Starting Tuesday, Maryland’s gold and silver shops are required to charge sales tax for the first time in 35 years. American Bullion Center in Timonium says that change will alter its entire business model.

Owner Richard Davis said his store will no longer sell customers its namesake — bullion, the term for precious metals like gold and silver — at all.

The state sales tax is only 6% and is included on almost all products, but for bullion, shop owners argue it poses an existential threat.

Many gold-buyers consider bullion to be a secure way to invest, just like others might buy stocks, which are untaxed. Investors sometimes spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in one transaction.

A $10,000 gold purchase will now come with an extra $600 state fee, for example, and stores are readying for would-be buyers to simply cross state lines to dodge the levy. The vast majority of states, including those that border Maryland, do not tax large purchases of bullion.

“All of the states that surround us have these exemptions in place, so the legislature, I think, imagines that they are going to raise revenue by doing this, but really what they effectively have done is driven business out of the state of Maryland,” said Alex Lynn, owner of Harford Coin Company.

Lynn’s father was among those who pushed for a Maryland sales tax exemption on bullion purchases of more than $1,000 back in 1990. Policy groups in the last several years have sought to eliminate the tax from the few states that have it, arguing that gold and silver are simply another form of money and should be treated as such.

Others say that bullion should be taxed like any other good. And this year, especially, as Maryland faced a budget crunch, state officials searched for myriad ways to raise revenues to balance the budget.

The potential of taxing bullion had previously been proposed, including in a bill that stalled this year, but it was not until a provision was added into the state’s budget bill this spring that it came to fruition. The tax was not included in the governor’s initial draft of the budget, but was later added by legislative leaders and signed by the governor.

It’s unclear why the tax was added. A spokesperson for House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Senate President Bill Ferguson did not reply to a request for comment.

Carter Elliott IV, a spokesman for Gov. Wes Moore, emphasized in a statement the $3 billion deficit the state faced.

“Governor Moore and the leaders of the general assembly passed a budget that reforms Maryland’s tax code, grows the economy, and invests in Maryland families,” Carter said.

Maryland bullion dealers see the new tax as a heavy headwind. Davis said he looked into setting up shop in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, and also briefly considered trying to operate within the city-owned Baltimore Convention Center, which enjoys a carve-out from the tax since it hosts major coin conventions each year.

Bullion shops operate in the margins, earning only 2 or 3% in profit on gold sales. Adding 6% makes their economics dicey, they say, especially if customers have the option to avoid it in nearby states. Lynn described the tax’s implementation as “short-sighted.”

Davis, 76, said it doesn’t make sense for the government to collect “three times the profit” that he makes. He ultimately decided to stay put, but instead of buying and selling bullion as he’s done for years, he plans to continue to buy bullion and sell only to national wholesalers rather than local customers.

“I have to change all my ads,” he said.

Owners say they have have already heard from some customers who plan to reroute to Delaware, Pennsylvania or Virginia when they want to convert savings into thousands of dollars worth of gold.

“We’ve had some say goodbye to us,” said Brett Stelfox, operations manager at Golden Eagle Coins in Laurel.

Stelfox heard about the possibility of the tax in late March and he reached out to Citizens For Sound Money, an organization that pushes for bullion tax exemptions. Daniel Diaz, the organization’s executive director, scrambled to assemble a campaign.

Diaz created a petition and a website that criticized the tax for being “buried deep” within the budget bill as store owners called state delegates and organized an impromptu day trip to pass out fliers in Annapolis. Davis said he never closes his shop’s doors; on that day, he did, so he could go to the statehouse in person.

Owners say they were told that the tax revenue was needed for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, an ambitious plan that increases education spending in the state.

“We tried to plead our case. It didn’t work,” said Stelfox, who also considered opening up a shop across state lines.

Nonpartisan analysts expect the tax to earn about $3 million annually, a slight amount when compared with a budget shortfall that numbered in the billions.

“Ultimately, it hurts the people of Maryland and it doesn’t really gain the state any revenue,” Diaz said. “A drop in the bucket.”

Maryland, like most states, has a use tax that requires residents pay Maryland sales tax on tax-free goods purchased elsewhere. So, in theory, gold buyers who cross state lines to dodge Maryland’s fees would still have to pay the levy. But many consumers never pay use tax, and it is challenging to enforce.

It remains to be seen how one of the state’s biggest bullion sellers, Costco, will react to the new levy. The mega retailer began selling gold in 2023. Shannon Parker, a vice president with Costco, declined to comment.

Erick Windsor, owner of Windsor Coin & Currency in Cambridge — a 30-minute drive from Delaware — mostly deals coins but also buys and sells bullion, too. At least, he has. Going forward, he won’t advise any customers to purchase gold and silver from him.

“I’m just straight up not going to be selling bullion until the law changes,” he said.