Affiliate disclosure: White Metal Resources may earn a commission when you open an account through links on this page. This never changes what you pay or what we write. We are not financial or tax advisors. Consult a licensed advisor before making retirement decisions.
Last updated: July 19, 2026 · By White Metal Resources Editorial
Quick answer: IRA gold has to be at least .995 fine, meaning 99.5 percent pure or better. The .995 number is not written into the tax code. Section 408(m)(3)(B) points to the delivery standard used by U.S. commodity futures markets, and the COMEX gold contract sets that floor at .995. Below that line, a piece of gold is treated as a collectible under IRC 408(m), unless it rides a separate coin carve-out.
The American Gold Eagle is the famous exception. It sits at 22 karat, or .9167 fine, so its raw purity fails the bullion test. Congress listed it in 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 anyway, and that listing is what keeps it inside the account. The Krugerrand, at the same 22-karat purity, does not appear on that list and is shut out.
Short on time? The essentials
- IRA gold must be at least .995 fine, or 99.5 percent pure. This is the commodity-market delivery floor referenced by the tax code.
- Section 408(m)(3)(B) does not spell out a number. It borrows the fineness a regulated contract market requires for delivery of gold.
- For gold, that contract market is COMEX, and the minimum for a deliverable bar is .995. Silver sits higher at .999. Platinum and palladium sit higher still at .9995.
- The .995 stamp alone is not enough. The refiner has to sit on an accepted list such as LBMA Good Delivery, and the metal has to stay at an approved depository.
- The American Gold Eagle is 22 karat (.9167) and would fail the bullion test on its own. It qualifies through the 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 U.S. coin carve-out at Section 408(m)(3)(A).
- The South African Krugerrand and the pre-2013 British Gold Britannia share the same 22-karat purity as the Eagle but are missing from the Section 5112 list. Both are ineligible.
- A sub-.995 gold purchase inside your IRA counts as a deemed distribution at cost. Ordinary income tax lands in the year of purchase, plus the 10 percent additional tax under age 59.5.
- Rhodium and iridium are absent from IRC 408(m)(3) altogether. No fineness clears them into an IRA.
This page explains where the .995 fineness rule for IRA gold comes from, which gold products actually clear it, and what happens when a piece falls short. Below we work through the statute, the COMEX delivery standard behind the number, the Gold Eagle carve-out that keeps a 22-karat coin inside the account, and the second layer of tests fineness alone does not carry. Every figure ties back to the tax code, an IRS page, or the LBMA, cited inline.
What does “.995 fine” actually mean for IRA gold?
Fineness is the share of a coin or bar that is pure gold, expressed as a decimal. A gold bar stamped .995 is 99.5 percent gold by weight. The remaining 0.5 percent is trace metal, typically added to make the piece pour cleanly or to give a coin surface durability.
For IRA purposes, .995 is a floor rather than a target. Any gold product at .995 or above passes the purity check. A piece at .999 or .9999 passes just as cleanly. The tax code has no preference for the extra nines. It cares only that the piece meets the line.
Federal law sets a different floor for each of the four IRA-eligible metals. Silver has to be at least .999. Platinum and palladium each have to hit .9995. Gold sits at the loose end at .995 (source: 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m)(3)). See white metals in an IRA explained for how the four floors relate.
Worth knowing: the .995 stamp on a gold bar is not a certification on its own. A refiner absent from any accepted delivery list can print any number it wants on an ingot. Fineness matters because a recognized refiner stands behind it. That is the second layer covered further down.
Where the .995 gold floor comes from in federal law
The number .995 does not appear in the Internal Revenue Code. What appears is a reference to commodity markets. Section 408(m)(3)(B) permits any gold, silver, platinum, or palladium bullion at a fineness equal to or exceeding the minimum a contract market requires for delivery under a regulated futures contract (source: 26 U.S.C. Section 408).
That statutory sentence does two jobs. It lists gold among the metals allowed inside an IRA, alongside silver, platinum, and palladium. It then tethers the fineness test to whatever number the futures market uses for delivery. When the market updates its rulebook, the IRA floor moves with it.
The futures market at issue for gold is COMEX, a division of CME Group. The COMEX 100 troy ounce gold contract has long required deliverable bars at a minimum fineness of .995. That is the number self-directed IRA custodians in the U.S. apply. The IRS restates the same rule plainly in its Issue Snapshot on collectibles (source: IRS Issue Snapshot).
