Selling Gold and Precious Metals in Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix sits inside one of the friendlier states for moving bullion, but the rules turn on wording. Arizona exempts refined bullion from transaction tax, yet taxes jewelry. If you are about to sell, that distinction changes what your metal is actually worth here.

The tax you avoid is a Transaction Privilege Tax, not a sales tax

Arizona does not run a traditional consumer sales tax. It applies a Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) levied on the seller for the privilege of doing business in the state. Dealers may pass that cost into pricing, but the legal obligation sits with the seller, not you. The exemption for bullion lives in A.R.S. § 42-5061, specifically subsection (A)(57) for state TPT, with matching provisions covering county and municipal taxes.

The statute exempts "the sale of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion to the ultimate consumer." It defines precious metal bullion as gold, silver, platinum, rhodium, and palladium "that has been smelted or refined so that its value depends on its contents and not on its form." That phrase is the whole game.

Jewelry does not get the exemption

If metal has been worked into something valued for more than its precious-metal content, it is taxable. Coins or money sold for manufacture into jewelry or works of art are taxable. So are jewelry, statues, and colorized coins. For a selling desk, the practical point is that your grandmother's gold bracelet and a one-ounce bar are treated as different objects under Arizona law, even at identical purity. Refined bars and recognized bullion clear the exemption; fabricated pieces do not.

What the exemption is worth in metro Phoenix

Arizona's TPT base rate is 5.6%. County add-ons run from 0.5% to 2.0%, and cities layer more on top. Combined rates run from roughly 6.1% in lightly taxed areas to 11.2% in parts of metro Phoenix, including Scottsdale, Tempe, and Glendale. Concretely, without the exemption a $10,000 gold purchase in Scottsdale would carry over $900 in combined state, county, and city tax. On the buy side that spread is the difference between a deal that works and one that does not, which is why the exemption matters even when you are the one selling.

Two laws expanded the ground

The 2017 law, House Bill 2014, did the heavy lifting. Since its enactment Arizona does not tax capital gains on precious-metal bullion at the state level, so when you sell qualifying bullion here only federal capital-gains tax applies. In 2026 the state signed SB 1430 (Sen. Mesnard), which extended the exemption to dealer and wholesale transactions; previously it applied only when the sale went to the final buyer. That change is more relevant to dealers than to a private seller, but it tells you the direction Arizona keeps moving.

Why Phoenix carries so much estate metal

The metro area holds an unusually large older population, and older households are where estate jewelry, inherited coins, and dental gold accumulate. About 789,700 Maricopa County residents were aged 65 and older in 2024, roughly 16.9% of the county. That is not an abstraction for a buying desk; it is the supply.

Sun City, less than 30 minutes northwest of Phoenix, is the concentrated version of that pattern. It opened in 1960 as the first community of its kind, and its 2020 census population was 39,931, up from 37,499 in 2010. Residents average 73.5 years of age. Communities like this feed a steady stream of estate lots into the metro market, which means a lot of what changes hands here is worked jewelry, not bullion, and therefore not exempt.

Refining capacity is local

Estate metal usually needs to be refined rather than resold as-is, and Phoenix has that capacity in place. Elemetal Phoenix serves the city and surrounding areas, providing refining services to precious-metal dealers, jewelers, estate buyers, coin dealers, and pawnbrokers. It handles dental waste specifically, recovering gold, platinum, palladium, and silver from bridges, crowns, and implants. If you are settling an estate that includes dental gold or mixed scrap, that material has a real recovery value, and a refiner is where its content gets separated from its form.

What this means before you sell

Sort your metal by category first. Bullion bars and recognized coins fall under the exemption and, since HB 2014, avoid state capital-gains tax; only federal tax applies. Jewelry and worked pieces do not get the exemption, and a fair offer on them reflects melt value against current spot, less the cost of refining. Weigh everything, know the purity, and get more than one quote before you commit. If you have questions about a specific lot, reach out before you hand anything over.

For weight, purity, and payout explainers written for sellers rather than buyers, see the blog, or start from the main page to see what we take and how offers are calculated.

This page is informational. Figures and rules cited are accurate as of the review date above and can change.

Last reviewed July 25, 2026.