Posted by Mike Tirone — Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

With the fiat currencies on the fritz and the U.S. government continuing to diminish our confidence in protecting our financial investments, it’s time to look elsewhere.

Diversifying your investments is one of the strongest ways to protect yourself and your investments.

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion on the best places to buy and store commodities, specifically silver and gold. These precious metals’ prices are soaring annually and investors are questioning whether buying and storing their gold and silver Stateside is the smartest move. Concerns over gold or silver confiscation are rising and some investors are looking for the upper-hand when storing their precious metals .

Forums and discussion boards have been filling up with suggested best places to buy/store precious metals internationally. Investors around the world are trying to protect their assets as closely as possible without any government distractions and financial burdens. (See our list below for alternative buying/storing locations for precious metals internationally.)

But according to multiple resources, analysts, and common understanding of internationally precious metals investing, there is one distinct winner when it comes to the absolute best place to invest in gold, silver and other precious metals: Singapore .

The Asian epicenter of international finance and fastest growing GDP out of any nation in the Eastern hemisphere, Singapore is the best place to invest and do business in Asia.

Technically a city-state off of the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore is transforming into one of the world’s best places to do business. The reason is because it is so easy.

Upon a visit, an investor would notice the absolute cleanness and almost artificial feeling of the incredibly urban nation. And underneath the facet of the glitzy buildings and massive financial institutions, one would suspect some less than comforting government policies and corruption. You’d be mistaken. Singapore regulation is minimal while corruption is among the lowest in the world. The Singapore tax structure is very cordial to businesses and investors.

All of these attributes, along with a booming economy, would make any investor interested, but come October 1 st. 2012, life for those looking to buy and invest precious metals in Singapore has somehow been made even easier.

According to Sovereign Man . starting on October 1, the government of Singapore will begin waiving Goods and Services Tax (similar to VAT or a national sales tax) on purchases of investment grade gold, silver, and other precious metals. Traditionally in Singapore, physical gold and silver purchases have been taxed at a 7% GST rate. Now without the 7% GST rate, Singapore immediately is the best place to purchase and store your gold and prices are impressively competitive with ultra-low premiums and very reasonable storage costs.

Suggested storage areas within Singapore:

The Cisco Certis Secure

It is an insured facility that is open 16-hours a day (considered the longest operating hours in the industry) with reviews of it being very safe. Annual charges for a box are as low as S$99 (about $75 USD). There are over 42,000 safe deposit boxes and a choice of five sizes to choose from with armed Auxiliary Police Officers and stringent access processes, you can rest assured that your items will be safely secured.

Silver Bullion Singapore

This seller, deliverer, and storage company says they specialize in American Eagles, Maple Leafs, Libertads, Vienna Philarmonics, Koala and many more, on top of their gold and silver bars up to 100 troy ounces. They operate over 40,000 safe deposit boxes and located within Singapore’s Freeport location near the Changi Airport. You can simply purchase your bullion and immediately store it just two floors below their offices in their depository. They guarantee GST Free S.T.A.R. Storage which stands for Secure, Tax Free, Allocated (Fully), Reserved Bullion Storage.

In the past, investors found Singapore to be a great place to store their precious metals and other expensive assets like diamonds and could waive the GST rate if bought and stored just adjacent to the the Changi International Airport. The demand for cheap storage space in Singapore (before the recent announcement of the waived GST rate on precious metals) was sky-high yet storage space was running out quickly as investors stocked their gold and diamonds in the Freeport facility. If space is available and you don’t feel like exploring the impressive city of Singapore and it’s beauty, than Freeport is your best choice.

Other suggested, international buying and storing areas:

We have reported on The Store House previously in Wealth Wire . but it continues to be one of the best low-cost self-storage facilities with mini-storage rentals. There are multiple locations on the Hong Kong Islands and have consistently been rated as the top place to store precious metals by Chinese and foreign customers.

Wealth Wire also mentioned this highly competitive storage area within the Sheung Wan district with over 8,000 square feet of storage area. Their smallest safe deposit box is large enough to store several million dollars worth of gold coins for only $80/year. Boxes are in a highly secure, bank-style vault with round-the-clock in-house security while any of the contents within the boxes are automatically insured to HKD 100,000 (around $13,000 USD). Their downside is that boxes cannot be rented anonymously but only offer to rent through corporations.

Another very reliable and highly-recommended online bullion dealer and deliverer, but also store precious metals. Said to be safeguarding over US$2.1 billion of precious metals and currencies owned by 21,721 customers as of last month. Their website is top-notch with details on the entire process. Wealth Wire recommends Gold Money for any investor; from a first-time precious metals investor to the most experienced. Their services are world-renowned and pricing is competitive for domestic or international investors. For Swiss storage, Gold Money uses Via Mat for their vaulting facilities in the duty-free zone of Zurich airport. Via Mat allows direct personal accounts to be opened within the duty-free zone but has no trading facility.

This German seller and storage space, mostly with silver, has good prices and strong service. Silver coins have a reduced tax rate of 7% VAT required. They have a strong retail-based website which can be translated to English but it is recommended to contact them directly via email or telephone as a foreign customer.

Bullion Vault in the United Kingdom/Switzerland/New York

This storage area is known for it’s expansive amount of American customers and it’s option to hold silver and gold in bailment (meaning it is owned by you but held by someone else) in a foreign (United Kingdom or Switzerland) vault. They also have high-security vaults located in New York as well. Their storage prices are some of the lowest in the industry while buying and selling prices are market-based but the commissions are very low.

Their website is quite basic but is in English for those unable to read Dutch. They are strictly a reliable online bullion dealer, but do not offer storage.

One of the top-rated, Switzerland-based, dealers and storage facilities of precious metals in the world, Gold Switzerland has received high recognition for their one year free allocated vault storage and delivery. Their inventory of gold and silver is impressive while every aspect of their company is very communicative-oriented as English is spoken throughout the process.

All metals within this area are covered by a Western Australia government guarantee. To store silver it costs 1.9% P.A. which is based off of an allocated depository account. The company’s website is very clean, reliable, and explains all of the details well. If looking to invest in precious metals Down Under, we recommend the Perth Mint.