Precious Metals IRA Rollover: Eligible Metals, Storage, and Costs

A precious metals IRA rollover moves money from an existing retirement account into a self-directed IRA that holds physical gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. Done as a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer into an IRS-approved custodian, and used to buy only metals that meet the statutory purity rules, the move is tax-free. Get any piece of it wrong and the IRS can treat the whole account as a distribution, with income tax and possibly a 10% early-withdrawal penalty on top.

Which Accounts You Can Roll Over

Most tax-advantaged retirement accounts qualify. Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, 457(b) plans, and the federal Thrift Savings Plan can all be rolled into a self-directed precious metals IRA. Roth versions roll into a Roth self-directed IRA and keep the tax-free growth structure.

The rollover amount doesn’t count against your annual IRA contribution limit, so a large balance can move in one go without bumping against the $7,500 cap for 2026 ($8,600 if you’re 50 or older).¹

SIMPLE IRAs carry a trap. During the first two years of participation in a SIMPLE plan, you can only transfer funds to another SIMPLE IRA. Roll the money into a traditional or self-directed IRA before those two years are up and the IRS treats the entire amount as a taxable distribution and adds a 25% additional tax. After two years, normal rollover rules apply and the additional tax drops to the standard 10% for distributions before age 59½.²

Direct Transfer vs. Indirect Rollover

There are two ways to move the money. One is dramatically safer than the other.

A direct transfer, sometimes called a trustee-to-trustee transfer, sends the funds straight from your current custodian to the new self-directed IRA custodian. The money never touches your hands, nothing is withheld, and there’s no deadline pressure. You sign a transfer authorization form, the institutions handle the wire or check between themselves, and the process usually wraps up within ten to fifteen business days. The IRS doesn’t classify a direct transfer as a “rollover” at all, so it doesn’t count against the one-per-year limit.³

An indirect rollover puts you in the middle. The current custodian liquidates the account and sends the cash to you personally, and you then have exactly 60 days to deposit the full amount into the new self-directed IRA. Miss the window and the IRS treats the entire sum as taxable income. If you’re under 59½, you’ll also owe a 10% early withdrawal penalty.⁴

Withholding makes indirect rollovers trickier still. If the money is coming from an employer plan like a 401(k) or 403(b), the plan administrator must withhold 20% for federal taxes before sending you the check.⁵ On a $100,000 balance, you receive $80,000 and have to find $20,000 from other funds to deposit the full amount within 60 days. If you only redeposit the $80,000, the missing $20,000 is a taxable distribution. IRA-to-IRA indirect rollovers are gentler: default withholding is 10%, and you can elect out of it entirely.³

The One-Per-Year Rule

The IRS limits you to one indirect rollover across all of your IRAs in any 12-month period. The rule aggregates every IRA you own (traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE) and treats them as one account for counting purposes. A second indirect rollover inside that window is disallowed: the funds become an excess contribution and the distributed amount is taxable income for the year you received it.³ Direct trustee-to-trustee transfers are exempt from this limit, which is another reason to default to the direct method.

Which Metals Qualify

Not every gold bar or silver coin can go into the account. The IRS treats most physical precious metals as “collectibles,” and buying a collectible with IRA funds is a prohibited transaction that destroys the account’s tax-sheltered status. The narrow exception in 26 U.S.C. § 408(m)(3) covers two categories: specific U.S. Mint coins listed by statute, and bullion meeting the minimum fineness required for delivery on a regulated futures contract.⁶

The fineness thresholds come from COMEX, which sets delivery specifications for metals futures contracts:

Gold:.995 fineness, or 99.5% pure⁷
Silver:.999 fineness, or 99.9% pure⁸
Platinum:.9995 fineness, or 99.95% pure⁷
Palladium: .9995 fineness, or 99.95% pure

Common bullion products like the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf (.9999 fine), Austrian Philharmonic (.9999 fine), and various PAMP Suisse and Credit Suisse bars clear these thresholds. The American Gold Eagle is the curious case. Gold Eagles are only .9167 fine (22 karat), which falls well below the .995 bullion standard, but they qualify because the statute separately lists U.S. Mint gold, silver, and platinum coins by name, exempting them from the fineness rule entirely.⁶ American Silver Eagles and American Platinum Eagles also qualify under the same statutory carve-out.

