Convert IRA to gold: the route where the money never passes through your hands.
The clean way to convert IRA to gold is a trustee-to-trustee transfer: the new custodian requests the balance from your current one, no check is written in your name, and nothing lands on your tax return as income. This page is for money that already sits in a traditional or Roth IRA. Below: which account types qualify, the five steps in the order the paperwork actually moves, a realistic timeline, what the first year costs on figures we verified in June 2026, and the two errors that turn a non-event into a tax bill.
Advertising disclosure: Gold IRA Consulting is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you open an account through some links on this page (marked sponsored). This never influences our editorial scores, which are based on independent research.
Open a self-directed IRA of the same tax character, sign one transfer request, and let the receiving custodian pull the balance from your existing trustee. That one choice, direct instead of by check, removes the 60-day deadline, the once-per-twelve-months cap and any withholding, and keeps the move off your return as a non-reportable event.
- →Eligible today: traditional, Roth, SEP and rollover IRAs. A SIMPLE IRA has to be two years old, counted from the first employer contribution.
- →Expect ten to fifteen business days from application to metal confirmed in a vault, most of it spent waiting on the trustee you are leaving.
- →Year-one cost is dominated by the spread, not the admin fees. Standard bullion carries roughly 3% to 8% over spot; proof and collectible coins run 20% to 40% and can quietly cost more than a decade of storage.
- →Partial is normal. Nothing requires you to send the entire balance, only enough to clear the dealer minimum, which ranged from roughly $5,000 to roughly $50,000 across the ten firms we track (verified Jun 2026).
Money already in an IRA plays by different rules than money in a workplace plan
Almost everything written about gold retirement accounts assumes you are leaving an employer. That guidance is about a 401(k), and it arrives loaded with a distribution form, mandatory 20% withholding on anything paid to you, and a plan administrator who answers to your former company rather than to you. None of it applies here. An IRA is your contract with a trustee, and you may instruct that trustee to hand the balance to another one whenever you like, in whatever amount you like.
So investors who convert IRA into gold have the easier path: no plan committee, no separation-from-service test, nothing to reclaim at tax time. The counterweight is that the receiving side gets stricter, because a self-directed precious-metals IRA arrives with a dealer, a trust company and a vault attached, each billing separately.
Two neighbouring pages own what this one skips. If the money is still inside a 401(k), 403(b) or similar plan, start with the gold IRA rollover walkthrough. If you are still working out which word applies to your situation, the transfer against rollover explainer draws that line. Everything below assumes IRA-to-IRA, direct, same tax character.
Every IRA flavour qualifies, and one of them has to wait
No age test, no employment test, no income test. The receiving account only has to match the tax character of the one you are leaving, because a transfer cannot turn a pre-tax dollar into an after-tax one. The exceptions sit in the last three rows.
| ACCOUNT YOU HOLD NOW | CAN IT MOVE INTO METAL | WHAT IT HAS TO LAND IN | THE CATCH |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional IRA | Yes, immediately | Self-directed traditional IRA | None. This is the default case the whole industry is built around. |
| Roth IRA | Yes, immediately | Self-directed Roth IRA | The five-year clock carries over from your original Roth. Check the new account is titled Roth before funding, not after. |
| SEP IRA | Yes, immediately | Self-directed traditional or SEP IRA | If your employer is still contributing, keep the original account open to receive those deposits. |
| Rollover IRA | Yes, immediately | Self-directed traditional IRA | A rollover IRA is a traditional IRA wearing a label. It moves on the same paperwork. |
| SIMPLE IRA | Only after two years | Self-directed traditional IRA | The clock starts at the first employer contribution to your SIMPLE. Move it early and the distribution can face a 25% additional tax rather than the usual 10%. |
| Inherited IRA | Yes, with care | Inherited self-directed IRA, titled identically | Trustee to trustee only, and the withdrawal schedule you inherited keeps running. Not every metals custodian accepts inherited accounts, so ask on the first call. |
| 401(k), 403(b), TSP | Different route | Self-directed IRA via rollover | Employer plans use the rollover mechanics covered on our rollover page, including the 20% withholding trap. |
Account treatment from IRS Publication 590-A and Publication 590-B; the two-year SIMPLE restriction and the additional tax on early SIMPLE distributions are set out in Publication 590-B. Custodian acceptance of inherited accounts varies by firm and is not published uniformly.
