Honeymoon Period Over for Kamala Harris Polls Show Tight Race

[sgeden]

I'm a US citizen planning to retire within the next year, and move permanently to Thailand with my Thai wife of ten years. Here's the situation: I have some of my IRA investments in physical gold; i.e. Austrian Philharmonic 1 oz .9999 pure gold coins. When it's time to close out the IRA's I will take possession of the coins, which are currently stored in the IRA's depository. I then have the option of selling them back to the US dealer I normally buy from, Apmex, at a pretty good price relative to spot, or I can take them with me to Thailand and sell them there. Now, I know there are reputable gold stores everywhere, but I don't know how they are about buying gold (confirming purity/weight, etc) and whether the actual cash in hand would be better than I'd get by selling to Apmex.

Does anybody here have experience with selling gold in Thailand? I don't want to miss out on any advantage there may be by arriving with jingly pockets versus dollars in Bank of America. Thanks!

Edited October 21, 2011 by sgeden

[flying]

As you know spot is spot worldwide so that is a wash but....

In your case APMEX is very easy to work with so if I were you

I would probably just cash in with them & use something like Bangkok Bank NY

to transfer funds.

That way you need not deal with declarations ( depending on quantity )

Also less risk of having to travel through security checks etc not to mention loss

or theft ( again depending on quantities )

nothing to be gained from traveling with the gold unless of course you are trying to keep

things quiet for other reasons. Since it is a IRA I am guessing it is all above board so no worries.

[terryp]

Who would you sell them to over here?, unless you find a coin collector or other Farang wanting them as an investment;I think it would be very difficult to find a Gold shop willing to buy if so they would want at least 10% of given price in commission..and price given would most likely be just above scrap

Makes no sense to fly half way round the Earth with them when you will get the best price from your dealer in the US

Sorry missed this: versus dollars in Bank of America

Have you been watching the News BoA (doing a deal now with the FED over toxic mortgages and will badly damage them)so get your money out of the Rothschild House or it might just vanish!!

Edited October 22, 2011 by terryp

[burgdawg]

sgeden...

better off selling your gold in USA, where you will get the market price.

I hope the following info will be of assistance and do not mean any threadjack. More as an addendum to Tai/USA banking.

You can bring in a cashier's check on your person for a large amount, your call.

The stated limit by US Immigration is $10k USD, do not exceed this amount if you wish to keep things clean.

am with terryp on the bank issue....open another Bank account in USA NOW!

Not tomorrow, today. BofA is creaky. Google it up if you want to know more of their shady dealings.

Does "CountryWide" ring a bell? It should, as their ghost mortgages is what is sinking BofA.

When you are shopping for a new bank account to deal with USA contingencies, be sure to suss out (investigate) their Debit/ATM card policies.

BofA debit/ATM is lousy. Never do a foreign transaction through BofA. I looked into BofA transfer of USD to my Thai bank for $5k USD.

BofA wanted almost $300 in fees!

BofA Debit/ATM card: ridicuous and they will leave you stranded. When the BofA debit card would work, you are limited to a daily withdrawl for 20k baht per 24 hour period.

Your Tai Bank will charge you 150 b ($5 USD) on the Tai end. BofA charges two fees for each transaction: $5 off the top and 1% of your amount withdrawn.

20k baht withdrawl at 30 exchange rate will give you $666 USD. Minus your ATM fee of $16.60. Make sense? Instead of having $666 USD in your hands, you really have $649.40

Part of your transition to Prathet Tai is "to live like a Tai" and wasting money-ngun-baht is shameless.

Skip the Tai ATM bank fee by going with Aeon in Thailand and getting a no charge Debit/ATM in USA.

Yes, you will still be charged 1%, but you cut your expenses by 66%

FYI: BofA starting January 1, 2012 will charge each Debit/ATM holder $5/USD per month or $60 USD per year just to access money that is theirs.

Wait, it gets worse! Every 90 days, you MUST call BofA from Thailand and go through a grueling "re-indentify program" if you wish to keep your card current.

Lotsa stupid security hoops.

I did this last season in the Kingdom and BofA munched my card. Yes, kept it. Try this on a 35C/95F day in the sun and Tai heat. I needed baht and the ATM machine swallowed my card!

How? Why? You do not want to go through this, trust me.

The BofA bonehead who "recertified" me inadvertently canceled my ATM card! What you do? EVERY bank and credit card company has a "Client of Customer Escalation." All will deny the existence of this office.

