Guide · September 2026
Investment gold.
What gold really does in a portfolio and what it will never do; bars and coins without the VAT that is not due; where to buy, what the round trip costs, how to keep it and how to recognise fakes; the tax on sale after the 2024 rule and the right place, in percent. An independent guide for those who want an insurance, not a bet.
In 2025 gold had its best year since the 1970s (+46% in euros); in January 2026 it hit its record and in five months lost a quarter. Central banks have bought about a thousand tonnes a year on average since 2022 (863 in 2025); the Bank of Italy holds 2,452 tonnes, and explains that it keeps them as a hedge against adverse events, never for yield. Around this ancient metal, meanwhile, crowd one-gram «bars» sold with VAT, coins sold at double premiums, cash-for-gold shops paying below the fix, and a 2024 tax rule that taxes the entire proceeds of anyone who has not kept the invoice.
This guide brings order with the series' framework: the metal (what it does and does not do, the legal definition and the VAT exemption, bars and coins), the practice (the channels and the 2025 rules, price and spread, the custodies, the fakes) and the sums (the tax on sale, paper gold, a family with 32,000 euros and three roads ahead, the measure). Every number is dated and every legal reference is verified as at September 2026.
It is an independent guide: it sells neither gold nor instruments, and its thesis is simple: gold in a portfolio is an insurance, not a bet; you buy it well, keep it with the invoice, and size it. The sister guides accompany the rest of the journey.
Inside
Why gold is drawing buyers again, from central banks to families, and what it really does in a portfolio; the legal definition that decides whether VAT is due; bars and coins, with their premiums.
The four channels and the rules rewritten in 2025; the price, from the London fix to the Italian gram, with the round-trip cost; the three custodies compared; fakes, counterfeit marks and the gold that is not there.
The 26% and the 2024 rule on the invoice, the tax return, inheritance and gifts; ETCs and the other kinds of paper; a family with 32,000 euros and three roads; the pivot: how much gold, for which job. The glossary closes.
PDF · 59 pages · 13 chapters
Contents
Part One · The metal
- 01 Why gold, and why now 6
- 02 What gold does (and does not do) in a portfolio 10
- 03 Investment gold: the definition that counts 14
- 04 Bars and coins: the forms of gold 18
Part Two · Buying and keeping
- 05 Where to buy: the channels and the rules 23
- 06 The price: the fix and everything else 27
- 07 Custody: at home, in a safe-deposit box, in a vault 31
- 08 Fakes and traps 35
Part Three · The taxman and the measure
- 09 The tax treatment of physical gold 40
- 10 Paper gold: ETCs and the other routes 44
- 11 The case: 32,000 euros in gold, three roads 48
- 12 Gold's place: how much, when, for what job 51
- 13 Essential glossary 55
- Disclaimers 58
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The other guides are on the Resources page. This one also exists as the Italian edition.
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