People in the UK can as of April 2006 make a gold bullion investment using their Self-Invested Personal Pensions (Sipps). Sipps have been around for a few years now and let you hold your investments until your retirement in a tax efficient manner. Sipps were created for individuals who want to carry out their own investment purchases. If you make an investment in Gold, it would be topped up in the form of tax relief. This means people would get around 40% depending on their other incomes.
Gold bullion is allowed in your Sipp investments, but the quality has to be very high. The gold must be 99.5% pure which is not a problem for reputable gold bullion dealers. The bullion must stored in a 3rd party secure area, which is advisable for most gold investments. You cannot ‘take possesion’ of you bullion. As soon as you take possession it becomes very difficult to resell and is against the Sipps terms and conditions.