It exists. Next time you have any credit card or bank mistake, once you get through voice mail jail, calmly ask for their "client of customer escalation." No swearing, no anger, no attitude.

You will get patched through.

The person on the other end of the phone will cheerfully want to help you. Ask her for her FULL NAME and EXTENSION. You just served notice that her job is on the line and you get booted to

the client of customer escalation! These folks have brains and the computer codes to make their mess go away. BofA FedEx'd a new debit card to me in Thailand from Singapore.

I kept track of ALL EXPENSES relating to BofA's mistake and once I got to USA, had them refund $338 USD to me.

Hey, hats off to BofA for treating me right. I canceled my Debit/ATM card with as soon as I was back in USA, whew.

BofA has the best online BillPay system out there, I know, I've tried them all. I still use BofA for BillPay, but canceled their Debit/ATM card.

You had better cancel your card prior to January1, 2012, or face charges. Plenty of banks in USA will allow you to use your Debit/ATM card in Asia

or anywhere in the world without pricey fees.

Get a Capital One Credit card at www.capitalone.com

Why? No 3% transaction fee, they charge you 1%. Sweet.

Am Express Black Card does this as well.

On all credit cards, you must call them before USA departure to alert them of your travel plans.

Be smart and locate an Aeon Bank in the Kingdom (do a thai visa research as this has been covered). Aeon is a Japanese bank and doesn't charge the 150b fee on the Tai end.

If you locate a smart USA bank, you can skip their $5 transaction fee.

Hope this helps.....

[sgeden]

Who would you sell them to over here?, unless you find a coin collector or other Farang wanting them as an investment;I think it would be very difficult to find a Gold shop willing to buy if so they would want at least 10% of given price in commission..and price given would most likely be just above scrap

Makes no sense to fly half way round the Earth with them when you will get the best price from your dealer in the US

Sorry missed this: versus dollars in Bank of America

Have you been watching the News BoA (doing a deal now with the FED over toxic mortgages and will badly damage them)so get your money out of the Rothschild House or it might just vanish!!

I can't argue with either of those points....just needed to confirm with someone who knows the territory.

That said, I guess I'll cash out with Apmex & move the funds to a more appropriate bank. I'm sure there's good info here at Thaivisa......will do some homework in the biz & banking forums. Ideally, there's an institution that issues a debit card that works in the US and the Kingdom, without ridiculous fees.

Thanks much to all who've provided valuable info.

S

[CaptHaddock]

How do you hold physical gold in an IRA account? All IRA investments have to be approved by the IRS. I would be surprised if the IRS permits you to hold gold coins in an IRA and have physical possession at the same time. If you do hold gold coins in an IRA and your holdings conform to IRS regulations, you should get competent tax advice. The capital gains rate on gold coins, which are collectibles, is 28%. This may be higher or lower than your marginal income tax rate. You may want to consider liquidating the coins while still in the IRA, if that's possible and I don't know how it could be. Then there would be no capital gains tax, just the income tax on the distribution from the IRA. The alternative, taking the coins themselves as a distribution, might have different tax consequences.

[flying]

How do you hold physical gold in an IRA account? All IRA investments have to be approved by the IRS. I would be surprised if the IRS permits you to hold gold coins in an IRA and have physical possession at the same time. If you do hold gold coins in an IRA and your holdings conform to IRS regulations, you should get competent tax advice. The capital gains rate on gold coins, which are collectibles, is 28%. This may be higher or lower than your marginal income tax rate. You may want to consider liquidating the coins while still in the IRA, if that's possible and I don't know how it could be. Then there would be no capital gains tax, just the income tax on the distribution from the IRA. The alternative, taking the coins themselves as a distribution, might have different tax consequences.

US allows a physical gold IRA made up of 24k bars or coins with the 22k American Gold Eagles being the exception & also allowed. Actually teh Silver eagles are also allowed. Both due to the US minting

You do not hold the coins but there are Two US approved custodians/companies.

(last I checked...there may be more now)

The fact that you do not hold them personally is why I never used a Gold IRA.

But it appears to have served the OP well.

Edited October 23, 2011 by flying

[Langsuan Man]

Get a Capital One Credit card at www.capitalone.com

Why? No 3% transaction fee, they charge you 1%. Sweet.

Wrong. No Foreign Exchange fee at all for Capital One Credit cards, and they pay you 1% of amount spent

Also the OP will have to report if the IRA is a Roth IRA, in which taxes have already been paid or is it a straight IRA which will require taxes to be paid as regular income (no capital gains or loss allowed)

Edited October 24, 2011 by Langsuan Man