What Is the Texas Bullion Depository?

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission when a reader opens an account through links on this page. The commission has no effect on what you pay or on what we publish. We are not a financial or tax advisor; consult a licensed advisor for your situation. Last reviewed June 2026.

The definition in plain terms

The Texas Bullion Depository is a state agency. That single fact is what sets it apart from every other precious-metals vault in the United States. It sits inside the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the same office that collects state taxes and manages public finances for the state of Texas. The Comptroller is legally responsible for the agency; a private contractor handles the day to day operation.

The facility stores physical bullion, meaning gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium bars, coins, and rounds. It does not sell investment advice, run trading platforms, or hold cash accounts. Its function is narrow and specific: receive metal, verify it, store it under insurance, and release it to the depositor on request. The depository is not a bank, but its role is closest to what a bank's vault does for cash.

Any adult with a valid form of identification can open a personal account. Institutions, trusts, and businesses can also become account holders. Since 2023, a self-directed Individual Retirement Account can also route metal to the depository through an approved custodian. That last channel is the one most Texas retirees ask about.

How the depository came into existence

The depository is not old. Its legal foundation is House Bill 483, filed during the 84th regular session of the Texas Legislature in 2015. Representative Giovanni Capriglione carried the bill in the Texas House. Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law on June 12, 2015. The statute authorized the Comptroller of Public Accounts to establish and administer a state precious-metals depository.

Construction and vendor selection took about two years. The state issued a request for proposals to identify a private operator that could build the vault, install the security systems, and run the customer-facing services. Lone Star Tangible Assets LP was selected as the depository contractor. Operations began in 2017 at the current Leander campus.

In 2023 the operator, Lone Star Tangible Assets LP, received approval from the Internal Revenue Service as a non-bank trustee. That approval was granted under Treasury Regulation 1.408-2(e), which sets the requirements a non-bank entity must meet to hold retirement assets. It opened a pathway for the depository to hold IRA-owned bullion for the first time.

The state agency and the private operator

The public and private layers can be confusing, so it is worth taking them one at a time. The state agency is the Texas Bullion Depository itself, positioned inside the Comptroller of Public Accounts. The state agency owns the mission, sets the rules, holds the trademark, and has audit and oversight authority over the operator. It does not employ the front-line staff.

The operator is Lone Star Tangible Assets LP, a private limited partnership selected through the state procurement process. The operator staffs the vault, runs the customer service line, handles shipments, processes invoicing, and manages the physical building. It works under a contract that specifies performance standards and reporting obligations to the Comptroller.

This structure matters when you compare the depository to a private vault. At a private vault the operator answers to shareholders or private owners. At the Texas Bullion Depository the operator answers to the state, and the state answers to Texas taxpayers. Independent audits sit with the Comptroller's office, and the results are reviewable through Texas public records processes.

What the depository stores and for whom

The depository holds five metals: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Products can be bars, coins, or rounds, and can be sovereign issues or private-mint issues. The depository does not restrict metals to a particular refiner or sovereign source for general storage, though IRA storage follows the federal fineness rules under Internal Revenue Code Section 408(m). Bullion IRA storage requires gold at .995 fineness or higher, silver at .999 or higher, and platinum and palladium at .9995 or higher.

Account holders fall into three broad groups. Individuals include Texas residents, out-of-state residents, and non-United-States residents who meet identification requirements. Institutions include banks, trust companies, corporations, non-profits, and government entities. Self-directed IRAs route through an IRS-approved custodian and are treated as a distinct account channel.

Storage is segregated by default. Segregated means the specific bars and coins you deposit are tagged to your account and returned to you piece for piece on withdrawal. This is a defining feature of the facility. Some private depositories offer a cheaper commingled option, where equivalent metal comes back on withdrawal instead of your exact serialized pieces.

The Leander campus and the Customer Room

The physical facility sits in Leander, a fast-growing city in Williamson County, roughly 30 miles north of downtown Austin. The site was purpose-built as a bullion depository rather than adapted from an existing building. Security systems include vaults built to Class 3 standards, layered access control, video surveillance, and armed on-site personnel during operating hours.

A dedicated Customer Room allows account holders to view their metal in person. The room is private and access is by appointment. The published non-IRA fee schedule shows a Customer Room Usage Fee of 35 dollars per half hour, which reflects the operator's staffing cost for supervised access. IRA account holders should ask their custodian whether the same in-person viewing is available under an IRA account, since IRA workflows often route through the custodian rather than directly with the depository.

Personal courier pickup is also available at Leander. The published non-IRA rate for a scheduled pickup is 35 dollars per transaction, by appointment only. This channel matters most for buyers who want to move physical possession themselves rather than paying for insured shipping.

How IRA storage works at Leander today

The federal rule on IRA custody is precise. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 408(a)(2), IRA assets must be held by a bank or an entity approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a non-bank trustee. Treasury Regulation 1.408-2(e) sets the criteria a non-bank entity must satisfy to receive that approval. Before 2023, the Texas Bullion Depository operator did not have that status, so IRA metal could not sit at Leander.

