As I received several emails and comments about the gold and gems, I did a minor rewrite on Chapter 8 before posting, hopefully as a bit of an explanation. Which means if I screwed things up, it's on me.
Where a lot of confusion comes into play is simple. First, this has started prior to the US Federal requirement to report all cash transactions of $10,000 or more. The second is that the only gold sold was was went to the jeweler, in Chapter 2. The rest of it is a case of Cal has a physical asset - gold and gems - that he wishes to borrow money against, using the physical asset as collateral for the loan. The bank has possession of the physical asset, and when he doesn't make payments, will simply transfer an amount from his pile of gold to their pile of gold - thus, he's not selling the gold, and having to report that as income. Or pay taxes on it.
It's effectively just like doing a home equity loan, where you borrow money against the equity of your house. If you don't make pay that money borrowed, plus interest, back, the bank can take your home. But you don't have to pay taxes on the money you borrow, because that's not income. You already own the asset - your house.
It's a little sneaky and devious, but since Cal already 'owns' the gold, as his 'inheritance', all estate taxes, if any, are presumed to have been paid. Considering that Elroy is also sneaky and devious, and is an honest politician (meaning once he's been bought, he stays bought), there won't be a whole lot of problems from this.
Of course, later on, the corporation that Emily didn't advise him to form will get the income, and pay the taxes at the corporate rate, with appropriate deductions. (And yes, the story gets that complicated later.)