Idaho gold and silver money law

Idaho Administrative Code Rule 35.01.02.039, the Idaho State Tax Commission rule implementing Idaho Code Section 63-3622V, exempts sales and purchases of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion from sales tax. It defines precious metal bullion as an elementary precious metal, including gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and chromium, that has been put through a process of smelting or refining and that is in a state or condition where its value depends on its content rather than its form, and it defines monetized bullion as a coin made of gold, silver, or other metals that has been, is, or will be used as a medium of exchange under the laws of Idaho, the United States, or a foreign nation. Ingots are exempt on the same terms. The rule's only carve-outs are for coins or money sold for use in manufacturing jewelry or other decorative items, and for coins whose value is determined by a collector or numismatic premium rather than by metal content, neither of which describes an ordinary retail bullion or currency coin purchase. No purity percentage and no dollar minimum or maximum appears in the rule or in the statute it implements, so this record classes Idaho as a full exemption. This record could not directly load legislature.idaho.gov or tax.idaho.gov, both of which refused connections from this research environment, so the underlying text of Idaho Code 63-3622V itself is cited here only through the Idaho State Tax Commission's administrative rule as mirrored on Cornell's Legal Information Institute, not from the statute's own official page.

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

Idaho Constitutional Money Act of 2025, House Bill 177, 2025 Session Law Chapter 107, effective July 1, 2025

House Bill 40 of the 2025 Regular Session, enacted as Session Law Chapter 13 and made retroactive to January 1, 2025, amended Idaho's individual income tax statute to back out of Idaho taxable income any net capital gain or loss that meets the statutory definition of precious metal bullion or monetized bullion under Idaho Code 63-3622V, the same definition used for the sales tax exemption. The bill passed as part of a broader package that also lowered Idaho's individual income tax rate and exempted certain military retirement benefits. This record could not load the enrolled bill text directly, since legislature.idaho.gov refused connections and legiscan.com blocked automated retrieval of the underlying PDF; the description above rests on LegiScan's official bill summary and status history rather than on the bill's own operative language, and this record does not claim a specific Idaho Code section number for the new subtraction beyond the Session Law chapter citation.

Idaho enacted two sound money measures within weeks of each other in 2025, on top of a sales tax exemption for bullion that already dated back decades. House Bill 177, the Idaho Constitutional Money Act of 2025, adds to Idaho law that gold and silver coin and specie are legal tender in the state and that no one may be compelled to tender or accept them except as a contract provides. It passed the House 66 to 3 and the Senate unanimously 35 to 0, and Governor Brad Little signed it on March 19, 2025. The act took effect July 1, 2025, and by this page's verification date that effective date has arrived, so gold and silver coin and specie are legal tender in Idaho as a matter of currently operative law, not merely an enacted but pending statute.

House Bill 40, signed two weeks earlier on March 6, 2025, addressed the income tax side. As part of a larger tax package that also cut Idaho's individual income tax rate and exempted some military pay, it removed from Idaho taxable income any net capital gain or loss that fits the statutory definition of precious metal bullion or monetized bullion already used for the sales tax exemption, with the change made retroactive to January 1, 2025. Idaho's capital gains treatment for bullion is therefore tied to the same bullion and monetized bullion definitions that drive its sales tax exemption, rather than to the newly enacted legal tender status of coin and specie.

Underneath both 2025 bills sits a sales tax exemption that predates them. Idaho Administrative Code Rule 35.01.02.039 implements Idaho Code 63-3622V by exempting sales and purchases of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion, defining the former by metal content after smelting or refining and the latter as coin used as a medium of exchange, with ingots covered on the same terms. Its only exclusions reach coins bought for jewelry or decorative use and coins sold at a collector premium over their metal value, categories a straightforward bullion or currency coin purchase would not fall into. No purity percentage and no transaction size limit appears anywhere in the rule.