Lone Star Tangible Assets LP received the non-bank trustee approval in 2023. That single administrative event unlocked the IRA channel at the depository. It did not change the agency status of the depository. It did make the operator eligible to receive IRA-owned bullion on behalf of a self-directed IRA custodian.

Equity Trust Company was the first self-directed IRA custodian to coordinate storage at Leander after the approval. On the depository's own IRA storage page, Equity Trust is currently the named partner. The depository plans to add more custodian partners over time, and a reader with a different custodian should ask both the depository and the custodian whether the coordination has been set up before signing anything.

Opening a personal (non-IRA) account at the depository

Most Texans who visit the Texas Bullion Depository open a personal, non-IRA account. The process is straightforward and can be completed online. The steps below reflect the current enrollment flow shown on texasbulliondepository.gov. IRA storage follows a different path through your self-directed IRA custodian, covered on the sibling page dedicated to IRA storage.

1. Start the online enrollment. Create a login on the depository website and submit basic contact information. The system will queue the compliance review that must complete before your first deposit.
2. Provide identification and complete the compliance review. Upload a valid government-issued photo identification and any additional documents the depository asks for. Federal know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules apply.
3. Sign the Account Holder Agreement. Read and sign the agreement online. The agreement specifies your rights, the depository's obligations, storage terms, and fee terms.
4. Choose how to fund the account with metal. You can send in bullion you already own, or you can buy from any dealer and instruct the dealer to ship to Leander. The dealer needs the depository's shipping instructions.
5. Ship or deliver the bullion to Leander. Personal deliveries are accepted by appointment. Shipped bullion should be sent insured; the sender is responsible for transit insurance on the way into the depository.
6. The depository verifies and books the deposit. Staff weigh, inspect, and log each item. Once accepted, the metal enters segregated storage and depository insurance takes over.
7. Manage the account online. Log in to view holdings, place withdrawals or shipments out, request a pickup, or schedule a Customer Room viewing. Storage fees are billed once per quarter based on average daily value.

Published pricing at a glance

The pricing model is tiered by the average daily value of the account. Fees accrue daily and are billed once per quarter. The rate schedule effective April 1, 2026 shows five tiers. The top rate is 0.49 percent per year for accounts up to 500,000 dollars. The lowest published rate is 0.34 percent per year for accounts between 2,500,000 dollars and 5,000,000 dollars. Above 5,000,000 dollars, pricing is negotiated with the depository directly.

Beyond the storage rate, several ancillary fees apply for specific services.

The depository charges 35 dollars per transaction for a scheduled personal or courier pickup, and 35 dollars per half hour for the Customer Room. Stop-payment, late-payment, insufficient-funds, and refused-deposit events each carry a 35 dollar fee. Counting a 90 percent or 40 percent silver coin bag is 50 dollars per bag. There is no account setup fee and no withdrawal fee. Shipping and handling on outbound deliveries carries a separate value-based charge.

Insurance and asset protection

Insurance on stored bullion is underwritten on the Lloyd's of London market. The depository states that coverage applies once a deposit has been received, inspected, and accepted at Leander. All items are automatically covered at their base metal content value; a depositor can also declare a higher value for numismatic pieces that carry a premium above metal content.

Transit insurance into the depository is a separate matter. The account holder is responsible for insuring the shipment on the way in. On the way out, the depository insures return shipments to the depositor's address of record up to the insured value. This split between inbound and outbound insurance is common in the storage industry and worth checking with your shipper before you send metal in.

Two protection layers stack here. The insurance layer covers loss events such as theft, fire, flood, and natural disasters. The state agency layer means the operator's performance is contract-bound to the Comptroller, and independent audits sit with the state. A depositor who reads carefully will notice that the insurance policy is a private-market instrument, not a state guarantee. That distinction matters if you are evaluating counterparty risk.

Texas residency, no state income tax, and the depository

Texas does not levy a state personal income tax. That prohibition sits in Article 8, Section 24 of the Texas Constitution, which requires a statewide vote to authorize any such tax. For a Texas resident, distributions from a traditional Individual Retirement Account are taxed at the federal level only. There is no Texas state income tax layer to worry about, whether the metal sits at Leander or in another state.

Storing your metal at the Texas Bullion Depository does not, on its own, generate a state tax benefit. The exemption follows the resident, not the vault. A Texas resident whose gold IRA sits at a Delaware depository still pays federal tax only on distributions. Where the metal sleeps at night does not change that.

Real reasons to store inside Texas are different and worth naming plainly. State agency oversight through the Comptroller is one. Physical proximity to Leander for scheduled viewing is another, especially for readers in the Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas corridors. Support for a state institution is a third. None of these are tax reasons. Choose Texas storage for those genuine reasons if they matter to you, not for a state tax break that does not exist.

Estimate the long-term drag from recurring storage fees

Storage is one line inside the recurring cost of holding bullion in an account. Custodian administration fees, wire fees, and dealer markup at purchase also matter. The calculator below models the effect of recurring fees on your account over your holding period. It is a planning tool, not personalized advice, and dealer markup at purchase is separate from what the tool models.

Worked example: a Fort Worth reader compares the options

When the Texas Bullion Depository is not the right choice

Frequently asked questions

By the Harry’s Coins Editorial team. Last reviewed June 2026.