North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has signed a bill into law exempting the sale and purchase of gold and silver from state sales taxes. This removes one barrier from buying gold, silver and platinum. It will also help encourage their use and take the first step toward breaking the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Rep. Dana Bumgardner (R-Gastonia) and Rep. Jeff Collins (R-Rocky Mount) introduced House Bill 434 (H434) in March. The legislation exempts precious metals in various forms from state sales tax, including investment metal bullion, US Mint-produced gold and silver, investment coins and non-coin currency.

The House passed H434 on second reading by a 104-8 vote in May. It then gave final approval on the third reading by a voice vote. The Senate concurred with a vote of 35-13 on June 27. With the governor’s signature, the law went into effect retroactively to July 1, 2017.

IN PRACTICE

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35 cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what North Carolina’s sales tax on gold and silver did. By removing the sales tax on the exchange of gold and silver, North Carolina will treat specie as money instead of a commodity.

“We ought not to tax money – and that’s a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money,” Ron Paul said in support of a similar bill that passed in Arizona.

This represents a small step toward re-establishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

The elimination of the sales tax not only helps precious metals investors. By effectively lowering the cost of gold and silver, it cracks open the door for people to begin using sound money in regular business transactions.This would mark an important small step toward currency competition. If sound money gains a foothold in the marketplace against Federal Reserve notes, the people would be able to choose the time-tested stability of gold and silver over the central bank’s rapidly-depreciating paper currency.

If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter,” Paul said.

This new North Carolina law is part of a broader movement. States are taking the first steps to challenge the Fed across the country.

“It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.” – Charles A. Beard

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall … make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

States have simply ignored this constitutional provision for years. It’s impossible for states to return to a constitutional sound money system when it taxes gold and silver as a commodity.

This North Carolina law takes a step towards that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state. Such a tactic sets the stage to undermine the monopoly of the Federal Reserve by introducing competition into the monetary system.

Constitutional tender expert Professor William Greene said when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money [currency] (Federal Reserve notes).

As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of [foreign] Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, [foreign] Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the [foreign] Fed on a state by state level can move us in that direction.

The Tenth Amendment Center contributed to this report. SchiffGold

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