Anonymity
Establishments that sell gold are subject to regulations to prevent money laundering, as specified in Directive 91/308/EEC dated 10 June 1991 and, when relevant, to constraints associated with the certification of precious metals and provisions applicable to financial establishments.  Article 298 6) E of the General Tax Code obliges all entities conducting transactions in gold investment to keep documents enabling them to identify their customers for a six-year period in support of their accounts: this applies to any transaction in excess of 15,000 euros.  This obligation concerns both over-the-counter sales and public sales.  This obligation does not take any specific form: the identity of customers may be provided by any means.  However, to simplify matters, the entities concerned that are obliged to maintain a register, as specified in Article 537 of the General Tax Code, may satisfy the above obligation by producing this register.

Cash payment
Article 15 of Law N° 94-6 dated 4 January 1994  modified the provisions of Article 537 of the General Tax Code: the third paragraph in particular, whereby gold transactions could be settled by any means of payment, was deleted.  Since this law came into force, these transactions must comply with the provisions of ordinary law (1100 euros for businesses and 3,000 euros for individuals).

Exemption from VAT
Ingots with a fineness of over 995/1000 and all coins minted after 1800 used as legal currency are exempt from VAT.

Sales tax
Private buyers pay sales tax of 8% of the gross amount of the transaction
(7.5% + 0.50% RDS).