Again, a prod to deliver gift-box savings bonds. Quickly.
By David Enna, Tipswatch.com
Savings Bond investors who are holding I Bonds in “gift-box” storage are getting emails from TreasuryDirect this week advising them to deliver the bonds to the intended recipient. Like (hint, hint) now.
I haven’t received the email, because I delivered all our gift-box I Bonds in 2024, also the year they were purchased. But readers have sent me the text:
Dear TreasuryDirect Customer,
Treasury is always looking for ways to enhance your experience. This includes simplifying the gift bond delivery process. Our records show that your account holds undelivered gift bond(s). To best prepare for coming changes, we recommend delivering your gift bond(s). Delivering gift bond(s) enables your recipient to experience the full benefit of your gift.
Promotes Timely Access and Ownership: Maybe you’re waiting for a certain milestone to gift your bond or simply haven’t gotten around to it. Remember, the registered recipient is the sole legal owner of the bond as soon as you purchase it. Delivering the gift bond promptly ensures the smoothest gifting process.
Grows Investments and Financial Awareness: Delivering gift bond(s) to younger recipients can give them a head start on financial literacy. These bonds may also serve as valuable resources for tuition costs or other important life expenses down the road.
This email echoes the rather vague instructions TreasuryDirect sent a year ago, which I wrote about in this post: “Deciphering TreasuryDirect’s mysterious gift-box email.” In that email, Treasury advised: “Please deliver your gift to the recipients account as soon as possible.” Then in early January 2025, TreasuryDirect sent out a survey about the gift-box process, raising more questions. But since then … silence.
The key words of this new email are “coming changes.” That is an explicit signal that changes are coming to at least the gift-box program and possibly in a broader sense to the entire savings bond system.
Plus, we now have an FAQ
The TreasuryDirect email includes a link to frequently asked questions about this gift-box issue. Here are the Qs and As, along with my thoughts:
How do I deliver a gift savings bond?
Visit TreasuryDirect, log into your account, visit the Gift Box tab on your account page, select the bond, and click “deliver.” You will then enter your recipient’s information, including your recipient’s TreasuryDirect account number. Visit the “How to deliver a gift savings bond — TreasuryDirect” page for more information and to view a video tutorial.
Reaction: The video has good step-by-step instructions. Notice that you need the TreasuryDirect account number of the recipient to complete this process. This should be no problem for most people (couples, for example) but could be a sticking point if the recipient is your niece currently living in France.
How is Treasury enhancing the experience of TreasuryDirect customers?
Treasury is always looking to improve your experience. Future enhancements are still being determined, but we will share information as it becomes available.
Reaction: Purposely vague, but a clear indication that changes are coming to the savings bond process. Hint: I would suggest raising the annual per person purchase limit from $10,000 to $20,000 (or higher), which would mostly eliminate the need for gift-box purchases.
I am sure that TreasuryDirect realizes that the gift-box process is heavily used by sophisticated investors looking to expand their inflation-protected holdings in a very safe investment, the I Bond. So why not adjust I Bond sales to reflect that demand?
Is the gift bond program being eliminated?
At this time, the gift bond program is not being eliminated. However, we will share more information as it becomes available.
Reaction: Vague and not conclusive. I read it as “we are considering all options,” but I suspect Treasury has some solid ideas to de-emphasize gift-box purchases.
Is there a deadline for delivering gift bonds?
Delivering gift bonds proactively prepares you for upcoming enhancements and enables your recipient to experience the full benefit of your gift.
Reaction: Again, this is an all-out announcement that changes are coming.
Is delivering my gift bonds mandatory?
You are encouraged to deliver gift bonds now to ensure you are prepared for coming enhancements and so your recipient can experience the full benefit of the gift bond.
Reaction: Last year, I Bond investors were dizzy when TreasuryDirect seemed to ask them to deliver gift-box purchases “as soon as possible.” That was counter to “accepted” beliefs about delivery limits per year.
We all thought a $10,000 delivery would not be allowed in a year when the recipient had reached the purchase cap. Wrong. We thought multiple purchases and immediate deliveries would never be allowed. Wrong. We thought maybe future purchases by the recipient would be limited. Wrong.