The five steps to convert IRA to gold, in the order the paperwork moves
Written out, it is five signatures and a wait. Sequence matters more than effort here, because two steps cannot begin until an earlier one settles, and anyone running them in parallel ends up with a quote that expires before the cash lands.
| STEP | WHO DOES THE WORK | TYPICAL ELAPSED | WHAT SLOWS IT DOWN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pick the dealer, and find out which trust company comes attached | You | An afternoon | Nothing, if you ask the custodian question early. Everything, if you discover the answer after signing. |
| 2. Open the self-directed IRA in matching tax character | You and the custodian | Same day to 2 business days | A missing beneficiary designation or an identity document. The only stage entirely under your control. |
| 3. File the transfer request with the new custodian | The receiving custodian | 1 to 3 business days to submit | Some trustees demand a paper form with a wet signature, and a few still want a medallion signature guarantee from a bank. |
| 4. Your old trustee liquidates and releases the cash | The trustee you are leaving | 3 to 10 business days | Unsold securities, mutual fund settlement cycles, and any trustee that releases by mailed cheque instead of wire. |
| 5. Place the order, then confirm delivery at the depository | The dealer and the vault | Same day to buy, 3 to 10 days to confirm | Nothing usually delays the purchase. The risk at this stage is price, because your rate is set on the day cash settles. |
Elapsed times are typical ranges from our research, not commitments. No provider we track publishes a guaranteed transfer timeline, and any that did would be guaranteeing a step 4 it does not control.
The step nobody warns you about is step 4
Metal is bought with cash, so whatever you hold now must be sold before it can leave. Some custodians handle that liquidation as part of the transfer, others sit on the request until you place the sell orders yourself, and mutual funds add a settlement cycle on top. Sell to cash first, file the request second. That single reordering routinely saves a week.
The other question to put to your current trustee before anything is filed: wire or post? A wire settles in a day or two. A mailed cheque has to arrive, be deposited and clear, which is the most common reason a two-week transfer turns into a five-week one.
Choosing the dealer usually chooses the trust company for you
A precious-metals IRA is assembled from three separate businesses, and buyers who believe they are making one decision are usually making three. The dealer quotes and fills the order. A chartered trust company holds legal title inside the IRA and files the tax forms. A depository receives, insures and stores the bars. You will speak almost entirely to the first, and be billed for years by the second.
That asymmetry matters, because a dealer promotion typically covers twelve months while a custodian schedule bills for the life of the account. Only three of the ten firms we track name their custodian partners in published material: Birch Gold Group cites Equity Trust, STRATA Trust and GoldStar Trust, Goldco cites Equity Trust and STRATA Trust, and American Hartford Gold names Equity Trust most often. The other seven refer to an IRS-approved third party without naming it, which is not improper but does mean signing up to a schedule you have not read.
The gap between those schedules is real. On the precious-metals lines verified in June 2026, GoldStar Trust charged $90 a year in flat administration and STRATA Trust $150, while Equity Trust scaled with account value from $350 below $50,000. Our roundup of precious-metals IRA custodians reads each schedule line by line, and the depository comparison does the same for the vaults; gold IRA storage takes segregated against commingled on its own.
Two questions settle it on the first call. Which trust company administers the account, and may I read its own schedule rather than your summary of it? And may I nominate a different one? The answer to the second is occasionally yes, and never yes if nobody asks.
What the cash is allowed to buy once it lands
Buying physical gold with IRA money narrows the shelf sharply, and the narrowing is statutory rather than a house rule. Internal Revenue Code section 408(m) bars collectibles from retirement accounts, then carves out bullion clearing a fineness floor: .995 for gold, .999 for silver, .9995 for platinum and palladium. Anything under the line is deemed distributed the moment the account acquires it, which is the expensive way to learn a coin was ineligible.
The American Gold Eagle is the carve-out worth memorising. At 22 karat it is roughly .9167 fine, under the threshold, and eligible anyway because Congress named it in the statute. Beyond it the ordinary menu runs to Gold Buffalos, Maple Leafs, Philharmonics, Britannias and accredited-refiner bars, while Krugerrands, graded rarities and pre-1933 US gold are out. Our page on IRA-approved gold lists the full set with each fineness, and coins against bars covers which format costs less to hold.
One rule catches people who convert IRA to physical gold expecting to see it: the metal sits with the trustee or an approved depository, never in your safe. Home-storage structures are marketed hard and are the fastest route we know to disqualifying an account.
