U.S. Savings Bonds

This section provides tax information on U.S. savings bonds. It explains how to report the interest income on these bonds and how to treat transfers of these bonds.

For other information on U.S. savings bonds, write to:
 

Bureau of the Public Debt
Attn: Savings Bond Operations Office
Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328

Or, on the Internet, visit:
www.savingsbonds.gov

Accrual method taxpayers.   If you use an accrual method of accounting, you must report interest on U.S. savings bonds each year as it accrues. You cannot postpone reporting interest until you receive it or the bonds mature. Accrual methods of accounting are explained in chapter 1 under Accounting Methods.

Cash method taxpayers.   If you use the cash method of accounting, as most individual taxpayers do, you generally report the interest on U.S. savings bonds when you receive it. The cash method of accounting is explained in chapter 1 under Accounting Methods.

Series HH Bonds.   These bonds are issued at face value. Interest is paid twice a year by direct deposit to your bank account. If you are a cash method taxpayer, you must report interest on these bonds as income in the year you receive it.

Series HH Bonds were first offered in 1980. Before 1980, series H bonds were issued. Series H bonds are treated the same as series HH bonds. If you are a cash method taxpayer, you must report the interest when you receive it.

Series H bonds have a maturity period of 30 years. Series HH bonds mature in 20 years.

Series EE and series I bonds.   Interest on these bonds is payable when you redeem the bonds. The difference between the purchase price and the redemption value is taxable interest.

Series EE bonds were first offered in July 1980. They have a maturity period of 30 years. Before July 1980, series E bonds were issued. The original 10-year maturity period of series E bonds has been extended to 40 years for bonds issued before December 1965 and 30 years for bonds issued after November 1965. Series EE and series E bonds are issued at a discount. The face value is payable to you at maturity.

Series I bonds were first offered in 1998. These are inflation-indexed bonds issued at their face amount with a maturity period of 30 years. The face value plus accrued interest is payable to you at maturity.

If you use the cash method of reporting income, you can report the interest on series EE, series E, and series I bonds in either of the following ways.

1. Method 1. Postpone reporting the interest until the earlier of the year you cash or dispose of the bonds or the year they mature. (However, see Savings bonds traded, later.) Note. Series E bonds issued in 1962 and 1972 matured in 2002. If you have used method 1, you generally must report the interest on these bonds on your 2002 return.
2. Method 2. Choose to report the increase in redemption value as interest each year.

You must use the same method for all series EE, series E, and series I bonds you own. If you do not choose method 2 by reporting the increase in redemption value as interest each year, you must use method 1.

If you plan to cash your bonds in the same year that you will pay for higher education expenses, you may want to use method 1 because you may be able to exclude the interest from your income. To learn how, see Education Savings Bond Program, later.

Change from method 1.   If you want to change your method of reporting the interest from method 1 to method 2, you can do so without permission from the IRS. In the year of change you must report all interest accrued to date and not previously reported for all your bonds.

Once you choose to report the interest each year, you must continue to do so for all series EE, series E, and series I bonds you own and for any you get later, unless you request permission to change, as explained next.

Change from method 2.   To change from method 2 to method 1, you must request permission from the IRS. Permission for the change is automatically granted if you send the IRS a statement that meets all the following requirements.

1. You have typed or printed at the top, Change in Method of Accounting Under Section 6.01 of the Appendix of Rev. Proc. 99-49 (or later update).
2. It includes your name and social security number under the label in (1).
3. It identifies the savings bonds for which you are requesting this change.
4. It includes your agreement to:
   1. Report all interest on any bonds acquired during or after the year of change when the interest is realized upon disposition, redemption, or final maturity, whichever is earliest, and
   2. Report all interest on the bonds acquired before the year of change when the interest is realized upon disposition, redemption, or final maturity, whichever is earliest, with the exception of the interest reported in prior tax years.
5. It includes your signature.

You must attach this statement to your tax return for the year of change, which you must file by the due date (including extensions).

You can have an automatic extension of 6 months from the due date of your return (excluding extensions) to file the statement with an amended return. To get this extension, you must have filed your original return by the due date (including extensions). At the top of the statement, write Filed pursuant to section 301.9100-2.

By the date you file the original statement, you must also send a copy to the address below.

