Arkansas gold and silver money law

Arkansas exempts sales of coins, currency, and bullion made in whole or in part of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium from the gross receipts (sales) tax and the compensating use tax, under Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-52-454. The statute requires the item be used solely as a medium of exchange, security, or commodity by a state, the United States government, or a foreign nation and sold based on its intrinsic value rather than its form. There is no purity threshold and no dollar transaction minimum. The only carve out is that coin or currency incorporated into jewelry does not qualify, a limit that describes an item other than an ordinary bullion or coin purchase and so does not make the exemption conditional under this record's standard.

Gold and silver are recognized as legal tender in Arkansas and that recognition is in force.

Ark. Code Ann. Section 4-56-106, created by Act 595 of 2023 (HB1718) and amended by Act 810 of 2025 (HB1918); the original section has been in force since 2023 and the 2025 amendment took effect in early August 2025

Since 2023, Ark. Code Ann. Section 4-56-106(d) has provided that the exchange of one type or form of legal tender for another does not give rise to any tax liability, and separately that the purchase, sale, or exchange of any type or form of "specie", meaning coin with gold or silver content or refined gold or silver bullion coined, stamped, or imprinted with its weight and purity, does not give rise to any tax liability. This sits in the legal tender title of the Arkansas Code rather than the income tax title, and it reads as an unconditional bar on taxing specie transactions rather than a line item subtraction on a return. The 2025 amendment that added the bullion depository and electronic payment provisions left this subsection untouched. This record could not locate a Department of Finance and Administration income tax bulletin, form instruction, or legal opinion that separately implements or cross references subsection (d), so how it is administered on an individual return is not independently confirmed beyond the statute's own text.

Arkansas recognized gold and silver as legal tender before the 2025 wave that reached Florida and Missouri. The "Arkansas Legal Tender Act," House Bill 1718 of 2023, created Ark. Code Ann. Section 4-56-106, defining specie as coin with gold or silver content or refined bullion coined or stamped with its weight and purity. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed it on April 11, 2023. The same section states plainly that exchanging one form of legal tender for another creates no tax liability, and that purchasing, selling, or exchanging specie in any form creates no tax liability, language that sits in the legal tender title of the Arkansas Code rather than the income tax title but that functions as a broad bar on taxing specie transactions.

Arkansas's sales tax exemption for bullion is older still and separate from the legal tender statute. Senate Bill 336 of 2021, Act 1109, created Ark. Code Ann. Section 26-52-454, exempting coins, currency, and bullion made of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium from the state gross receipts tax and compensating use tax, provided the item is sold for its intrinsic value rather than its form. The statute carries no purity floor and no dollar minimum; its only exclusion is coin or currency that has been incorporated into jewelry, which describes something other than a bullion or coin purchase. Arkansas has no department of revenue; its tax agency is the Department of Finance and Administration, and that department's own published list of sales tax exemptions includes this provision by section number as item 118.

House Bill 1918 of 2025, Act 810, expanded the 2023 legal tender statute rather than creating legal tender status from nothing. It added definitions for "bullion," a London Bullion Market Association accredited "bullion depository," and a "precious metals-backed electronic payment system," and it sharpened the earlier, vaguer clause allowing specie to pay debts into language specifically allowing specie to pay private debts and government taxes and fees, but only where the receiving government agrees to accept physical gold or silver. The Chief Fiscal Officer of the State must write rules touching vendor payment elections, account security, cost allocation between parties, the sufficiency of specie held by accredited depositories, and authorization of electronic payment system vendors. The Senate passed the bill 33 to 0 and the House 89 to 1; the Governor signed it April 17, 2025. The act carries no emergency clause, so its effective date runs not from the signing but from the close of the session: Arkansas acts of this kind take effect ninety days after sine die adjournment, which for the 2025 regular session fell on May 5, 2025, putting Act 810 in force in early August 2025.

Nothing in either the 2023 or 2025 text establishes a depository operated by the state itself, and nothing requires the Chief Fiscal Officer personally to contract with one. The 2025 act's depository language is a regulatory and authorization framework for privately accredited vaults used by electronic payment system vendors, not a Texas style state agency holding reserves.