Six charges attach to the move, and one of them dwarfs the rest
Nothing on the outbound side of an IRA-to-IRA transfer is taxed, but the receiving side has a price list. Five lines are small, flat and disclosed. The sixth is a percentage, rarely printed anywhere, and is where the money goes.
| CHARGE | TYPICAL RANGE | WHAT WE VERIFIED IN PUBLISHED MATERIAL |
|---|---|---|
| Account setup, one time | $50 to $80 | Birch Gold Group publishes $50. Several firms waive it on a qualifying transfer, so treat anything over about $100 as a question rather than a fact. |
| Annual custodian administration | $75 to $125 | Birch publishes a $125 management line. On the trust-company schedules themselves, GoldStar Trust ran $90 flat and STRATA Trust $150 flat, while Equity Trust scaled from $350 below $50,000. |
| Storage and insurance | $100 to $150 | Birch publishes $110 for storage and insurance. Commingled vaulting sits below segregated at every schedule we read. |
| Wire out of the old account | $25 to $40 | Birch publishes $30. Your current trustee may add its own outgoing fee, which is set by that firm and not by anyone in this table. |
| Dealer spread over spot | 3% to 8% on bullion | Proof and collectible coins commonly run 20% to 40%. On a $75,000 conversion that gap is roughly $16,000, which is more than fifty years of the four lines above. |
| Closing the account later | $150 to $250 | Termination fees of $250 at Equity Trust and STRATA Trust and $150 at GoldStar Trust appear on their own published schedules. Worth knowing before you open, not after. |
Dealer figures from published company material and our own fee breakdown; custodian figures from each trust company's published schedule. All verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing before you authorize anything. Ranges are typical market figures, not quotes. Run your own numbers with the gold IRA fee calculator.
Several firms waive part of year one, and the conditions differ enough to reorder a shortlist. American Bullion waives storage and the custodian fee for twelve months with no published size threshold. Birch Gold Group waives the first year on qualifying rollovers of $50,000 or more, so the waiver is worth nothing on a $40,000 transfer. Augusta Precious Metals covers custodian and storage for up to ten years on qualifying accounts, but its roughly $50,000 gate puts that offer out of reach below the figure. American Hartford Gold takes another line entirely at roughly $180 a year all-in with no liquidation fee on exit. All verified Jun 2026.
Sending a slice instead of the whole balance
Nothing obliges you to empty the account. A partial transfer uses the same request form with a dollar figure written on it, the original IRA stays open with the remainder invested as before, and a second slice can follow later with no waiting period. For most readers that is the sensible shape: leave the diversified core alone, move the portion you want in hard assets, and never end up holding a retirement account you cannot rebalance without selling metal.
The binding constraint is the dealer minimum rather than the tax code, because the slice has to clear the entry gate by itself. Those gates ran from roughly $5,000 at Orion Metal Exchange, through roughly $10,000 at Birch Gold Group, American Hartford Gold, American Bullion and Lear Capital, roughly $20,000 at Noble Gold and roughly $25,000 at Goldco, Advantage Gold and Patriot Gold Group, up to roughly $50,000 at Augusta Precious Metals, verified June 2026. Our note on minimum investment levels keeps that list current, and the provider rankings score the firms behind it.
Buyers who transfer IRA to gold and silver usually decide it here, splitting one slice across two metals instead of opening two accounts. A single self-directed IRA holds both. Ask how each metal is priced for storage before fixing the ratio, since silver eats far more vault space per dollar and a few schedules charge for it.
Four ways a non-taxable move becomes a taxable one
- 1Taking the cash by accident. Ask a trustee to close the account and send the proceeds and you have taken a distribution, whatever you intended. That leaves 60 days to redeposit, and one such move per twelve months across every IRA you own. Miss either and the balance is income. The missed-deadline page covers the narrow escape routes.
- 2Buying the wrong metal. A pitch built on rarity, proof finishes or limited mintage is a pitch for a wider spread, and in some cases for a product that fails the fineness test outright. The CFTC has published a standing advisory on precious-metals sales tactics for exactly this reason. Bullion first, always.
- 3Mismatching the tax character. Roth money must land in a Roth account. It is a paperwork error rather than a strategy error, it is easy to make when a rushed application defaults to traditional, and it is unpleasant to unwind. Read the account title on the confirmation.
- 4Agreeing to take the metal home. The statute requires a trustee or approved depository to hold it, so any structure ending with bars in your possession while the account stays open is a disqualification risk. See the wider list of warning signs.
A fifth error is quieter: forgetting that the price is struck on settlement day, not application day. Any quote given while money is still in transit is indicative, and the firms worth dealing with say so unprompted.
What readers ask before they file the request
Can I convert my Roth IRA to gold?
