TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (March 26, 2025) – Yesterday, a Florida Senate committee unanimously passed a bill that would treat gold and silver more like money by expanding the state sales tax exemption on bullion.
Under the current Florida tax code, the sale of gold, silver, and platinum bullion is exempt from the state sales tax if the total transaction is greater than $500. Senate Bill 134 (S134), filed by Sen. Ana Rodriguez, would remove the $500 limit and exempt the sale of all gold, silver, and platinum bullion from the sales tax.
On March 25, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed S134 by a 9-0 vote.
IMPACT
Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs.
Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill, and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what a sales tax on gold and silver bullion does. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, states treat gold and silver specie more like money. This supports the use of gold and silver in transactions and breaks down the Fed’s monopoly on 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 Ron Paul said during testimony in support of an Arizona bill that repealed capital gains taxes on gold and silver in that state.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.
BACKGROUND
The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in most states 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 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.
This not only devalues your purchasing power over time; it also allows the federal government to borrow and spend far beyond what would be possible in a sound money system. Without the Fed, the U.S. government wouldn’t be able to maintain all of its unconstitutional wars and programs. The Federal Reserve is the engine that drives the most powerful government in the history of the world.
State laws that facilitate and encourage the use of sound money create a playing field where people can push back against the Fed’s monetary malfeasance. Ultimately, it could create a scenario where people can drive out the “bad” fiat money with “good” sound money.
WHAT’S NEXT
S134 now moves to the Senate Finance and Tax Committee, where it will need to get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.
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