New instructions: You are encouraged to deliver gift bonds now. Got it?
What happens if I don’t deliver my gift bond(s)?
Gift bond recipients are the sole legal owners as soon as they are purchased, so holding undelivered gift bonds introduces potential complications.
Reaction: Potential complications? Not under the current gift-box system, but possibly after changes are made. I am not sure what to make of this.
Is there a limit to how many gift bonds I can deliver to their recipient(s)?
You can only deliver one gift bond at a time. There is no limit to the amount a recipient can receive; however, once they have received $10,000, they should not purchase additional savings bonds that year because gift amounts are applied towards the purchase limit.
Reaction: BOOM! There are two very important messages here: 1) You can deliver gift-box purchases one at a time, but as often as you like, which means unlimited deliveries are possible. 2) The gift-box delivery will count toward the recipient’s purchase cap, but only if they have not yet made a standard purchase this year.
In other words: Have the recipient make the standard $10,000 purchase first, then deliver any or all gift-box items to the recipient, one at a time. That’s how I read this and it is also how the process worked last year, surprisingly.
This is an “almost-clear confirmation” of what we have been experiencing.
Can my recipient cash out gift bonds over the annual purchase limit once they’re deposited into their account?
There is no limit to the amount of bonds a recipient can cash out from their TreasuryDirect account, regardless of how the bonds were acquired. Bonds can only be cashed out if it has been at least one year since the bond was purchased.
Reaction: There never was any restriction on the number of bonds any person could redeem, once the bonds are in their account and have passed the one-year deadline. But this clarifies that is true.
Does the recipient have to accept the gift bond for it to be delivered?
The recipient does not have to accept the gift bond for it to be delivered. … Undelivered gifts remain in the purchaser’s gift box, which prevents the intended recipient from benefiting from the gift.
Reaction: A person might logically reject the gift bond if that person wanted to first purchase I Bonds the standard way, before receiving the gift. I would guess that most “trusted partners” would coordinate on the deliveries. Also, if the recipient has not yet opened a TreasuryDirect account, that would delay the process.
What happens to undelivered gift bonds in the account of someone who has died?
A Treasury gift bond belongs to the recipient and is considered the property of the named recipient from the moment it’s purchased. Estate laws vary from state to state — please work with the executor or legal representative if either the gift giver or the recipient is deceased.
Reaction: If you think you could be close to death, deliver those gift I Bonds immediately. No reason to get probate courts involved in this process. I think it is a good idea to reduce TreasuryDirect holdings as you get closer to “lifetime expiration.” Let the T-bills mature, for example. I Bonds in a “with” ownership account with your spouse are probably OK; others may have different advice.
Still having trouble?
If you can’t find the answer to your question, call us at 844-284-2676 from Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm.
Reaction: Before you call, locate your TreasuryDirect account number. I called. The answering phone message immediately confirms that the gift-box email was legitimate. I punched through to get to a Fiscal Services agent.
I told the agent I was a journalist and asked: “Can you tell me what changes are coming to the TreasuryDirect system?” Answer: “I can’t provide information on that at this time.” Question: “But you do know about the changes?” Very long pause. “No.”
I also asked for clarification on the “have recipient purchase first and then deliver unlimited gift-box sets to that person” question. Answer: “That will work but the system may reject the purchase.” Question: “But it will be OK if the deliveries are done one at a time?” Answer: “That is correct.”
Question: “So a person could go in today and buy multiple sets of gift-box I Bonds and then deliver them this year?” Answer: “Yes, but you’d have to wait five days to make the delivery.” (The 5-day rule has always been in effect).
Can I guarantee that this is accurate information? No, but it is exactly in keeping with the FAQ that TreasuryDirect provided, so I believe it is.
Is there a strategy?
I have more or less given up on the gift-box strategy after diving in last year. Now I am warming up to buying one set (in my account and my wife’s) later this month. The reason: I was going to make a 2026 purchase anyway, and the fixed rate is likely to fall from 1.10% to 0.90% at the November 1 reset. I might as well buy a couple months early and lock in the higher fixed rate.
