By Stefan Gleason – Money Metals Exchange ……
On Thursday, March 27, three Kentucky taxpayers and one of America’s largest precious metals dealers filed a class-action lawsuit against Governor Andrew Beshear (D), the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the Kentucky Department of Revenue for their illegal sales tax collections in connection with retail purchases of physical gold and silver.
Money Metals Exchange, Jill Stahl Huston, Stacie Earl, and Karen Strayer filed the state court complaint in the Boone Circuit Court on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated Kentucky taxpayers and precious metals dealers across the United States.
The class-action suit comes immediately on the heels of overwhelming votes by both the Kentucky House of Representatives and Senate to override Gov. Beshear’s veto this week of House Bill 2 (PDF link), a measure which expanded the state’s new sales tax exemption for precious metals purchases.
HB 2, which became law on the 27th, provides a right for full recovery of unlawfully collected taxes (plus interest), stiff penalties on state officials (acting in their official capacities and potentially, their personal capacities), and attorney’s fees for the Department of Revenue’s flagrant violation of a sales tax exemption that had taken effect on August 1, 2024.
Representatives TJ Roberts (R-66) and Steve Doan (R-69) introduced HB 2 in January 2025. The bill was championed by the Sound Money Defense League and Money Metals Exchange, who had backed efforts since 2020 to end Kentucky’s taxation of gold and silver purchases.
In 2024, the Kentucky Legislature passed House Bill 8 to remove the state’s 6% sales tax on purchases of gold and silver coins, bars, and rounds. Gov. Beshear had attempted to exercise a line-item veto that the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky had only created for appropriations bills.
Rather than override the veto of HB 8 last year, however, the legislature deemed the veto invalid and the Revisor of Statutes codified the sales tax exemption in accordance with the State Attorney General Russell Coleman’s (R) legal opinion.
Governor Beshear and his Department of Revenue nevertheless insisted that all Kentucky citizens must pay, and all businesses that sell gold and silver must continue to collect and remit such taxes or face prosecution.
“Governor Beshear’s brazen and illegal actions have put online precious metals dealers like my company in an untenable position, but we refuse to be the bagman in his illegal money grab,” said Stefan Gleason, CEO of Idaho-based Money Metals Exchange, a U.S.-focused dealer and depository. “We are proud to stand with our three brave co-plaintiffs to take on this scofflaw governor to protect the rights of tens of thousands of Kentucky savers and investors. Gold and silver are money, and folks should not be taxed for saving gold and silver to protect themselves from inflation and currency debasement. Almost every other state in our nation agrees and has already removed sales taxes from constitutional money.”
In addition to recovery of back taxes, interest, and attorney’s fees, the class-action suit seeks temporary and permanent injunctive relief preventing further collection of sales taxes on gold and silver and any enforcement actions taken by the Beshear Administration against citizens of Kentucky or precious metals dealers like Money Metals.
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The Sound Money Defense League is a non-partisan, national public policy group working to restore sound money at the state and federal level and publisher of the Sound Money Index.
Money Metals Exchange is a national precious metals investment company and news service. It also operates Money Metals Depository for vaulting of gold and silver, and Money Metals Capital Group, a collateral lending institution.
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