Gold IRA RMDs: Sell the Metal or Take the Coins Before Dec. 31?

If you hold gold or silver in a traditional IRA and you're 73 or older, you have a required minimum distribution (RMD) to take for 2026, and the deadline for most owners is December 31. With a stock IRA, that's a few clicks. With metal sitting in a depository, it takes more planning: you either have the custodian sell some metal and send you cash, or you take coins and bars out “in kind.” Both work. They are taxed the same way going out, but they lead to different results afterward.

This is general education based on IRS Publication 590-B (the 2025 edition, current as of November 2026) and the 2026 instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498. It isn't tax advice. Check your numbers with your custodian and a tax professional.

The basic rules

• Who: owners of traditional IRAs, including self-directed precious metals IRAs. Under Publication 590-B, if you reached 72 after December 31, 2022, your required beginning date is April 1 of the year after you turn 73. Original owners of Roth IRAs don't take RMDs. Inherited IRAs have their own rules, which this article doesn't cover.
• When: your first RMD can wait until April 1 of the following year. Every later RMD is due by December 31. If you delay the first one, you take two in the same year.
• How much: the IRA's balance on December 31 of last year, divided by the factor for your age in the IRS table that applies to you. For most owners that's the Uniform Lifetime Table in Appendix B of Publication 590-B: 26.5 at age 73, 24.6 at 75, 20.2 at 80. Your custodian must either report the RMD amount to you or offer to calculate it.
• If you miss it: the IRS FAQ on RMDs says the shortfall may be subject to a 25% excise tax, reduced to 10% if you correct it in time, reported on Form 5329 (IRS RMD FAQs).

You may not have to touch the metal at all

This is the rule most metal IRA owners overlook. Publication 590-B says that if you own more than one traditional IRA, you figure a separate RMD for each, “However, you can total these minimum amounts and take the total from any one or more of the IRAs.”

So if you also have a traditional IRA at a brokerage holding cash or funds, you can take the precious metals IRA's RMD from that account and leave the metal where it is. The metal IRA's balance still counts in the total. This aggregation rule applies among your traditional IRAs; workplace plans such as 401(k)s are figured and taken separately.

What “balance” means for metal

The RMD is based on the account's fair market value on December 31. The 2026 Form 5498 instructions tell custodians to report that value and caution that they are “responsible for ensuring that all IRA assets (including those not traded on established markets or not having a readily determinable market value) are valued annually at their FMV.”

What the instructions don't say is which price a custodian should use for coins and bars: spot, a dealer's bid, or something else. Practices vary, and we haven't found IRS guidance that settles it. The difference matters. A custodian that values at spot will usually show a higher balance, and a higher RMD, than one that values at what a dealer would actually pay. Ask your custodian how it values your holdings, and compare that with what a dealer would pay today.

Option 1: sell metal inside the IRA

The custodian, usually through a dealer it works with, sells enough metal to cover the RMD and sends you cash. The cash is taxable as ordinary income, like any traditional IRA distribution.

• You sell at the dealer's bid. The price you get is what the custodian's dealer pays, not spot. Ask for the bid before you approve the sale. See what dealers actually pay on sell-back.
• Leave time. Liquidation, settlement, and payment take days. Custodians often set their own year-end cutoffs for distribution requests that are earlier than December 31. Check yours now.
• Withholding. IRA distributions are generally subject to federal income tax withholding unless you choose otherwise; ask your custodian how it applies.

Option 2: take the metal in kind

The custodian ships coins or bars from the depository to you. That counts as a distribution of property, and the 2026 Form 1099-R instructions tell payers to report the fair market value of property distributed. You owe ordinary income tax on that value, the same as if it were cash.

• The distribution is valued on the distribution date, not December 31. Ask what price the custodian will use and get it in writing with the shipment.
• Your basis in the metal is generally that fair market value, because you paid income tax on it, and your holding period generally starts when you receive it. Keep the 1099-R and the custodian's valuation. If you later sell after holding more than a year, the gain is collectibles gain, taxed at up to 28%. See our capital gains guide for gold and silver.
• The tax still needs cash. Taking coins doesn't produce money to pay the income tax on them. Withholding on a property distribution has to come from somewhere; ask your custodian whether it needs cash in the account or from you to cover it.
• You can't put them back. Publication 590-B says required minimum distributions aren't eligible for rollover. Once the RMD metal is out, it stays out.
• Shipping and fees. Custodians and depositories charge for in-kind distributions and insured shipping. Get the fee schedule first. Our gold IRA fees article covers the usual charges.

A worked example

Consider a hypothetical 75-year-old with one traditional IRA holding only gold coins. The custodian valued the account at $120,000 on December 31, 2025. Her 2026 RMD is $120,000 ÷ 24.6, about $4,878.

• If she sells: the custodian sells enough coins to raise about $4,878 at the dealer's bid. Because the bid is below the value the custodian used, that may take a little more metal than the arithmetic suggests. She reports $4,878 of ordinary income.
• If she takes one coin: with gold near $4,047, a one-ounce coin valued around that level on the distribution date doesn't cover the full RMD. She takes one coin and a cash distribution for the rest, or two coins and distributes more than the minimum. Either way she reports the coin's value plus any cash as ordinary income, and the coin's basis is the value reported.
• If she has another traditional IRA: she can take the full $4,878 from that account and leave the coins alone.

Sell or take the coins?

There's no general right answer. Selling inside the IRA is simpler and gives you cash for the tax, but you pay the dealer's spread. Taking coins avoids selling at the bid and keeps the metal, but you need cash for the tax, you pay shipping and fees, and you take on storage at home. If you want to keep the same ounces either way, another option is to take cash from the IRA and buy metal outside it; that means paying a retail premium and a dealer spread, so compare the all-in cost of each route before choosing.

Some owners 70½ or older use a qualified charitable distribution, sent directly from the IRA to a charity, to cover part of the RMD. With metal, that usually means selling first, since few charities take coins directly. Ask your tax professional whether it fits.

Year-end checklist

• Confirm your RMD amount and how the custodian valued your metal on December 31, 2025.
• Check whether another traditional IRA can cover the RMD instead.
• Find the custodian's year-end cutoff for distribution requests.
• If selling, get the bid. If taking metal, get the valuation method, fee schedule, and shipping timeline.
• Plan cash for withholding and for the income tax.
• Keep the 1099-R and valuation records with your metal's purchase records.

For what an IRA may hold in the first place, see IRA-eligible silver and depository rules. For why a “home storage” IRA is risky, see the home storage gold IRA problem.

GoldSilverSelect.com is an independent directory of local and online precious metals dealers. We do not sell gold or silver or administer IRAs. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice.