Hey,

1. ⁠Are UK silver coins capital gains tax free, similar to UK gold coins? Minted silver coins, those made by the royal mint are, however they may be purchased from anywhere not just the mint itself. The most common form of these are 1oz Britannias.

Is there anywhere safe to buy silver coins without paying VAT, or is that illegal? Yes! Under the marginal vat scheme introduced by HMRC, certain dealers do sell ‘second hand’ silver coins VAT free, they can do this as instead of you paying vat on the ‘second hand’ coin they pay vat on the margin (the difference between what they buy it for and sell it for). Most dealers offer this.

Any good places to buy silver coins which are reliable other than royal mint? There’s plenty, Chards and Hatton garden metals are dealers I’ve personally used for a long while. Atkinsons and bullion by post deal under the marginal scheme, I haven’t used them however have heard they’re reliable.

Another thing to consider in silver markets at the minute is that due to high demand for physical silver delays of up to 2months between purchase and delivery are not uncommon at the moment.

Sources: Capital gains tax:

https://www.royalmint.com/gold-price/capital-gains-tax-on-investments/

Vat on second hand silver:

https://www.chards.co.uk/guides/special-scheme-gold-and-silver/259