Selling Gold and Silver in Canada: How the Gain Is Taxed, From Average Cost to the 30-Day Rule

In Canada half of a gain on gold or silver is taxable, whatever the metal or the holding period. What decides the figure is the cost: one average for identical coins, each purchase converted at the Bank of Canada’s rate for its day, and a 30-day rule that, unlike the US wash-sale rule, reaches physical metal. We follow one gold lot through all three.

Published October 25, 2026 · 17 min read

Key Takeaways

• Half of a capital gain on gold or silver is added to income in Canada (Income Tax Act, s. 38), for every metal and every holding period; the proposed two-thirds rate never became law, its cancellation announced on 21 March 2025.
• Five ounces of gold bought at about US$5,595 on 29 January 2026 and worth about US$4,156 on 30 September were down 25.7% in US dollars but 22.0% in Canadian dollars: at the Bank of Canada’s C$1.3515 and C$1.4188, the loss was C$8,325.55, not the C$9,724.04 an unchanged rate would have given.
• Identical coins share one average cost (s. 47): a holder who also owned five coins bought at C$3,800 each shows a C$1,078.55 gain on the same sale, not a loss.
• The 30-day superficial-loss rule (s. 54) reaches physical metal: buy identical coins in the 30 days before or after a loss sale, still own them 30 days after, and the loss is nil for the year and added to the new coins’ cost.
• If trading the metal is a business, all of the profit is taxed, not half; the CRA’s archived bulletins IT-459 and IT-346R set out the factors it weighs.

In Canada, half of a capital gain on gold or silver is added to your income, whatever the metal and however long you held it. That fraction is the simple part. What decides the figure on the return is the cost it is measured against: one average for all your identical coins or bars, each purchase converted to Canadian dollars at the exchange rate for its own day, and adjusted for any loss the 30-day rule takes away. This article follows one lot through those rules: the 5 oz of gold, bought at January’s high, that our 14 October article harvested under US rules. Amounts are in Canadian dollars (C$) unless marked US$. The rules are the federal ones for an individual resident in Canada who holds metal personally in a taxable account, as they stood in October 2026; provincial tax and registered plans such as a TFSA or an RRSP are not covered. This is general information, not tax advice.

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, added to your income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate, and half of a capital loss an allowable capital loss. The fraction is the same for gold, silver, platinum and palladium, and it does not change with how long you owned the metal; Canada has no long-term rate and no collectibles rate. The two-thirds rate proposed in the 2024 federal budget never became law: the government announced on 21 March 2025 that it would cancel it, and section 38 still says one-half. Our reference page, capital gains tax on gold and silver in Canada, sets out each rule with its section of the Act; this article works through what those rules do to one lot.

½ The share of a capital gain on bullion added to your income in Canada. Section 38 of the Income Tax Act. It is the same for every metal and every holding period, so the work is in the gain it applies to: the cost, the exchange rate and the 30-day rule.

What does the exchange rate do to gold bought in US dollars?

The exchange rate becomes part of the gain: each amount is converted to Canadian dollars at the rate for its own day, the cost at the rate for the day you bought, the proceeds at the rate for the day you sold, and selling costs at the rate for the day you paid them. That is how the CRA’s capital gains guide (T4037) sets it out, and its folio on reporting currency (S5-F4-C1) names the rate: the Bank of Canada’s for that day or, when the Bank quotes none, the closest earlier day’s. The CRA also accepts some other published rates that meet its conditions. Gold’s benchmark price is formed in US dollars (who sets it, and where), but metal bought and sold in Canadian dollars needs no conversion: the gain is the difference in Canadian dollars.

Here is the January lot converted. Five ounces at US$5,595 is US$27,975, which at 29 January’s rate of C$1.3515 is a cost of C$37,808.21. On 30 September the same five ounces at about US$4,156 were worth US$20,780; the Bank quoted no rate that day, so the closest earlier one, 29 September’s C$1.4188, applies, and the value is C$29,482.66. In US dollars the lot was down US$7,195, or 25.7%. In Canadian dollars it was down C$8,325.55, or 22.0%, because the US dollar rose about 5% against the Canadian dollar in between. Had the rate not moved, the loss would have been C$9,724.04: the currency took C$1,398.49 off it. It works the other way too: when the Canadian dollar strengthens, a gain in US dollars shrinks in Canadian dollars, and can become a loss.

How is the cost of the coins you sell worked out?

The cost of coins you sell is their average cost: section 47 of the Income Tax Act pools identical properties, and every purchase works out one average again for the whole pool, the adjusted cost base (ACB). The cost is everything you paid to acquire the metal, dealer premium and fees included; selling costs come off the proceeds instead. A sale takes coins out at the average and leaves the average unchanged. There are no separate lots to choose from, so you cannot sell “the January coins”: in the Act’s eyes every identical coin you own cost the same.

Two holders show what that does. Both sell five identical 1 oz gold coins on 30 September at the same price, for C$29,482.66. The first owns only the five bought on 29 January. The second also owns five bought earlier for C$3,800 each, an example price, so ten coins share one average.

For the first holder the sale is a capital loss of C$8,325.55, and half of it, C$4,162.78, is an allowable capital loss. For the second, the same sale is a gain of C$1,078.55, of which C$539.28 is taxable, because the five January coins are not sold on their own: the Act sees ten identical coins with one average cost. Our 14 October article harvested a single lot; in Canada, a loss on the most recent purchase can disappear into the average. (Three of these halves, C$4,162.775, C$539.275 and the C$28,404.105 that goes with the five coins sold, fall on a half-cent; they are rounded to the nearest cent, as the engine rounds them, which leaves C$28,404.10 with the five coins kept.)

Whether two items are identical is a question of fact. The CRA’s guide calls properties identical when each is the same as all the others. Its archived bulletin IT-387R2 asks whether they are the same in all material respects, so that a buyer would have no preference for one over another, and treats bullion and certificates of the same metal as identical. Five 1 oz Gold Maple Leafs are the plain case. Neither source says whether different products of one metal, a coin and a bar or a Maple Leaf and an Eagle, share a pool, so that is a question for a tax professional, and the answer moves both the average and the 30-day rule below.

Does the 30-day superficial-loss rule apply to gold and silver?

Yes: the superficial-loss rule in section 54 of the Income Tax Act applies to the disposition of any property, so it reaches physical gold and silver. Apart from a few exceptions, mostly sales the law deems to happen, such as on becoming or ceasing to be a resident of Canada, a loss is superficial when you, or a person affiliated with you, buy, or acquire a right to buy, the same or an identical property 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 buy it, at the end of that period. Affiliated persons include your spouse or common-law partner and a corporation controlled by you or by them. The US wash-sale rule covers stock and securities, not physical metal, which is why the US harvest could sell a losing lot and buy it straight back. In Canada that sequence does something else.

The 30-day window either side of a sale on 30 September 2026

• 31 Aug 2026 The window opens: Thirty days before the sale. An identical coin acquired from here on counts, whether you buy it, your spouse or common-law partner buys it, or a monthly purchase plan buys it.
• 30 Sep 2026 The sale at a loss: Five January coins sold for C$29,482.66 against a cost of C$37,808.21: a loss of C$8,325.55.
• 30 Oct 2026 The window closes: Thirty days after the sale. If identical coins acquired in the window are still owned, or still on order, the loss is superficial: nil for 2026, and added to the cost of those coins.

Take the first holder. They sell the five January coins on 30 September for the C$8,325.55 loss and buy five identical coins back the same day, as the US harvest did, at the same US$4,156 an ounce (leaving the dealer’s premium out, to keep the arithmetic plain). On 30 October they still own them, so the loss is superficial. Paragraph 40(2)(g) of the Act sets it at nil for 2026, and paragraph 53(1)(f) adds it to the cost of the coins bought back: C$29,482.66 plus C$8,325.55 is C$37,808.21, exactly what the five sold had cost. In tax terms the round trip changed nothing; in cash terms it cost whatever the dealer took on the sale and the purchase. The loss is not lost, though. It waits in the cost of the new coins and comes back as a smaller gain, or a larger loss, when they are sold.

• Purchases in the 30 days before the sale count as well as those after it, so a regular monthly purchase of the same coin can trigger the rule.
• An order placed but not yet delivered counts: the Act treats a right to acquire a property as a property identical to it.
• A loss is denied only to the extent that it is superficial, so buying back fewer coins than you sold leaves part of the loss to claim.

When is selling gold or silver taxed as business income?

Selling gold or silver is taxed as business income, all of the profit rather than half of it, when buying and selling the metal is a business for you, and the Income Tax Act counts even a one-off trading venture, an “adventure or concern in the nature of trade”, as a business. For where the line falls, the CRA’s capital gains guide points to its archived interpretation bulletins, and two of them bear on metal. Archived means the CRA no longer updates them; it says the notice has no effect on their status or reliability, and like all its bulletins they are its interpretation, not the law.

The first, IT-459 (1980), says no single test decides and names three: whether you dealt with the property as a dealer in it would, whether its nature and quantity rule out an investment, and whether your intention fits other evidence of trading. It adds that a sale soon after the purchase points to an intention to trade, that a commercial background in similar dealings can count, and that a single, isolated transaction can still be a trading venture. One paragraph is worth reading with bullion in mind, because metal earns nothing while it is held: where property could not produce income or personal enjoyment by being owned, and the only purpose of buying it was to sell it, the presumption is a trading venture. The bulletin also says an intention to sell at a profit is not enough on its own, because it is present in almost every investment.

The second, IT-346R (1978), covers commodities for which a futures market exists, as one does for gold and silver, and is more accommodating. Transactions connected with your business, or based on inside information, are income. Anyone else is what it calls a speculator, and as a general rule may report all their gains and losses as capital, provided they report the same way every year; a speculator who has used income treatment may not switch. Neither bulletin refers to the other, so where your own sales fall is a question for a tax professional.

Does GST/HST apply to bullion in Canada?

Not to investment-grade gold, silver or platinum: at the purities the Excise Tax Act sets, a sale of bullion is exempt from GST/HST. Palladium is treated differently. Sales tax is a separate question from the income tax on a gain, and sales tax on bullion in Canada covers it, provincial sales tax included.

What records does the average cost need?

The average cost needs every purchase of a product, back to the first coin: the date, the product, the quantity and everything you paid, in Canadian dollars at that day’s rate, and for each sale the date, the amount received and the selling costs. The CRA asks for records of what you paid for capital property to be kept until six years after the end of the last year in which that cost could enter into a calculation, which for a pool means six years after the year you sell its last coin, and longer if a loss from a sale is carried forward.

The free portfolio tracker keeps your purchases. TaxStack Canada, GoldSilverPortfolio’s own paid Premium product, keeps the average cost of each item in Canadian dollars, checks each sale you record against the 30-day rule using the purchases in your record, and builds your Schedule 3 figures; the worked example above comes from its engine. The free tax comparison calculator has a Canada mode that compares physical metal with metal funds after tax, and the Academy’s Tax Strategies section sets the Canadian rules beside the US ones, registered accounts included.

The Bigger Picture

The one-half rate gets the attention, and it is the same for every holder. Everything else turns on the record. The same five coins, sold on the same day for the same US-dollar price, showed a C$9,724.04 loss, a C$8,325.55 loss or a C$1,078.55 gain depending on the exchange rate and what else was in the pool, and a loss that a US holder could realise and buy straight back was, in Canada, moved into the cost of the coins bought back. None of that is a forecast of anything. It is arithmetic on a record, and the record is the part a holder controls.

Sources and Methodology

The rules in this article were read on 15 October 2026 in the Income Tax Act, the CRA publications and the government release listed below, and agree with our reference page on Canadian capital gains, whose rules were checked twice and separately on 26 September 2026. The CRA bulletins IT-346R, IT-387R2 and IT-459 are archived: the CRA no longer updates them, and it says the notice has no effect on their status or reliability. Spot prices are those our 14 October article used: gold’s intraday record of about US$5,595 on 29 January 2026 (US$5,594.82 in Reuters’ report, as republished), and the midpoint of Kitco’s bid and ask on the evening of 30 September 2026, about US$4,156. Exchange rates are the Bank of Canada’s daily rates for US dollars in Canadian dollars; the Bank quoted no rate for 30 September 2026, so 29 September’s applies, as the CRA’s folio S5-F4-C1 says. Dealer premiums are left out of the example to keep the arithmetic plain; in practice they are part of the cost. Every amount was worked to the cent by the engine TaxStack Canada uses, and a test pins the article’s figures to it. This article has not been reviewed by a CPA or a tax lawyer.

Conflicts of interest: GoldSilverPortfolio sells TaxStack Canada, part of its paid Premium subscription, which keeps the Canadian average-cost record and checks the 30-day rule described here. Nothing in this article depends on using it.

Primary sources

• Justice Laws Website, Government of Canada — Income Tax Act, section 38 (taxable capital gain and allowable capital loss), section 47 (identical properties), section 54 (“superficial loss”), paragraphs 40(2)(g) and 53(1)(f) (a superficial loss is nil and added to cost), and subsection 261(1) (“relevant spot rate”)
• Canada Revenue Agency — Capital Gains – 2025, Guide T4037: capital or income transactions, foreign currency, identical properties, superficial loss and the 50% inclusion rate
• Canada Revenue Agency — Income Tax Folio S5-F4-C1, Income Tax Reporting Currency: paragraphs 1.4 and 1.6
• Canada Revenue Agency — Capital losses (modified 5 February 2026): superficial loss and net capital losses
• Canada Revenue Agency — IT-387R2 (Consolidated) (archived), Meaning of “Identical Properties”: paragraphs 1 and 4
• Canada Revenue Agency — IT-459 (archived), Adventure or Concern in the Nature of Trade (8 September 1980)
• Canada Revenue Agency — IT-346R (archived), Commodity Futures and Certain Commodities (20 November 1978)
• Canada Revenue Agency — What the “Archived Content” notice means for interpretation bulletins (modified 10 August 2026)
• Prime Minister of Canada — “Prime Minister Carney cancels proposed capital gains tax increase” (21 March 2025)
• Canada Revenue Agency — IC78-10R5, Books and Records Retention/Destruction (June 2010): keeping records of the cost of capital property
• Bank of Canada — daily exchange rates, US dollar in Canadian dollars: 29 January and 29 September 2026
• Internal Revenue Service — Topic no. 409, Capital gains and losses, and Publication 550 (2025), Investment Income and Expenses: the collectibles rate, the loss limit and wash sales of stock or securities
• Reuters — spot gold’s record of US$5,594.82 on 29 January 2026, as republished; Kitco — gold bid and ask on the evening of 30 September 2026, as recorded for our 14 October article