RICHMOND, VA / ACCESS Newswire / June 30, 2026 / With Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s signature on the state budget bill last night, Virginia has officially extended the sales tax exemption for purchases of gold and silver until 2028.
Virginia’s sales tax exemption on gold, silver, and platinum bullion or legal tender coins was scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2026. However, the Sound Money Defense League and Money Metals Exchange helped prompt thousands of in-state grassroots activists to push back, persuading key members of the legislature to extend the exemption.
House Bill 30, the state’s budget bill for biennium 2026-2028, was the focal point as the lack of an enacted budget would result in a state government shutdown on July 1. After receiving immense grassroots pressure from investors, businesses, and activists, the sales tax exemption extension was included in the budget bill that the governor signed at the 11th hour.
Eliminating taxes on the purchase and use of precious metals at the state level has been a winning policy issue nationwide. Including Virginia, 45 states now partially or fully exempt precious metals from their state sales tax. Ending taxes on the purchase of precious metals is sound public policy for several reasons:
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Levying sales taxes on precious metals is inappropriate. Sales taxes are typically levied on final consumer goods. Computers, shirts, and shoes carry sales taxes because the consumer is “consuming” the good. Precious metals are inherently held for resale, not “consumption,” making the application of sales taxes on precious metals inappropriate.
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Taxing precious metals is fiscally counterproductive. The results of one study involving Michigan show that any sales tax proceeds a state collects on precious metals are likely surpassed by the state revenue lost from conventions, businesses, and economic activity that are driven out of the state.
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Taxing gold and silver harms in-state businesses. It’s a competitive marketplace, so buyers will take their business to neighboring states, thereby undermining in-state jobs. Investors can easily avoid paying more than $200 in sales taxes, for example, on a $4000 purchase of a one-ounce gold bar. The harm is exacerbated when you consider that ALL of Virginia’s neighbors (Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina) have already stopped taxing gold and silver.
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Gold and silver are the only money mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Article 1, Section 10 states that “no state shall make any Thing but Gold and Silver a tender in payment of debts.” Exchange on form of U.S. money for another should not be taxed.
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Other types of savings or investment do not carry sales tax. Gold and silver are held as forms of savings and investment. Virginia does not assess a sales tax on the purchase of stocks, bonds, ETFs, real estate, currencies, and other financial instruments.
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Taxing precious metals disproportionately harms to small-time savers. Purchasers of precious metals aren’t usually 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, Virginians on fixed incomes, wage earners, savers, and more.
While the passage of HB 30 extends the sunset date out to 2028, Sound Money Defense League advised precious metals investors and activists in Virginia to remain diligent and expect to ensure the exemption does not sunset again in two years.
“We’re happy to have successfully defended the sales tax exemption on purchases of precious metals once again. As the nation’s leader on this ever-important policy issue, our group stands ready to support future sound money legislation in Virginia,” said Jp Cortez, executive director of the Sound Money Defense League.
The overwhelming trend is to remove taxes and impediments surrounding gold and silver. However, states have recently imposed new taxes on precious metals, including Washington and Maryland. However, Maryland reversed course last month and repealed its new sales tax on sound money after precious metals dealers, sound money advocates, and small-time investors made their voices heard by contacting their representatives in Richmond.
Throughout the 2026 legislative season, the Sound Money Defense League has worked successfully in support of sound money in Maryland, Idaho, Wisconsin, Georgia, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, Nebraska, West Virginia, and South Dakota.
The League has also worked on the federal SILVER Act to address national security and market efficiency problems associated with the dangerous geographic concentration of exchange approved precious metals depositories within 150 miles of New York City.
Jp.Cortez@soundmoneydefense.org
SOURCE: Sound Money Defense League
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
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