The IRS Snapshot pairs the fineness test with a custody test. Bullion satisfies the commodity-market fineness only if it stays in the physical possession of an IRS-approved trustee. That custody piece is why home storage of IRA gold counts as a distribution, no matter how pure the metal is.
Why the tax code borrows the COMEX gold standard
Congress had the option to write a specific purity number into Section 408(m). It chose a cross-reference instead. That drafting choice explains a few practical things about how the rule reads today.
Delivery standards drift. A regulated futures market changes its rules through public rulebook amendments, not through tax legislation. A statute anchored to a fixed number would freeze the IRA rule in place while the industry moved on. The market cross-reference lets the eligibility test track the market in real time.
The reference also brings the whole quality apparatus with it. A COMEX-deliverable gold bar has to meet an integrated specification: purity, weight, refiner accreditation, and serial-number traceability. A stamp on unaccountable metal cannot pass any part of it. Borrowing the standard borrows the whole compliance chain.
That is why a random gold ingot labeled .999 from an unknown workshop does not automatically qualify. The statute reads the market standard, and the market standard is not the number alone. See IRA-eligible gold bars for how the refiner accreditation test runs beside fineness.
How gold .995 compares to silver, platinum, and palladium
Gold has the loosest fineness test of the four IRA-eligible metals. Silver sits above at .999. Platinum and palladium share the tightest floor at .9995. The gaps look small on a page and matter more than they look at the buying stage.
A .995 gold bar is easier to produce and to trade than a .9995 platinum bar. Refiners hit the gold floor with standard commercial refining processes. That keeps the eligible gold refiner pool and the eligible gold product pool wide. It is one reason gold dominates precious-metals IRA balances, even before any market factor is considered.
The metals also differ at the coin door. Gold, silver, and platinum each get a Section 5112 carve-out for U.S. sovereign coins listed by Congress. Palladium is on the fineness list at .9995 but does not sit under the Section 5112 door. That difference is why the American Gold Eagle can qualify at .9167 while a low-purity palladium coin has no analogous escape hatch.
| Metal | Minimum fineness | Reads as | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | .995 | 99.5 percent pure | COMEX gold delivery standard via IRC 408(m)(3)(B); American Gold Eagle rides the U.S. coin carve-out at .9167 |
| Silver | .999 | 99.9 percent pure | COMEX silver delivery standard via IRC 408(m)(3)(B); American Silver Eagle also listed under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 |
| Platinum | .9995 | 99.95 percent pure | Commodity-market delivery standard via IRC 408(m)(3)(B); Platinum American Eagle listed under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 |
| Palladium | .9995 | 99.95 percent pure | Commodity-market delivery standard via IRC 408(m)(3)(B); no U.S. coin carve-out |
| Rhodium, iridium | n/a | not on the list | Not named in IRC 408(m)(3); never IRA-eligible at any fineness |
Sources: 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m); IRS Issue Snapshot on collectibles; 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 for U.S. coin specifications. Checked June 2026.
The American Gold Eagle carve-out beside the fineness test
The Gold Eagle is the clearest place to see how the two doors work together. On its face, the coin fails the .995 rule. A 22-karat alloy comes out at .9167 fine, or 91.67 percent gold. Nothing about the coin makes it qualify under the bullion test.
Section 408(m)(3)(A) opens a second door specifically for United States coins listed in 31 U.S.C. Section 5112. The Gold Eagle is one of the coins on that federal list, alongside the Silver and Platinum American Eagles. That listing is what carries the Eagle into an IRA, regardless of its purity.
This coin door is a listing test, not a purity test. It is why buyers can hold a 22-karat Eagle inside the same account that shuts out a 22-karat Krugerrand. The Krugerrand has the identical composition. Congress simply did not put it on the Section 5112 roster (source: 31 U.S.C. Section 5112).
Foreign sovereign gold coins get no equivalent U.S. door. They must clear the .995 test on purity alone. The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, the Austrian Gold Philharmonic, the Australian Gold Kangaroo, and the modern Gold Britannia each hit .9999, which passes the fineness minimum with room to spare. See the Gold Eagle carve-out and why the Krugerrand does not qualify.
