Taxes have wiped out the income of those who relied on gold as a safe haven. To explain this to Open is Professor Beppe Scienza, professor at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Turin and savers' mediator. Scienza recently published the book “Our money and inflation”, which provides the tools needed to navigate financial products.
Q. For those who have invested in the yellow metal, 2024 has been a happy year so far, one could say a golden year. Why don't you agree?
I do not deny the price increase from 53 to over 70 euros per gram since the end of 2023 until today. It is a pity that for many this has not been enough to compensate for the trick played on them by the Meloni government, which almost no one has talked about. Included among the many provisions of the Finance Law (L. 213/2023 art. 1 paragraph 92 letter c), the tax for those who resell coins or ingots without having valid purchase documents has been quadrupled. Even in the case of a single pound.
But what really happened?
In itself, the tax rate on profits from the sale of ingots, pounds, marenghi or similar gold coins is 26%. It is like private stocks or bonds. But it is common not to have the purchase document and until 2023 a quarter of the proceeds were considered capital gains, now all the proceeds. In fact, the tax has gone from 6.5% to 26%.
But the fault lies with disorderly or negligent savers!
I disagree. Gold can also be stored for decades, think of coins given to children. Not having documentation for remote purchases is normal, in the case of gifts it is the rule. Until 1990, money changers normally sold for cash. Even in the case of inheritance, small savers almost never declared inherited gold, among other things in all honesty, because in any case it fell under the non-tax exemption between parents and children.
Do you consider all this an injustice?
A. Yes, and also in possession of the required document, in the case of old purchases. Here is a concrete case: in the mid-1980s, a gram of gold was worth 17,600 lire, or 9.10 euros. But this figure corresponds to about 52 euros of current purchasing power. Today, a gram of gold is worth about 70 euros, so the real profit is a little less than 20 euros, the rest being a question of preserving purchasing power. In reality, everything is taxed, even the pure and simple resumption of inflation. Then, an obvious injustice was created among those who resold gold at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. Why was it taxed first at 6.5%, then at 26%?
Besides taxes, do you recommend gold as a defense against inflation?
A. No, because inflation-linked securities themselves are a better solution: Btp Italia, Btp-i, Bund-ei etc. Historical data shows that in the medium to long term, gold prices, especially for an Italian saver, have not kept up with the cost of living. Sometimes they have risen more, sometimes they have sunk in real terms. The issue is explored in depth in my book Our Money and Inflation.
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