Yes, and the tax character does not change on the way across. A Roth IRA transfers into a self-directed Roth IRA, keeps its original funding date for the five-year clock, and buys the same bullion a traditional account buys. What you must not do is let anyone open a traditional self-directed account for Roth money, which is the one filing error we see repeated. Say the word Roth on the application call and check the account title on the confirmation before you authorize the transfer. Note that this is not a Roth conversion in the tax sense: converting a traditional IRA to a Roth is a taxable recharacterization of the wrapper, while moving Roth dollars into metal is neither taxable nor reportable as income.
Is converting an IRA to gold taxable?
No, provided the money travels trustee to trustee and never reaches you personally. A direct transfer between two IRAs of the same character is not a distribution, produces no taxable income and is not capped in number per year. It becomes taxable only if you take the funds yourself and fail to redeposit them within 60 days, or if the account acquires something the tax code treats as a collectible, which is deemed distributed the moment it is purchased. The IRS sets out both the transfer treatment and the collectible rule in Publication 590-A and Internal Revenue Code section 408(m).
How long does it take to convert IRA to gold?
Ten to fifteen business days is the ordinary range from application to metal confirmed at a depository, and the single biggest variable is your current trustee rather than your new one. A brokerage that accepts an electronic transfer request and wires cash will release in three to five business days. One that insists on a paper form with a wet signature, or that mails a check, will take two to three weeks. Two things shorten it reliably: sell the positions to cash before you file the request, and ask the receiving custodian to submit by whatever channel your existing trustee prefers.
Can I transfer IRA to gold and silver in the same account?
Yes. One self-directed IRA can hold gold, silver, platinum and palladium at once, subject to the fineness floors in section 408(m)(3): .995 for gold, .999 for silver, .9995 for platinum and palladium. Most buyers who split do so because silver is the cheaper unit to accumulate, but two costs deserve a look first. Silver takes far more vault space per dollar, so a few depository schedules price it separately, and the dealer spread on small silver coins is usually wider than on a one-ounce gold coin. Ask for the storage line and the spread on each metal before you decide the split.
Do I have to move the whole IRA into metal?
No. A partial transfer is standard, and the paperwork is identical except for the dollar figure you write on the request. The constraint is not tax law but the dealer minimum: the slice you send has to clear the entry gate on its own, and those ranged from roughly $5,000 at Orion Metal Exchange to roughly $50,000 at Augusta Precious Metals when we verified them in June 2026. Your original IRA stays open with the balance intact, and you can send a second slice later without any waiting period.
How many times per year can I move IRA money to a metals custodian?
As often as you like, as long as every move is trustee to trustee. The famous limit of one per twelve months applies to indirect rollovers, where the money is paid to you and you redeposit it, and it applies across all your IRAs rather than per account. Direct transfers are outside that limit entirely, which is one of the reasons we push readers toward the transfer route even when a check would be faster. IRS Publication 590-A draws the line between the two.
Related reading: the transfer and rollover distinction, the employer-plan rollover route, how a gold IRA is taxed, and the full set of account rules.
Transfer mechanics, eligibility and the collectible rule come from federal primary sources. Dealer minimums, fees and waivers are taken from published company material and were verified Jun 2026; custodian figures come from each trust company's own published schedule. Confirm current terms before you authorize a transfer.
- IRS Publication 590-A: trustee-to-trustee transfers, the distinction between a transfer and a rollover, and the one-per-12-months limit that applies only to indirect rollovers.
- IRS Publication 590-B: distribution treatment, inherited IRA handling, and the additional tax on SIMPLE IRA distributions taken inside the two-year window.
- IRS, Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions: direct against indirect movement, the 60-day window, and withholding on employer-plan distributions paid to you.
- 26 U.S.C. 408: subsection (m) bars collectibles and sets the bullion exception, including the fineness floors and the requirement that an approved trustee hold the metal.
- IRS list of approved nonbank trustees and custodians: the register to check a trust company against before you sign an application.
- CFTC advisory on precious metals: sales tactics and pricing practices worth recognising before a purchase call.
- SEC investor alert on self-directed IRAs: what a self-directed custodian does and does not verify on your behalf.
Where a firm publishes nothing on a figure, this page records the absence rather than substituting an estimate. Company data is cross-referenced with our individual provider reviews and fee breakdown.
Get the schedule before you sign the request
Our free kit includes the minimums and fee comparison behind this page, plus the questions to put to a dealer and to your existing trustee before any money moves. Comparing firms first? Start with the provider rankings.