item. The loss is denied only to the extent that it is superficial, so buying back fewer units than you sold leaves part of it to claim. Selling coins at a loss and buying the same coins back within 30 days, and still holding them 30 days after the sale, gives you no loss to claim for that year. Affiliated persons include your spouse or common-law partner and a corporation controlled by you or by your spouse or partner.

When is selling gold or silver business income?

Selling gold or silver is business income, with all of the profit taxed rather than half, when you buy and sell the metal as part of a business; the Income Tax Act counts a one-off trading venture, an adventure or concern in the nature of trade, as a business too. Metal can sit close to that line, because it produces no income: the CRA’s archived bulletin on these ventures, IT-459 (1980), says that where property could not produce income or personal enjoyment by being owned, and the only purpose of buying it was to sell it later, the presumption is that buying and selling it was a trading venture.

For commodities, the CRA set out its position in another archived bulletin, IT-346R (1978), which covers commodities for which a futures market exists, as one does for gold, silver, platinum and palladium. It treats transactions connected with your business, or based on inside information, as income. As a general rule, it accepts that any other individual, whom it calls a speculator, may report all their gains and losses as capital gains and losses, provided they report the same way every year; a speculator who has used income treatment may not switch.

IT-459 also says no single test decides whether a transaction is an adventure or concern in the nature of trade, and names three: whether you dealt with the property the way a dealer would, whether its nature and quantity rule out an investment, and whether your intention, which can be judged up to the time you sell, fits other evidence of trading. A single, isolated transaction can still be one, and a sale soon after the purchase points to an intention to trade. The two bulletins are the CRA’s interpretations, one general and one on commodities, and neither refers to the other, so how your own sales are treated is a question for a tax professional. The election that lets an investor treat Canadian shares and bonds as capital property (subsection 39(4), Form T123) covers Canadian securities only, so it does not apply to bullion.

What can you do with a capital loss on gold or silver?

A capital loss on gold or silver can be used only against taxable capital gains: half of it is an allowable capital loss, which first reduces taxable capital gains of the same year, and whatever is left becomes a net capital loss that can be carried back three years or forward with no time limit. It cannot reduce your employment or other income, except in special cases such as the year of death. In the United States, by contrast, up to $3,000 of a net capital loss a year ($1,500 if married filing separately) can reduce other income.

All of this assumes you hold the metal as an investment. Coins kept as a collection for your own enjoyment can be listed personal property, and a loss on listed personal property can be used only against gains on listed personal property.

Keeping the record these rules run on

Every rule above runs on the same record: the date, product, quantity and full cost of each purchase, and the date, amount received and selling costs of each sale, all in Canadian dollars. The free portfolio tracker keeps your purchases. TaxStack Canada, part of Premium, keeps the average cost of each item, checks each sale you record against the 30-day rule using the purchases in your record, and builds your Schedule 3 figures; how it does that is set out rule by rule. The free tax comparison calculator compares physical metal with metal funds after tax for a Canadian holder.

Questions and answers

Is gold taxed less if you hold it for more than a year?
No. Canada has no separate rate for property held a long time: one-half of a capital gain is taxable whether you owned the metal for a year or for decades. How long you held it can still matter in another way: a sale soon after the purchase points to an intention to trade, one of the signs of a trading venture, which is taxed as business income.
Did Canada raise the capital gains inclusion rate to two-thirds?
No. The 2024 federal budget proposed including two-thirds of capital gains above $250,000 a year for individuals. The change was deferred in January 2025 and cancelled on 21 March 2025, before it became law. The rate in the Income Tax Act is one-half.
Is swapping gold for silver a sale for tax purposes?
Yes. The CRA counts exchanging one property for another as a disposition, so trading gold for silver is a disposition of the gold, and a gain on it is taxable in that year, as it would be on a sale for cash.
Are platinum and palladium taxed the same way?
Yes, when you sell: the capital gains rules on this page are the same for gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Palladium differs when you buy it: it is not a precious metal under the Excise Tax Act, so GST or HST applies when you buy it from a GST/HST-registered dealer, as it does to gold, silver or platinum below the purity levels the Act sets.
Can moving metal into a TFSA or RRSP give you a loss to claim?
No. A loss on moving property into your own registered plan, such as a TFSA, RRSP, RRIF or FHSA, or into an RRSP of your spouse or common-law partner, is nil, and unlike the superficial-loss rule, this rule does not add the loss to the cost of anything.
Where on the tax return does a gain on metal go?
Each sale is worked out on Schedule 3, Capital Gains or Losses, and the taxable capital gain is reported on line 12700 of the return.
How long should you keep purchase invoices?
The CRA says records have to be kept for at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and records of what you paid for capital property until six years after the end of the last year in which that cost could enter into a calculation. Because the average cost of a product draws on every purchase of it, that means keeping each invoice until six years after the end of the year in which you sell the last unit of that product, and longer if a loss from a sale is carried forward.

Sources and Methodology

Every rule on this page was checked against the sources listed below on 2026-09-26, twice and separately; anything the two checks differed on, or that was rewritten after them, was checked a third time. The rules are the federal ones for an individual resident in Canada, as the Income Tax Act and the CRA state them on that date. The CRA bulletins cited (IT-346R, IT-387R2 (Consolidated) and IT-459) carry the CRA’s “archived” notice: it no longer updates them, and it says the notice has no effect on their status or reliability. Like all its bulletins, they are its interpretations, not the law. The worked example is computed by TaxStack Canada’s engine from example figures. This page has not been reviewed by a CPA or a tax lawyer. GoldSilverPortfolio sells TaxStack, a Premium subscription that applies these rules to your own records; the rules here are the law’s, and nothing on this page depends on whether you use it.

Primary sources