Internal Revenue Service
Attention: CC:PA:T
P.O. Box 7604
Benjamin Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20044

If you use a private delivery service, send the copy to the address below.

Internal Revenue Service
Attention: CC:PA:T
1111 Constitution Avenue, NW
Room 6561
Washington, DC 20224

Instead of filing this statement, you can request permission to change from method 2 to method 1 by filing Form 3115. In that case, follow the form instructions for an automatic change. No user fee is required.

Co-owners.   If a U.S. savings bond is issued in the names of co-owners, such as you and your child or you and your spouse, interest on the bond is generally taxable to the co-owner who bought the bond.

One co-owner's funds used.   If you used your funds to buy the bond, you must pay the tax on the interest. This is true even if you let the other co-owner redeem the bond and keep all the proceeds. Under these circumstances, since the other co-owner will receive a Form 1099-INT at the time of redemption, the other co-owner must provide you with another Form 1099-INT showing the amount of interest from the bond that is taxable to you. The co-owner who redeemed the bond is a nominee. See Nominee distributions under How To Report Interest Income in chapter 1 of Publication 550 for more information about how a person who is a nominee reports interest income belonging to another person.

Both co-owners' funds used.   If you and the other co-owner each contribute part of the bond's purchase price, the interest is generally taxable to each of you, in proportion to the amount each of you paid.

Community property.   If you and your spouse live in a community property state and hold bonds as community property, one-half of the interest is considered received by each of you. If you file separate returns, each of you generally must report one-half of the bond interest. For more information about community property, see Publication 555, Community Property.

Table 8-1.   These rules are also shown in Table 8-1.

Ownership transferred.   If you bought series E, series EE, or series I bonds entirely with your own funds and had them reissued in your co-owner's name or beneficiary's name alone, you must include in your gross income for the year of reissue all interest that you earned on these bonds and have not previously reported. But, if the bonds were reissued in your name alone, you do not have to report the interest accrued at that time.

This same rule applies when bonds (other than bonds held as community property) are transferred between spouses incident to divorce.

Purchased jointly.   If you and a co-owner each contributed funds to buy series E, series EE, or series I bonds jointly and later have the bonds reissued in the co-owner's name alone, you must include in your gross income for the year of reissue your share of all the interest earned on the bonds that you have not previously reported. At the time of reissue, the former co-owner does not have to include in gross income his or her share of the interest earned that was not reported before the transfer. This interest, however, as well as all interest earned after the reissue, is income to the former co-owner.

This income-reporting rule also applies when the bonds are reissued in the name of your former co-owner and a new co-owner. But the new co-owner will report only his or her share of the interest earned after the transfer.

If bonds that you and a co-owner bought jointly are reissued to each of you separately in the same proportion as your contribution to the purchase price, neither you nor your co-owner has to report at that time the interest earned before the bonds were reissued.

Table 8-1. Who Pays the Tax on U.S. Savings Bond Interest

IF ...	THEN the interest must be reported by ...
You buy a bond in your name and the name of another person as co-owners, using only your own funds	You.
You buy a bond in the name of another person, who is the sole owner of the bond	The person for whom you bought the bond.
You and another person buy a bond as co-owners, each contributing part of the purchase price	Both you and the other co-owner, in proportion to the amount each paid for the bond.
You and your spouse, who live in a community property state, buy a bond that is community property	You and your spouse. if you file separate returns, both you and your spouse generally report one-half of the interest.

Example 1.   You and your spouse each spent an equal amount to buy a $1,000 series EE savings bond. The bond was issued to you and your spouse as co-owners. You both postpone reporting interest on the bond. You later have the bond reissued as two $500 bonds, one in your name and one in your spouse's name. At that time neither you nor your spouse has to report the interest earned to the date of reissue.

Example 2.   You bought a $1,000 series EE savings bond entirely with your own funds. The bond was issued to you and your spouse as co-owners. You both postpone reporting interest on the bond. You later have the bond reissued as two $500 bonds, one in your name and one in your spouse's name. You must report half the interest earned to the date of reissue.

