Serpo
24th June 2013, 03:39 PM
How to get free offshore gold storage in Singapore April 18, 2013 · By Andrew Henderson (http://nomadcapitalist.com/author/admin/) · 1 Comment (http://nomadcapitalist.com/2013/04/18/how-to-get-free-offshore-gold-storage-in-singapore/#wp-comments)
Reporting from: Singapore
The government of Singapore has been busy in recent years. Not content to be the world’s second most free economy, it has set out on a mission to take the world bullion market by storm.
Whereas this tiny southeast Asian country now holds between 1-2% of the world’s bullion, authorities here have made it their goal to achieve 10% of that pie within just five years. That’s a six-fold increase.
The ways the Singapore government is doing this speak highly as to their commitment to economic freedom. Quite frankly, they just get it. They understand why people do the things they do and why capital reacts the way it does.
As a large offshore financial center, Singapore is working to become the world’s best place to invest. They make it so easy here. Corruption is low, regulation is minimal, and the tax structure is among the best in Asia. Not to mention it looks a lot better to your home government to be doing business in Singapore than some banana republic tax haven.
The first thing the Singapore did was to eliminate taxes on bullion purchases. Traditionally, bullion was taxed at the normal 7% Goods and Services Tax rate – basically a VAT or national sales tax. There was one way to get around that by trading and storing your metals at the Singapore FreePort by the airport, but it limited your options.
As of October 1, 2012, however, the government has eliminated that tax and purchases of “investment grade” bullion are now tax-free. That means gold Maple Leafs, Philharmonics, Buffalos, gold bars, and most silver products are now exempt from tax when buying or selling. (Gold American Eagles are not of high enough purity to fall under the “investment grade” criteria).
Singapore has also made it easy to get your gold into and out of the country. Customs doesn’t even require to know the beneficial owner of your precious metals when they pass through the airport. Try pulling that off in a place like the United States. Authorities here view gold and silver as commodities, not reportable currency, so there are presumably lower reporting requirements when bringing your gold with you. (Though you should always double check with the appropriate authorities just in case.)
However, you may not even need to bring your gold with you. After all, why risk the ire of your own country’s customs officer who may not have gotten a good night’s sleep? As part of Singapore’s push to dramatically increase its position in the bullion markets, it is encouraging local start-ups to enter the bullion business and make metals more accessible. Spreads here, while not as narrow as Hong Kong, are reasonable. Unlike Hong Kong, you can find a wide selection of coins, including silver, which Chinese investors tend to shun.
Most major banks don’t sell precious metals, and the one that does – UOB – only does so for account holders. You can’t get a retail bank account at UOB as a foreigner unless you join their Privilege Banking program with a minimum S$350,000 (US$283,000). But bullion shops are popping up, including one reasonably priced one at a local mall right in the central business district near Chinatown. And pawnshops sell gold, as well; in fact, on news of the recent drop in gold prices, residents of Little India here formed a veritable mob on such shops seeking to stock up on gold.
One company, BullionStar, is a relatively new start-up which promises to store your metals purchases in Singapore for two years for absolutely free. They have their own segregated facility in eastern Singapore where each customer’s purchases are stored in their own sealed bag. And none of the bags contain name identification of the owner.
What’s most exciting about BullionStar is not only that they’ll store any gold or silver your purchase from them for free for the first two years (they claim to hope to keep it free forever), but that they’ll do it no matter how much you buy. I met with the manager Zane Lim, who says he has a number of customers buying less than $100 worth of metals, with some only buying a single one-ounce silver coin. He says the company is happy to store even the smallest of purchases to give investors a taste of offshore gold storage (or silver storage) as the company grows. If you have a limited amount to invest, or just want to dip your toe in with storing gold out of your own country, this may be a very attractive option to you.