What doesn’t qualify: pre-1933 gold coins, rare numismatic coins, jewelry, and any bar or round below the COMEX fineness floor. Buying an ineligible product with IRA funds is treated as a distribution of the entire account value as of January 1 of that year, producing an immediate tax bill and a potential 10% early withdrawal penalty.⁹ A dealer who steers you toward high-markup collectible coins “for your IRA” is either uninformed or hoping the tax consequences won’t surface until later.

Storage: Approved Depositories Only

Every ounce of metal in the IRA must be held by a bank or an IRS-approved non-bank trustee.¹⁰ In practice, custodians work with specialized depositories that offer insured, audited vault storage. You choose between two arrangements. Segregated storage keeps your specific coins and bars in a separate labeled section of the vault, and you receive those exact items at distribution; it costs more. Commingled or allocated storage pools your metals with identical items from other account holders, so you own a specific quantity and purity but not necessarily the original bar you bought; it costs less.

Annual depository storage fees generally run $100 to $300, though large balances can push higher. Some facilities charge flat fees; others use a sliding scale based on total value stored.

The “home storage IRA” pitch, typically structured as an LLC that the IRA owns with you as manager holding the metals at home, does not survive scrutiny. Courts and the IRS have consistently treated these arrangements as taxable distributions. One well-publicized case involved a couple who purchased coins through their IRA-owned LLC and took physical possession; the IRS classified the holdings as taxable distributions that were not properly reported.¹¹ The resulting tax, penalties, and interest run well beyond the cost of legitimate depository storage.

Prohibited Transactions

The IRS maintains a broader set of prohibited transaction rules for all IRAs. The core principle is that you and certain people close to you cannot personally benefit from IRA assets before distribution. Disqualified persons include you, your spouse, your parents, your children, your grandchildren, and the spouses of your children and grandchildren. Anyone who manages the account or provides paid investment advice for it is also disqualified.⁹

You cannot borrow money from the IRA, sell personal property to it, use its assets as collateral for a loan, or buy anything for personal use with its funds. For metals specifically, you cannot take physical possession of the coins or bars, keep them in a home safe, or let a family member hold them. If the IRS discovers any of these arrangements, the account loses its tax-sheltered status retroactively to January 1 of the violation year, and the entire fair market value becomes taxable income.⁹

What It Actually Costs

Precious metals IRAs are more expensive to run than standard brokerage IRAs, and the fees stack up in ways that aren’t always visible upfront. Before committing, add up all of the following.

Account setup: a one-time fee when the self-directed IRA is opened, typically $50 to $150.
Annual custodian maintenance: covers administration, IRS reporting, and recordkeeping. Costs vary widely, from around $200 a year at the low end to over $2,000 for larger or more complex accounts.
Depository storage: usually $100 to $300 a year. Segregated storage runs roughly $50 to $150 more per year than commingled.
Dealer markup, or spread: dealers charge a premium above the spot price when you buy. Markups typically run 1% to 10% depending on the product; fractional-ounce coins carry higher percentage premiums than standard bars.
Liquidation spread: dealers buy back below the current spot price. You lose a percentage on both ends of the trade.

A $50,000 gold purchase at a 5% dealer markup starts $2,500 in the hole before storage or custodian fees begin. That doesn’t make the investment good or bad on its own, but it’s the honest starting line for evaluating performance.

Paperwork to Keep

Your custodian files Form 5498 with the IRS each year, reporting the account’s fair market value along with any contributions, rollovers, or conversions.¹² You receive a copy for your records; you don’t attach it to your tax return. When you take a distribution, whether in cash or physical metal, the custodian issues Form 1099-R reporting the amount and the applicable tax codes.

Keep every trade confirmation showing weight, quantity, purity, and purchase price for each item acquired. These establish your cost basis and protect you if the account is ever audited. If you used an indirect rollover, hold on to proof of the deposit date and amount so you can show you met the 60-day deadline. For direct transfers, save the transfer authorization form and the receiving custodian’s confirmation of receipt. The paper trail is the last thing standing between you and a disputed distribution years down the road.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Internal Revenue Service. SIMPLE IRA Withdrawal and Transfer Rules
3
Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
4
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 557, Additional Tax on Early Distributions From Traditional and Roth IRAs
5
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 413, Rollovers From Retirement Plans
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
7
CME Group. What Is the Precious Metals Delivery Process?
8
CME Group. Silver Futures Contract Specs
9
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Prohibited Transactions
10
Internal Revenue Service. Approved Nonbank Trustees and Custodians
11
Nasdaq. Not Allowed: Home Storage Gold IRA
12
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498