JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Dec. 20, 2024) – Two bills filed in the Missouri House would officially recognize gold and silver as legal tender, eliminate state capital gains taxes on both, and ban support for any federal confiscation schemes.
Rep. Bill Hardwick introduced House Bill 433 (HB433). Under the “The Constitutional Money Act,” gold and silver would be accepted as legal tender in physical or electronic form, and would be receivable in payment of all debts contracted for in the state of Missouri. The bill is a companion to Senate Bill 25 (SB25).
Rep. Michael Davis filed a similar bill, House Bill 630 (HB630). It includes the same language as HB433 along with an additional provision to establish state gold and silver reserves.
Under the proposed law, the state would be required to accept gold and silver for the payment of public debts. Private debts could be settled in gold and silver at the parties’ discretion. The proposed law would also permit any entity doing business in this state to compensate its employees, in full or in part, in the dollar equivalent specie legal tender either in physical or in electronic transfer form.
The Director of the Department of Revenue would be tasked with “promulgating rules on the methods of acceptance of specie legal tender as payment for any debt, tax, fee, or obligation owed.”
The passage of HB433 or HB630 would make Missouri the sixth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender, as they always should have been doing. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana have since joined.
IN PRACTICE
The passage of HB433 or HB630 would allow Missouri residents to use gold or silver in physical or electronic form as money rather than as mere investment vehicles.
Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution for the United States expressly prohibits states from [making] “any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Virtually all debts in Missouri are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury – very few of which have gold or silver in them.
The Federal Reserve destroys this constitutional monetary system by creating a monetary monopoly based on its fiat paper currency. Without the backing of gold or silver, the central bank can easily create money out of thin air.
Passage of The Constitutional Money Act would represent a big first step against this fiat-based Federal Reserve system by creating a foundation to pull the rug out from under it on the state and local levels. In essence, it would set the stage for the people themselves to undermine the Federal Reserve monopoly by introducing competition into the monetary system.
The next step would be for people to start taking advantage of the status of gold and silver as money by using both as such instead of Federal Reserve notes.
The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the Specie Legal Tender Act opened the door for the development of a robust gold and silver economy in the state. With some legal hurdles cleared away by the Act, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.”
The Act has also led to the creation of the Goldback, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.
REMOVING TAXES
HB433 and HB630 would also exempt the sale of gold and silver bullion from the state’s capital gains tax.
Missouri is already one of 45 states that do not levy sales tax on gold and silver bullion. Exempting the sale of bullion from capital gains taxes takes another step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities. Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs.
Imagine if the IRS sent you a bill every time the dollar strengthened against the euro. That’s effectively what capital gains taxes on gold and silver do. As the precious metals prices go up due to the devaluation of the dollar, the government levies a tax on you. It is essentially a tax on the superior performance of gold and silver as money.
“We ought not to tax money – and that’s a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money,” former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said during testimony in support of an Arizona bill that repealed capital gains taxes on gold and silver in that state. “Paper is not money, it’s fraud,” he continued.
FEDERAL CONFISCATION SCHEMES
HB433 and HB630 include provisions prohibiting any state or local cooperation with federal actions to confiscate gold or silver or that interfere with a person’s right to use legal tender in Missouri.
“Under no circumstance shall the state of Missouri or any department, agency, court, political subdivision, or instrumentality thereof enforce or attempt to enforce any federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, rules, regulations, statutes, or ordinances infringing on the right of a person to keep and use specie legal tender and electronic currency as provided in this section.”
The provisions prohibiting the state from enforcing or implementing certain federal acts rest on a well-established legal principle known as the anti-commandeering doctrine. Simply put, the federal government cannot force states to help implement or enforce any federal act or program – whether constitutional or not. The anti-commandeering doctrine is based primarily on five Supreme Court cases dating back to 1842.
Based on James Madison’s four-step blueprint for states and individuals to stop federal programs, using a “refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union” provides an extremely effective method to render federal laws unenforceable in practice because most enforcement actions rely on material support from the states.
WHAT’S NEXT
HB433 and HB630 will be referred to committees after the legislature convenes on Jan. 8.
- Constitutional Money Act Filed in Missouri House - December 20, 2024
- South Carolina Bill Would Limit Government Use of ALPRs - December 18, 2024
- Oklahoma Bill Would Create State Bullion Depository - December 18, 2024