Gold products that clear the .995 test
The eligible gold universe is wider than most buyers expect once the two doors are clear. Most IRA gold enters through the fineness door on the bar and foreign-coin side, since only U.S. Eagle-family coins ride the Section 5112 door.
| Product | Purity | Eligibility path |
|---|---|---|
| American Gold Eagle (1 oz and fractional) | .9167 | U.S. coin carve-out under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 only; fails bullion fineness test |
| American Gold Buffalo (1 oz) | .9999 | Bullion fineness test; also listed under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 |
| Canadian Gold Maple Leaf (1 oz and fractional) | .9999 | Bullion fineness test only |
| Austrian Gold Philharmonic (1 oz and fractional) | .9999 | Bullion fineness test only |
| Australian Gold Kangaroo (1 oz and fractional) | .9999 | Bullion fineness test only |
| British Gold Britannia (2013 onward) | .9999 | Bullion fineness test only |
| LBMA Good Delivery gold bars (PAMP, Valcambi, Argor-Heraeus, Perth Mint, Royal Canadian Mint) | .995 or higher | Bullion fineness test plus refiner accreditation |
| Approved gold rounds from LBMA-listed refiners | .9999 | Same as bars, subject to custodian acceptance |
Sources: 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m); IRS Issue Snapshot on collectibles; LBMA Good Delivery register; industry-reported mint specifications. Checked June 2026.
For each product on that list, the custodian still runs its own acceptance step against a written product spec. A written yes from the custodian, before you wire funds to the dealer, is the practical safeguard. Dealer flyers are marketing, not confirmation.
Gold products that fall below .995
A large slice of gold in circulation, including popular investment-grade coins, sits below the IRA floor. Retail buyers new to precious metals often assume any gold coin counts. It does not. The two failure patterns are 22-karat foreign sovereigns absent from Section 5112 and numismatic pieces valued on grade rather than metal.
| Product | Purity | Why it fails |
|---|---|---|
| South African Krugerrand | .9167 | 22-karat alloy under the .995 floor. Absent from 31 U.S.C. Section 5112, so no U.S. coin door opens. |
| Pre-2013 British Gold Britannia | .9167 | Older 22-karat issues fail the bullion test. Modern .9999 Britannia issues from 2013 forward do qualify on purity. |
| British Gold Sovereign | .9167 | 22-karat coinage, not listed under Section 5112. Traded on numismatic and design premium rather than bullion content. |
| Mexican 50 Peso and other .900 fine foreign coinage | .900 | 90 percent gold, below the .995 floor and absent from Section 5112. |
| Pre-1933 U.S. gold (Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, Liberty Head, Indian Head) | .900 | Traded on numismatic premium tied to grade, mint mark, and history. IRS treats these as collectibles under Section 408(m). |
| Graded or slabbed numismatic gold coins | varies | Grading prices the label and history, not the metal. IRS treats slabbed pieces as collectibles regardless of stated fineness. |
| Gold-plated or gold-clad items | surface layer only | Core metal is not gold. Fails the fineness test on its face. |
| .9999 gold from an unlisted refinery | .9999 claimed | Purity may be genuine, but custodians decline without refiner accreditation. |
Sources: 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m); IRS Issue Snapshot on collectibles; industry-reported coin specifications; LBMA Good Delivery register. Checked June 2026.
The Krugerrand deserves a specific note, since dealers still push it at IRA buyers on brand recognition. It is exactly the same 22-karat alloy as the American Gold Eagle. The Eagle rides Section 5112. The Krugerrand does not. That single line of federal statute is the entire difference. See why the Krugerrand does not qualify.
What happens if sub-.995 gold ends up in an IRA?
The tax cost of a fineness slip is not a paperwork fine. It is a taxable event, treated as if you had withdrawn the money from the IRA to buy the piece yourself.
Section 408(m) says the acquisition of a collectible by an IRA counts as a deemed distribution equal to the cost of that collectible. That distribution is ordinary income for a traditional IRA in the year the metal was bought. If you were under age 59.5 when the purchase happened, a 10 percent additional tax applies on top of the ordinary income tax (source: IRS Publication 590-B).
Picture a saver at age 56 who rolls $80,000 into a self-directed gold IRA. A pushy dealer talks them into a $20,000 lot of graded pre-1933 U.S. gold coins that a promoter said would qualify. The coins are .900 fine and not listed under Section 5112.