Transfer to a trust.   If you own series E, series EE, or series I bonds and transfer them to a trust, giving up all rights of ownership, you must include in your income for that year the interest earned to the date of transfer if you have not already reported it. However, if you are considered the owner of the trust and if the increase in value both before and after the transfer continues to be taxable to you, you can continue to defer reporting the interest earned each year. You must include the total interest in your income in the year you cash or dispose of the bonds or the year the bonds finally mature, whichever is earlier.

The same rules apply to previously unreported interest on series EE or series E bonds if the transfer to a trust consisted of series HH or series H bonds you acquired in a trade for the series EE or series E bonds. See Savings bonds traded, later.

Decedents.   The manner of reporting interest income on series E, series EE, or series I bonds, after the death of the owner, depends on the accounting and income-reporting method previously used by the decedent. This is explained in chapter 1 of Publication 550.

Savings bonds traded.   If you postponed reporting the interest on your series EE or series E bonds, you did not recognize taxable income when you traded the bonds for series HH or series H bonds, unless you received cash in the trade. (You cannot trade series I bonds for series HH bonds.) Any cash you received is income up to the amount of the interest earned on the bonds traded. When your series HH or series H bonds mature, or if you dispose of them before maturity, you report as interest the difference between their redemption value and your cost. Your cost is the sum of the amount you paid for the traded series EE or series E bonds plus any amount you had to pay at the time of the trade.

Example.   You own series E bonds with accrued interest of $523 and a redemption value of $2,723 and have postponed reporting the interest. You trade the bonds for $2,500 in series HH bonds and $223 in cash. You must report the $223 as taxable income in the year of the trade.

Choice to report interest in year of trade.   You can choose to treat all of the previously unreported accrued interest on the series EE or series E bonds traded for series HH bonds as income in the year of the trade. If you make this choice, it is treated as a change from method 1. See Change from method 1 under Series EE and series I bonds, earlier.

Form 1099-INT for U.S. savings bonds interest.   When you cash a bond, the bank or other payer that redeems it must give you a Form 1099-INT if the interest part of the payment you receive is $10 or more. Box 3 of your Form 1099-INT should show the interest as the difference between the amount you received and the amount paid for the bond. However, your Form 1099-INT may show more interest than you have to include on your income tax return. For example, this may happen if any of the following are true.

1. You chose to report the increase in the redemption value of the bond each year. The interest shown on your Form 1099-INT will not be reduced by amounts previously included in income.
2. You received the bond from a decedent. The interest shown on your Form 1099-INT will not be reduced by any interest reported by the decedent before death, or on the decedent's final return, or by the estate on the estate's income tax return.
3. Ownership of the bond was transferred. The interest shown on your Form 1099-INT will not be reduced by interest that accrued before the transfer.
4. You were named as a co-owner and the other co-owner contributed funds to buy the bond. The interest shown on your Form 1099-INT will not be reduced by the amount you received as nominee for the other co-owner. (See Co-owners, earlier in this chapter, for more information about the reporting requirements.)
5. You received the bond in a taxable distribution from a retirement or profit-sharing plan. The interest shown on your Form 1099-INT will not be reduced by the interest portion of the amount taxable as a distribution from the plan and not taxable as interest. (This amount is generally shown on Form 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc., for the year of distribution.)

For more information on including the correct amount of interest on your return, see How To Report Interest Income, later. Publication 550 includes examples showing how to report these amounts.

Interest on U.S. savings bonds is exempt from state and local taxes. The Form 1099-INT you receive will indicate the amount that is for U.S. savings bond interest in box 3. Do not include this amount on your state or local income tax return.

Education Savings Bond Program

You may be able to exclude from income all or part of the interest you receive on the redemption of qualified U.S. savings bonds during the year if you pay qualified higher educational expenses during the same year. This exclusion is known as the Education Savings Bond Program.

If you are married, you can qualify for this exclusion only if you file a joint return with your spouse.

Form 8815.   Use Form 8815 to figure your exclusion. Attach the form to your Form 1040 or Form 1040A.

Qualified U.S. savings bonds.   A qualified U.S. savings bond is a series EE bond issued after 1989 or a series I bond. The bond must be issued either in your name (sole owner) or in your and your spouse's names (co-owners). You must be at least 24 years old before the bond's issue date.

The date a bond is issued may be earlier than the date the bond is purchased because bonds are issued as of the first day of the month in which they are purchased.

Beneficiary.   You can designate any individual (including a child) as a beneficiary of the bond.

