Offshore Private Vaults – A Good Way to Store Precious Metals Abroad

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If you want to store gold and silver abroad, then doing so is probably a good deal easier than you might think. What’s more, renting an offshore private vault overseas offers a number of advantages that you will not necessarily obtain in the domestic market. In this article, you will find out how you can rent a safe deposit box abroad, why it is advantageous to store segregated precious metals overseas and the benefits of storing gold and silver in offshore facilities.

Why Rent a Safe Deposit Box in an Offshore Private Vault?

To begin with, it is important to examine what an offshore private vault is. Generally, it is understood to be a privately operated high security storage facility overseas. That is certainly the case with Swiss Gold Safe Ltd. Within such offshore private vaults, we offer the possibility to store precious metals either in safe deposit boxes or in an allocated and segregated manner.

To be clear, you can store your gold and silver abroad in one of our secure facilities and retrieve your valuables at any time you see fit thereafter. Your belongings remain your legal property and are merely stored for you in a privately run facility. The main benefit is that such valuable items are held in a secure location where the risk of theft is diminished to almost zero. However, offshoring means that you can obtain further benefits. Doing so helps to spread your risk from local political or economic instability, for example. Moreover, renting an offshore safe deposit box can also mean that your privacy is maintained – something that may not always be possible in your home country, of course.

In particular, Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein have gained a strong reputation for offshore private vaults. There are several reasons – both historical and current – why this should be. Therefore, it is to the particular benefits of these two countries that we now turn.

Storing Gold and Silver Abroad in Switzerland

Unlike many of the secure vaults you will find in the Western world, those situated in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein lie outside the jurisdiction of the European Union (EU). This is something that is of benefit to citizens of EU countries as well as those from other parts of the globe. Firstly, both countries are located in the heart of geographical Europe which means that they are easy to get to and away from. They have excellent transportation infrastructure, for example.

In addition, choosing to use an offshore private vault in either location to store your gold and silver abroad means being able to access some of the most secure facilities anywhere in the world. Although Swiss Gold Safe Ltd keeps the exact location of its offshore private vaults secret, they are located in parts of Liechtenstein and Switzerland where the forces of nature lend themselves to security. In some cases, for example, our storage facilities are located within the Alps themselves so they are almost totally impenetrable to outsiders.

However, the geography of Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein is just one factor in choosing to store segregated precious metals abroad within our facilities. Renting an offshore private vault in Switzerland is not deemed to be a financial service. With Swiss Gold Safe Ltd, you just need to prove your identity to us. This information is not passed on to any governmental agencies so your personal privacy can be maintained much more fully.

It is important to add at this point that renting a safe deposit box offshore to hide wealth illegally is not allowed. Nor is it possible to store illicit items. However, storing gold and silver abroad as a means of hedging against local country risks, negative interest rates and inflationary pressures certainly is. Indeed, so long as your offshore private vault is rented for legitimate purposes, you can use it for much more than gold and silver. Other precious metals, such as platinum and palladium, can be stored in them along with securities, bonds, company documents and contracts, digital media data and even cryptocurrencies.

In short, renting an offshore deposit box offers a great deal of flexibility, security and privacy especially when the facility chosen lies in a convenient location that is also outside of the EU.

Sales Tax and Precious Metals

Another big advantage for investors who are seeking to store as much wealth as they can in a secure location outside of the usual jurisdiction is that gold is not subject to sales tax. In fairness, some places around the world do charge VAT or sales tax on gold jewellery. However, this is because it is not considered to be an investment form of the precious metal. If you choose to store your wealth – even temporarily – in gold, then you will not have to pay sales tax on it because bullion gold is considered to be a form of legal tender, just like a currency. This means you can obtain more metal for your money than if you would be diversifying your wealth into other commodities, such as diamonds and other gemstones, for example.

Indeed, unlike banknotes, gold has a high-value density. This means that when you rent a safe deposit box abroad that you can use it in the most efficient manner possible. Simply put, gold takes up less room in an offshore private vault than Euros or dollars for the equivalent value. As such, you will benefit from the most economical way of storing your wealth securely in a physical asset.

It should be mentioned that when you store silver abroad, sales tax will usually apply. This would be the case if you bought it at home and transported it overseas to Switzerland or the Principality of Liechtenstein. It would also be the case if you were to buy it from a precious metal dealer in either of those two countries. That said, the rate of sales tax on silver and other so-called white metals is generally lower in Switzerland than it is in virtually any other country in the world and markedly so compared to some EU states.

Furthermore, anyone who wants to buy their silver to subsequently store it offshore without paying sales tax can do so by using Swiss Gold Safes services. This would mean purchasing it from a registered precious metal dealer who delivers to our bonded warehouse. Such facilities operate without the need to pay tax unless the commodity is taken out of the facility. So, if you simply want to buy as much silver as possible for your money, you can do so tax-free. Then, if you want to liquidate your physical asset, all you need to do is to sell your silver back to the dealer. Because, like gold, silver has an internationally verifiable price, this solution suits many sorts of investors so long as they don’t want to move their investment around.

Why Choose Swiss Gold Safe Ltd?

So far, we have discussed the benefits of renting an offshore private vault and why Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein make particularly good choices. We have also looked at why gold and silver are both favoured means of storing wealth overseas. Next, we will find out why Swiss Gold Safe is the ideal partner for providing such facilities.

First of all, as the name implies, Swiss Gold Safe is a limited company operating under Swiss law. This means that the business offers all of the privacy protections and respect for individual property rights that the country is known for. Of course, Swiss Gold Safe Ltd always operates in compliance with Swiss law but investors should know that there are few places in the world where such rights are upheld so frequently by the judicial system.

As mentioned, Swiss Gold Safe is under no obligation to reveal the identity of its clients to tax authorities because it is not providing a financial service. The privately run business is a secure storage provider, unlike the sort of offshore safe deposit box rentals you can find within bank vaults. In addition, we have expertise in storing gold, silver and other precious metals overseas for international clients from all over the world. Once you have signed your rental agreement with us, you can store your segregated precious metals overseas with us immediately and with full discretion. We can even arrange secure transportation for you and will have security guards on hand to escort you to your safe deposit box if you want.

In Summary

An offshore private vault is a good place to store precious metals and avoid instability at home.
Investors can rent an offshore private vault in a secure location outside of the EU.
Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein are both ideally suited to storing gold and silver abroad.
Swiss Gold Safe has excellent offshore private vaults that are independent of banks and require no reporting to the authorities.
If you want to store gold and silver offshore without paying sales tax, then you can do so.