- The IRS treats the $20,000 purchase as a deemed distribution. It becomes ordinary income for the year.
- Assume a 24 percent federal ordinary income tax bracket. Federal income tax on the distribution is $20,000 times 24 percent, which equals $4,800.
- Because the saver is under 59.5, a 10 percent federal additional tax applies. That is $20,000 times 10 percent, which equals $2,000.
- Total federal tax cost of a single fineness slip: about $6,800, on a purchase the saver thought was IRA-legal.
State income tax on the distribution may apply on top, depending on residence. Bracket rates and exceptions vary. The figures above are illustrative, not a quote from any company. Consult a licensed tax advisor for your situation.
The other painful piece is timing. A deemed distribution is dated to the purchase, not to the audit or the discovery. A late catch means amending prior-year returns and paying interest on the tax due. See the collectibles rule and precious metals IRAs.
Enforcement of the physical-possession side of the same section is not theoretical either. In McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. 10 (2021), the U.S. Tax Court sided with the IRS against a couple who had held IRA-titled metals inside a home safe. The court applied Section 408(m)(3) and its requirement that an approved trustee keep physical possession of the metal.
How custodians and depositories verify gold fineness
The fineness test does not happen at the tax return. It happens at the custodian and the depository, before the metal ever enters the IRA. Understanding the chain of custody is how you keep an account clean.
- Custodian pre-approval on the specific product. The self-directed IRA custodian reads the product name, refiner, and stated fineness against its accepted list. A written yes is issued before funding.
- Dealer invoice matched to the pre-approval. The dealer's invoice must show the same product, weight, and refiner named in the pre-approval. Any substitution triggers a fresh review before the metal ships.
- Depository intake inspection. The approved depository logs the shipment on receipt. Staff weigh each bar or tube, then read the refiner mark and serial number against the paperwork.
- Assay card verification on sealed formats. For 1 oz and smaller assay-carded bars, the depository confirms the sealed card, the refiner logo, and the printed fineness. Broken seals get flagged for reassay.
- Chain-of-custody file retained by the custodian. The custodian keeps the dealer invoice, the depository intake record, and every serial number. That file is what an IRS auditor would ask for on review.
The point of that chain is that fineness is not a self-certification by the buyer. Two independent institutions have to sign off before the metal counts as IRA-owned bullion. That structure is also why a "home storage gold IRA" pitch fails compliance on its own terms. See gold IRA custodians and approved gold depositories.
Rollover source also matters for the funding side. The calculator below shows which retirement accounts can move into a gold IRA in the first place, so the fineness-clean metal has clean money behind it.
Can you roll your account into a precious metals IRA? Eligibility checker
Most retirement money can move into a precious metals IRA once it is an eligible rollover distribution. Pick your account and situation for a general answer. Always confirm the specifics with your plan administrator or custodian.
General guidance only, not tax or financial advice. Eligibility depends on your specific plan document and IRS rules; confirm with your plan administrator and a tax advisor. A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer avoids the 60-day rule and 20% withholding.
When the .995 stamp is not the whole story
Purity gets a lot of attention because it is easy to talk about. It is only half of the eligibility test for bars, and even for coins it is not the whole picture. Two other layers decide whether the gold actually enters your IRA.
The first layer is refiner accreditation. Bars have to come from a refiner on the LBMA Good Delivery register or a comparable list used by an approved commodity market. The LBMA states on its own site that "only gold and silver bars that meet our Good Delivery standards" trade freely in its global market (source: LBMA Good Delivery). A .9999 gold bar from an unknown refiner usually gets declined even when the purity is real.
The second layer is custody. Section 408(m)(3) requires physical possession by an IRS-approved trustee. A .995 bar sitting in a home safe is a distribution, not IRA gold. The McNulty court applied that rule directly against home storage.
Together, those two layers explain why a fineness-only pitch is usually a marketing simplification. Buyers who fixate on the .995 number miss the refiner check and the storage rule, which is where most real compliance losses happen. Federal metals markets are also under active regulator watch. In 2020 the CFTC required JPMorgan Chase and its subsidiaries to pay a total of $920.2 million to resolve spoofing that spanned gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures (source: CFTC Release 8260-20).
When fixating on fineness is a bad idea
Focusing on the .995 rule is useful up to a point. Past that point, it starts to hide the other decisions that matter more for a gold IRA. This section flags where the fineness lens misleads. There is no CTA in this section, on purpose.
