Gold Price for Jewellers in Canada

Making charges and pricing

Canadian retail jewellery is usually priced as a finished item rather than metal weight plus a separate labour charge, and custom work and repairs are quoted per job. In the trade, metal is weighed in grams or pennyweights (dwt). Refiners and scrap buyers typically pay a percentage of the melt value of the fine gold content.

Hallmarking and purity marks

Canada has no compulsory hallmarking and no government assay office. The Precious Metals Marking Act and its regulations, administered by the Competition Bureau, set the rules for anyone who chooses to apply a quality mark. Gold marks must be between 9K and 24K. The actual fineness may fall no more than 3 parts per thousand below the mark, or 7 parts per thousand where solder is used (15 for white gold of 18K or more). The quality mark must be accompanied by a Canadian trademark that is registered or applied for. The exceptions are items hallmarked under UK law or correctly marked under another country's law. Breaking the Act can lead to a fine, and false or misleading claims about metal content can also breach the Competition Act.

Tax on sales and scrap

Jewellery is taxable at 5% GST, or HST in participating provinces, plus provincial sales tax in provinces that charge it. Investment-grade precious metal is generally exempt from GST/HST. This means bars, ingots, coins and wafers of gold or platinum refined to at least 99.5%, or silver to at least 99.9%. The refiner's first sale of newly refined metal is zero-rated. No GST/HST is payable when you buy old gold from a private individual who is not selling in the course of a business.

Customer checks and reporting

Under FINTRAC rules, a business that buys or sells precious metals, precious stones or jewellery is a dealer in precious metals and stones (DPMS) when it does so for C$10,000 or more in a single transaction. Purchases and sales connected with manufacturing jewellery, mining, or cutting and polishing stones are excluded. A business whose purchases and sales are 90% or more manufacturing-related is treated as a manufacturer. A DPMS must have a compliance programme, verify clients' identity and keep records. It must report suspicious transactions and large cash transactions of C$10,000 or more, including amounts received within 24 hours that add up to that figure under the 24-hour rule. It must also report large virtual currency transactions and property of listed persons or entities.

Bill C-2 (the Strong Borders Act), introduced in June 2025, proposes to make it an offence for a business to accept a cash payment of C$10,000 or more. At the time of review it was still at second reading in the House of Commons and was not law. Buying second-hand gold from the public may also be regulated locally, as some provinces and municipalities license second-hand dealers and pawnbrokers.