Are you an American expat living in Europe? Maybe the Netherlands? As we have 21% VAT and I remember if you bought silver you had to pay the VAT unless you kept it at a vault technically outside the country, the international zone of an airport such as Schiphol (investment gold is VAT-free). Because you mention the IRS and unless you're a US person that doesn't apply to someone in the Eurozone. It's getting harder to get crypto over here, the new EU Travel Rule will enter force here, they want you to register every address on self custody wallets with a ID/passport scan and face scan. We will be forced into the Digital Euro and Ursula Von der Leyen said she is going to use people's savings to finance ReArm Europe because Europe needs to be armed if we want to fight World War 3 against the Russians. I don't have as much savings as you (only a few hundred euros) but I wouldn't leave them at the bank. Maybe you can put them in privacy coins such as Monero and come up with a plausible deniability scenario where you lost them during a boat trip or something.