- You are letting a dealer sell you graded "premium" gold at a huge markup. A graded numismatic Saint-Gaudens can be gold at .900 fineness and get sold on grade rather than metal. The grading and premium do not clear the fineness test. See the numismatic coin upsell.
- You are choosing purity over refiner accreditation. A .9999 bar from a workshop not on the LBMA list usually gets declined. A .995 bar from an LBMA Good Delivery refiner is the safer buy. Custodians reject on accreditation, not on the extra nines.
- You are chasing extra purity while ignoring premium. A .9999 sovereign coin often costs more per ounce than a .9999 bar. Higher purity does not add any tax benefit above the .995 line. On a small account, an extra premium eats a large share of the balance for no compliance gain.
- You are buying metal without a written custodian pre-approval. The purity stamp does not put the coin inside your IRA until the custodian says yes in writing. Buying first and asking after is how sub-.995 purchases end up as deemed distributions.
- You are assuming any gold coin is IRA-eligible because it is gold. Krugerrands, British Sovereigns, Mexican 50 Pesos, and pre-1933 U.S. gold all fail either the fineness test or the coin door, or both. The .995 rule is a hard line, not a suggestion.
If any of these describes your buying process, slowing down is the sensible call. The .995 rule looks simple on paper and is easy to miss in practice.
Gold fineness questions, answered
What is the fineness requirement for a gold IRA?
IRA gold has to be at least .995 fine, meaning 99.5 percent pure or better. The number comes from the COMEX gold delivery standard referenced by Section 408(m)(3)(B), not from a literal purity written into the tax code itself.
Why is .995 the gold IRA minimum?
Because .995 is the delivery standard for gold bullion on the COMEX 100 troy ounce futures contract, and Section 408(m)(3)(B) reads its fineness rule off that market standard. The cross-reference lets the IRA floor move with the market, rather than being fixed by tax legislation.
Is the American Gold Eagle IRA-eligible even at 22 karats?
Yes. The Gold Eagle sits at .9167 fine and would fail the bullion test on that alone. It qualifies through the U.S. coin carve-out in IRC Section 408(m)(3)(A), which cross-references 31 U.S.C. Section 5112. The coin must sit at an IRS-approved depository, titled to the IRA.
Is the South African Krugerrand IRA-eligible?
No. The Krugerrand is 22 karats at .9167 fineness, below the .995 bullion floor. Congress did not list it under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112, so no carve-out is available either. Buying one inside your IRA is treated as a distribution equal to cost.
Are pre-1933 U.S. gold coins IRA-eligible?
No. Pre-1933 U.S. gold coins trade at .900 fineness and on a numismatic premium tied to grade and history. They fail the .995 fineness test and do not appear on the Section 5112 carve-out list, which covers modern American Eagles. The IRS treats them as collectibles under Section 408(m).
Do I need to buy .9999 gold rather than .995?
No. Any gold at .995 or above passes the IRA fineness test. A .9999 Canadian Gold Maple Leaf costs more per ounce than an LBMA Good Delivery bar at .995 without adding any tax benefit. Extra purity is fine; it is not required for eligibility.
What happens if I buy sub-.995 gold in my IRA by mistake?
The IRS treats the purchase as a deemed distribution equal to the cost of the gold. The amount is ordinary income for the year of purchase, and a 10 percent additional tax applies if you are under age 59.5. A written custodian pre-approval before funding is the practical safeguard.
Does the .995 rule apply to gold bars and gold coins the same way?
The fineness rule applies to both. Bars must also come from a refiner on an accredited list such as LBMA Good Delivery. Coins have a second path: the U.S. coin carve-out under 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 covers the American Gold Eagle regardless of its 22-karat purity.
Sources
- Cornell Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. Section 408 (IRA rules and the 408(m) collectibles definition). Checked June 2026.
- IRS, Investments in collectibles in individually-directed qualified plan accounts (Issue Snapshot). Checked June 2026.
- IRS, Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements. Checked June 2026.
- Cornell Legal Information Institute, 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 (U.S. coin denominations and specifications). Checked June 2026.
- London Bullion Market Association, Good Delivery. Checked June 2026.
- U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Release 8260-20 (JPMorgan spoofing order, September 2020). Checked June 2026.
