As an investor in a gold (or any precious metals) Exchange Traded Fund, there are certain things of which you should be aware.
First, your profits and losses from purchases and sales are treated not at the usual lower capital gains (and losses) tax rate for long-term investment holders, but instead are taxed as collectibles (which includes precious metals) sales. As such, you need to enter your gold ETF sales in TurboTax separately than the rest (if any) of your stock, bond, mutual fund, and all other investments. In other words, a gold ETF is treated differently than a regular investment asset.
Specifically, you can go right to the correct section of the program to make your entries, in TurboTax Premier or Home & Business, by performing the following actions. Simply type in the word "collectibles" into the search box on your TurboTax
screen. Then you can select the "Jump To" link that will
appear after you hit the "Find" button, and you will be taken
to the appropriate place in the program. Please see the attached screen-captures
for an illustration (simply click to open).
Then, you will tell the program that you have a collectibles ETF that you sold, and simply follow the data entry screens from there. You should have all the information you need from your Form 1099.
Second, because your gold ETF is organized as a Grantor Trust (of which you own or owned exchange traded units), you may also be able to deduct certain expenses of the trust on your personal tax return. For full details on that, please refer to the following document for the Ishares gold trust for the 2016 tax year:
https://www.ishares.com/us/literature/tax-information/ishares-gold-tax-data-12-31-16-is-20086-0117.p...
If you have further
questions, encounter any difficulties, or just want to speak with a live tax
expert who can walk you through your TurboTax entries (including the ability to
screen-share with your computer), please feel free to contact us. We
would be happy to help you (and as a paying customer, the call is free to
you). Here is a link where you can create a support ticket and reach us:
https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/Thank you for asking this question.