Meanwhile at the Singapore FreePort, the world’s affluent have been storing high-end valuables from art (Christie’s has a vault here) to cars to gold. I also met with Joshua Rotbart who runs Malca-Amit’s gold operation here. The FreePort is an amazing place with security measures fit for James Bond himself. You need a keycard to get into about four different places before you can even use the backscatter machines to get to the secured elevators.
Malca-Amit has a long history as a logistics company. If you have a substantial amount of gold, they’ll help you ship it to Singapore, where again, Customs really doesn’t care who owns it as long as the declarations form is filled out correctly. If you have enough gold, they can carry it on an armored vehicle on a secure road right from Changi Airport. Then, they’ll store it in their own segregated vault in your choice of your own safe, your own cafe, or just out in the open somewhere in the vault.
For smaller amounts of metals, you can open a sort of safe deposit box with Malca-Amit. It isn’t free like BullionStar, but security is extremely intense here. A small box that holds 5kg runs about S$1,000 (US$810) a year. You do need to fill out an application form with them, so there’s no anonymous gold storage in Singapore they way you could get in Austria, for instance. But if security if your top priority, you can’t get any better than the FreePort.
The good news is that Singapore is an extremely safe jurisdiction. I walked around town and in crowded subways carrying my MacBook as well as other valuables and never felt unsafe for a moment. I certainly wouldn’t do that in many neighboring countries. And that’s why many of the wealthy in southeast Asia – as well as the west – are flocking to Singapore to store their gold.
While I don’t give tax advice, neither of these facilities are regulated as banks in Singapore. In fact, they’re lightly regulated at all. That’s not to say they aren’t credible, but the government here just doesn’t care to put businesses through a bunch of hoops. They know that if they did, gold owners would go elsewhere… simple as that.
To reach BullionStar about their free gold and silver storage, call Zane Lim at +65 6284 4653 or online (http://www.bullionstar.com). For storing gold in the Singapore FreePort, contact Joshua Rotbart at +65 6587 9135 or online (http://www.malca-amit-freeport.com). As always, the opinions I offer are exactly that. Make sure to do your own due diligence on these operations to make sure you feel comfortable with them holding your investment.
http://nomadcapitalist.com/2013/04/18/how-to-get-free-offshore-gold-storage-in-singapore/
Reporting from: Singapore
The government of Singapore has been busy in recent years. Not content to be the world’s second most free economy, it has set out on a mission to take the world bullion market by storm.
Whereas this tiny southeast Asian country now holds between 1-2% of the world’s bullion, authorities here have made it their goal to achieve 10% of that pie within just five years. That’s a six-fold increase.
The ways the Singapore government is doing this speak highly as to their commitment to economic freedom. Quite frankly, they just get it. They understand why people do the things they do and why capital reacts the way it does.
As a large offshore financial center, Singapore is working to become the world’s best place to invest. They make it so easy here. Corruption is low, regulation is minimal, and the tax structure is among the best in Asia. Not to mention it looks a lot better to your home government to be doing business in Singapore than some banana republic tax haven.
The first thing the Singapore did was to eliminate taxes on bullion purchases. Traditionally, bullion was taxed at the normal 7% Goods and Services Tax rate – basically a VAT or national sales tax. There was one way to get around that by trading and storing your metals at the Singapore FreePort by the airport, but it limited your options.
As of October 1, 2012, however, the government has eliminated that tax and purchases of “investment grade” bullion are now tax-free. That means gold Maple Leafs, Philharmonics, Buffalos, gold bars, and most silver products are now exempt from tax when buying or selling. (Gold American Eagles are not of high enough purity to fall under the “investment grade” criteria).
Singapore has also made it easy to get your gold into and out of the country. Customs doesn’t even require to know the beneficial owner of your precious metals when they pass through the airport. Try pulling that off in a place like the United States. Authorities here view gold and silver as commodities, not reportable currency, so there are presumably lower reporting requirements when bringing your gold with you. (Though you should always double check with the appropriate authorities just in case.)
