These 4 gold IRA questions are answered from the tax code, IRS publications and court decisions rather than from what the category tends to say about itself. Each answer opens with the direct response, then explains the mechanism behind it, and carries the primary source underneath so you can check the reasoning rather than take ours on trust.
The list is short because a question we cannot source does not get an entry at all, which means it grows by research rather than by drafting. That is slower than writing plausible answers and it is the only version worth citing.
- Can I store gold IRA metal at home? No. Gold IRA home storage is not permitted, because section 408 requires the metal to sit with a bank or an approved trustee, and the Tax Court treated one such arrangement as a distribution of the entire account in 2021.
- Can I move a 401k to gold without penalty? Yes. A 401k to gold IRA transfer taken trustee-to-trustee triggers no tax and no penalty at any age, while the indirect route has 20% withheld at source and has to be completed inside 60 days.
- What gold is IRA approved? IRA approved gold has to be at least 99.5% fine, with a single statutory exception for the American Gold Eagle, which qualifies at 91.67% because the tax code names it.
- Can I take possession of my gold IRA? No. Gold IRA possession ends the account's tax shelter, because collecting the coins is an in-kind distribution taxed at market value on the day it ships, with a 10% penalty on top below age 59 and a half.