The tax season has come and gone. Hopefully you have received or will be receiving a nice refund. If you had to pay, hopefully at least you didn’t get any nasty surprises from Uncle Sam.

As an investor—since you are reading this, I assume you do invest—there are so many rules when it comes to taxation that it’s easy to be surprised at tax time. One common way to be surprised is to find out how the IRS treats certain investment incomes.

In today’s investment landscape, it’s quite easy to venture beyond common U.S. stocks. Let’s look at several popular alternative investments and see how they are taxed. Note that this article is intended for general informational purposes only. It is not meant to be tax advice. Please be sure to check with a licensed tax professional when in doubt.

Precious Metal ETFs

Over the past twenty years or so, gold and silver ETFs have risen in popularity and there’ve never been as many choices as there are today.

SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is the oldest and most liquid gold ETF available. iShares Silver Trust (SLV) is its silver counterpart. The IRS considers both ETFs to be collectibles.

Long-term capital gains on GLD and SLV are taxed at your marginal tax rate, which is the rate paid on your highest dollar of taxable income, up to 28%. Since the normal long-term capital gains tax rate is capped at 20% no matter your income, when you make money on GLD and SLV, you do have to share more of your profit with Uncle Sam. (Short-term capital gains are taxed at your marginal tax rate, which has a maximum of 37%.)

Passive Foreign Investment Companies

For investors who want the ability to exchange their shares for actual metal, Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS) and Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV) are backed by fully-allocated gold and offer the ability to redeem shares for the physical metal (subject to a minimum redemption requirement).

PHYS and PSLV are Canadian closed-end funds. The IRS treats them as PFICs (passive foreign investment companies). The most notable tax wrinkle here is that if you file Form 8621 with the IRS and elect to treat your PHYS and PSLV shares as QEF (qualifying electing fund), long-term capital gains will be taxed at the regular long-term capital gains rate (up to 20% depending on your tax bracket). There could be an additional 3.8% tax, but the rate would still be lower than the collectibles rate. However, to make this QEF selection, you must file Form 8621 for the tax year in which you first purchased the PFIC, not when you sell it.

Foreign Stocks and Crypto

You may also have invested in foreign stocks. Fortunately, capital gains on foreign stocks are generally only subject to U.S. federal and state taxes. Most countries don’t charge foreign investors capital gains tax. However, the same cannot be said for dividends.

If you had to pay dividend income tax to both Uncle Sam and to the foreign government, that would be double taxation, a tough pill to swallow. How do you avoid it?

The IRS does allow you to claim either a credit or deduction on the taxes you already paid to a foreign country. In most cases, taking a credit (instead of a deduction) would be more beneficial. The foreign tax credit you can claim is limited to the size of your U.S. tax liability. For example, if you paid $50 foreign taxes on a dividend, and you owe $35 U.S. taxes on the same foreign dividend, then you can claim only a $35 credit. (But you can carry over the $15 remaining credit to the next year.) If you owed $60 U.S. taxes, then you get the full $50 credit, but you’d still owe $10.

By tax treaty between the U.S. and other countries, foreign dividend could also be considered “qualified” and be taxed at the lower long-term capital gains rates.

Another asset that has greatly risen in popularity in recent years are cryptocurrencies. While they are non-traditional investments and trade on a separate exchange from stocks, fortunately when it comes to taxation, they are by and large pretty standard. Short-term and long-term gains/losses have the same tax rates as for regular stocks. At the end of the day, Uncle Sam just wants to make sure you give him his cut if you make money on cryptos.

Read This Story: Gold and Crypto: Powerful Inflation Hedges to Consider Now

Editor’s Note: As you recalibrate your portfolio, we suggest you consider cryptocurrency. That’s right…crypto.

Crypto is making ordinary investors rich…and it serves as an inflation hedge, to boot. But you need to make your move now, because the fuse is lit on this market. And every day you wait is literally costing you thousands in profits.

If you’re worried you can’t figure out crypto…don’t be.

Our in-house crypto expert, Alex Benfield, will make it easy for you. You won’t have to figure anything out on your own. He’ll walk you through everything, step by step.

Alex made a personal fortune on crypto. Now, his mission in life is to spread the word about crypto and make other people wealthy, too.

Get in on the crypto action…now. To learn more about Alex’s new trading service, Crypto Trend Investor, click here.