However, you may not even need to bring your gold with you. After all, why risk the ire of your own country’s customs officer who may not have gotten a good night’s sleep? As part of Singapore’s push to dramatically increase its position in the bullion markets, it is encouraging local start-ups to enter the bullion business and make metals more accessible. Spreads here, while not as narrow as Hong Kong, are reasonable. Unlike Hong Kong, you can find a wide selection of coins, including silver, which Chinese investors tend to shun.
Most major banks don’t sell precious metals, and the one that does – UOB – only does so for account holders. You can’t get a retail bank account at UOB as a foreigner unless you join their Privilege Banking program with a minimum S$350,000 (US$283,000). But bullion shops are popping up, including one reasonably priced one at a local mall right in the central business district near Chinatown. And pawnshops sell gold, as well; in fact, on news of the recent drop in gold prices, residents of Little India here formed a veritable mob on such shops seeking to stock up on gold.
One company, BullionStar, is a relatively new start-up which promises to store your metals purchases in Singapore for two years for absolutely free. They have their own segregated facility in eastern Singapore where each customer’s purchases are stored in their own sealed bag. And none of the bags contain name identification of the owner.
What’s most exciting about BullionStar is not only that they’ll store any gold or silver your purchase from them for free for the first two years (they claim to hope to keep it free forever), but that they’ll do it no matter how much you buy. I met with the manager Zane Lim, who says he has a number of customers buying less than $100 worth of metals, with some only buying a single one-ounce silver coin. He says the company is happy to store even the smallest of purchases to give investors a taste of offshore gold storage (or silver storage) as the company grows. If you have a limited amount to invest, or just want to dip your toe in with storing gold out of your own country, this may be a very attractive option to you.
Meanwhile at the Singapore FreePort, the world’s affluent have been storing high-end valuables from art (Christie’s has a vault here) to cars to gold. I also met with Joshua Rotbart who runs Malca-Amit’s gold operation here. The FreePort is an amazing place with security measures fit for James Bond himself. You need a keycard to get into about four different places before you can even use the backscatter machines to get to the secured elevators.
Malca-Amit has a long history as a logistics company. If you have a substantial amount of gold, they’ll help you ship it to Singapore, where again, Customs really doesn’t care who owns it as long as the declarations form is filled out correctly. If you have enough gold, they can carry it on an armored vehicle on a secure road right from Changi Airport. Then, they’ll store it in their own segregated vault in your choice of your own safe, your own cafe, or just out in the open somewhere in the vault.
For smaller amounts of metals, you can open a sort of safe deposit box with Malca-Amit. It isn’t free like BullionStar, but security is extremely intense here. A small box that holds 5kg runs about S$1,000 (US$810) a year. You do need to fill out an application form with them, so there’s no anonymous gold storage in Singapore they way you could get in Austria, for instance. But if security if your top priority, you can’t get any better than the FreePort.
The good news is that Singapore is an extremely safe jurisdiction. I walked around town and in crowded subways carrying my MacBook as well as other valuables and never felt unsafe for a moment. I certainly wouldn’t do that in many neighboring countries. And that’s why many of the wealthy in southeast Asia – as well as the west – are flocking to Singapore to store their gold.
While I don’t give tax advice, neither of these facilities are regulated as banks in Singapore. In fact, they’re lightly regulated at all. That’s not to say they aren’t credible, but the government here just doesn’t care to put businesses through a bunch of hoops. They know that if they did, gold owners would go elsewhere… simple as that.
To reach BullionStar about their free gold and silver storage, call Zane Lim at +65 6284 4653 or online (http://www.bullionstar.com). For storing gold in the Singapore FreePort, contact Joshua Rotbart at +65 6587 9135 or online (http://www.malca-amit-freeport.com). As always, the opinions I offer are exactly that. Make sure to do your own due diligence on these operations to make sure you feel comfortable with them holding your investment.
http://nomadcapitalist.com/2013/04/18/how-to-get-free-offshore-gold-storage-in-singapore/