Understanding tax exemptions on ETF

Each of them has its own merits in terms of convenience of acquiring it and its resale value.

One also needs to understand the tax consequences of each of them and decide the best option to invest in. Gold ETF units as well as physical gold are considered as assets under the Income Tax laws; hence, the sale of these assets procures capital gains or loss.

However, there are certain tax advantages of buying gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) over others.

What is Gold ETF?

Regarded as Mutual Fund units, the minimum holding period for such assets to qualify as long-term assets is a year. As these are not equity oriented mutual funds, long-term capital gains (LTCG) on the sale of gold ETFs does not qualify for tax exemption.

Short-term capital gains (STCG) would also not be eligible for concessional rate of taxation. However, these are eligible for the concessional LTCG tax rate at a minimum of 10 per cent of the gains without indexation or 20 per cent of the gains with indexation.

The long-term gains on sale of such ETFs are taxed at a maximum of 10 per cent of the gains. STCGs are taxed at normal rates.

Gold has to be held for three years to be termed as long-term capital assets, while gold ETF need to wait for just a year to get the status.

Advantages of gold ETF

Low tax

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