Verification by IRS.   If you claim the exclusion, the IRS will check it by using bond redemption information from the Department of the Treasury.

Qualified expenses.   Qualified higher educational expenses are tuition and fees required for you, your spouse, or your dependent (for whom you can claim an exemption) to attend an eligible educational institution.

Qualified expenses include any contribution you make to a qualified tuition program or to a Coverdell education savings account.

Qualified expenses do not include expenses for room and board or for courses involving sports, games, or hobbies that are not part of a degree or certificate granting program.

Eligible educational institutions.   These institutions include most public, private, and nonprofit universities, colleges and vocational schools that are accredited and are eligible to participate in student aid programs run by the Department of Education.

Reduction for certain benefits.   You must reduce your qualified higher educational expenses by certain benefits the student may have received. These benefits include:

1. Qualified scholarships that are exempt from tax (see chapter 13 for information on qualified scholarships), and
2. Any other nontaxable payments (other than gifts, bequests, or inheritances) received for educational expenses, such as:
   1. Veterans' educational assistance benefits,
   2. Benefits under a qualified tuition program, or
   3. Certain employer-provided educational assistance benefits.

Effect of other education benefits.   Do not include in your qualified expenses any expenses used to:

1. Figure an education credit on Form 8863,
2. Figure how much of a distribution from a Coverdell ESA you can exclude from your income, or
3. Figure how much of a distribution from a qualified tuition program you can exclude from your income.

Amount excludable.   If the total proceeds (interest and principal) from the qualified U.S. savings bonds you redeem during the year are not more than your qualified higher educational expenses for the year, you can exclude all of the interest. If the proceeds are more than the expenses, you can exclude only part of the interest.

To determine the excludable amount, multiply the interest part of the proceeds by a fraction. The numerator (top part) of the fraction is the qualified higher educational expenses you paid during the year. The denominator (bottom part) of the fraction is the total proceeds you received during the year.

Example.   In February 2002, Mark and Joan, a married couple, cashed a qualified series EE U.S. savings bond they bought in April 1994. They received proceeds of $7,280, representing principal of $5,000 and interest of $2,280. In 2002, they paid $4,000 of their daughter's college tuition. They are not claiming an education credit for that amount, and they do not have a Coverdell ESA. They can exclude $1,253 ($2,280 × ($4,000 ÷ $7,280)) of interest in 2002. They must pay tax on the remaining $1,027 ($2,280 - $1,253) interest.

Modified adjusted gross income limit.   The interest exclusion is limited if your modified adjusted gross income (modified AGI) is:

• $57,600 to $72,600 for taxpayers filing single or head of household, and
• $86,400 to $116,400 for married taxpayers filing jointly or for a qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.

You do not qualify for the interest exclusion if your modified AGI is equal to or more than the upper limit for your filing status.

Modified AGI, for purposes of this exclusion, is adjusted gross income (line 22 of Form 1040A or line 36 of Form 1040) figured before the interest exclusion, and modified by adding back any:

1. Foreign earned income exclusion,
2. Foreign housing exclusion or deduction,
3. Exclusion of income for bona fide residents of American Samoa,
4. Exclusion for income from Puerto Rico,
5. Exclusion for adoption benefits received under an employer's adoption assistance program,
6. Deduction for tuition and fees, and
7. Deduction for student loan interest.

Use the worksheet in the instructions for line 9, Form 8815, to figure your modified AGI. If you claim any of the exclusion or deduction items listed above (except items 6 and 7), add the amount of the exclusion or deduction (except any deduction for tuition and fees or student loan interest) to the amount on line 5 of the worksheet, and enter the total on Form 8815, line 9, as your modified AGI.

If you have investment interest expense incurred to earn royalty income, see Education Savings Bond Program in chapter 1 of Publication 550.

Recordkeeping. If you claim the interest exclusion, you must keep a written record of the qualified U.S. savings bonds you redeem. Your record must include the serial number, issue date, face value, and total redemption proceeds (principal and interest) of each bond. You can use Form 8818, Optional Form To Record Redemption of Series EE and I U.S. Savings Bonds Issued After 1989, to record this information. You should also keep bills, receipts, canceled checks, or other documentation that shows you paid qualified higher educational expenses during the year.

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