Remember, there are no tax consequences incurred when you deliver or receive a gift I Bond. Taxes on interest earned are only owed at redemption.
Eventually, we are going to learn what TreasuryDirect is planning. I thought that last year also with the prodding email followed up by the survey in January. Maybe we will see changes before then end of 2025.
My suggestion to TreasuryDirect, again, is to raise the savings bond purchase limit to at least $20,000 and eliminate the need for excess gift-box purchases. On the other hand, maybe the gift-box loophole will get severely curtailed.
But maybe something weirder is coming, like privatizing or outsourcing savings bond support and management? Emptying the gift-box rolls would make management of savings bonds much simpler. I doubt this would happen, but who knows?
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Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities 
I just off the phone with treasurydirect regard the delivery of i-bonds in the gift box. I was told that even if I have already purchased my 2025 i-bond limit, I can still received one or more i-bond gifts from my wife. No details as to what the plans are going forward regarding i-bond gifts.
This lines up with my conversation with TreasuryDirect: You can go ahead and deliver gift sets of I Bonds in 2025, even if the person has purchased I Bonds this year.
I just received a similar email regarding changes to the C of I. “We recommend checking your TreasuryDirect account and cashing your C of I.” is one statement.
I have a lot of small lot purchases of bill, notes, and TIPS. Every month I roll the coupon payments into an I-bond or a new marketable security from the C of I thereby keeping it all internal to TreasuryDirect and separate from my other accounts (bank, brokerage, roth, etc). While I account for it in overall asset allocation, this system helps me track it. I also have a minor-linked account for a child where things are also kept internal so once money goes in, it doesn’t come out until the child is 18 – same system as above – rolling coupons into I-bonds typically.
And good grief! How are we supposed to trust them to enhance the experience when one of the links they provide to learn about the C of I goes to a “Not Found” page at the Treasury. I bet the only experience enhancement these folks are familiar with comes from pills peddled in sketchy online adds.
As someone who doesn’t hold enough of any one security to make it transferable to a brokerage and marketable, I find this remarkably discomforting. And a royal pain in the rear. Do they realize how many individual clicks this is? Time to send a note into the abyss that is my R senators.
I got the same email. Methinks this could be the beginning of the end of the current Savings Bonds program….probably U.S. Savings Bonds themselves. What do you think, David?
Looks like I can use this to put my entire bonds allocation into I bonds.
Is this ok or safer to have I bonds + Bonds fund (like BND) mix ?
I Bonds are probably the “most safe” of all investments. But I personally also use BND as a “core” bond fund in my retirement account. My bond/cash allocation is about 60%, higher than typical.
Any specific reason (other than diversification) you use BND+I-Bonds instead of only I-Bonds?
I own a lot of I Bonds and TIPS and I am satisfied with that level of inflation protection. BND is much more diversified and it relies on nominal yields. Normally, but not always, it is a low-risk ETF. Overall TIPS and I Bonds make up about 15% to 20% of our assets, and overall bonds/cash are at 60%. This is pretty conservative.
Thanks very much for this article; I have not received the email but did have some gift box bonds waiting to be delivered.
I delivered one a few months ago, with the idea of testing the system, then doing the rest later. Of course, I did not do the rest.
Also, I discovered that I had sent some money to TD but not bought any bonds, and it was sitting in my Zero-Interest account. Now, another Series I.
What happened if I deliver over the 19000 gift tax limit to the same person? Like if I transfer 40 to 50k of I bond gift to the same person? Do i need to fill tax gift form for that?
I am not a tax expert, so I can’t answer. It isn’t an issue for married couples, obviously. This has come up before and others may have feedback. Instead of triggering the gift tax, it would be smarter to pare down the yearly transfers?
duynguyenfug, the short answer is yes, you will need to fill out a Form 709. You might want to buy gift bonds under the $19,000 limit and deliver them each year, so you don’t go over the limit in any one year. My understanding is that the gift tax applies to the year you deliver the gift bond to the recipient, not the year you buy the bond. I suggest you explore this further to make sure this is correct. Bogleheads.org has an I Bond thread that discusses this at length.
IRS Form 709: Gift Tax Rules & Filing Guide for 2025
Doug,
Are you aware of any official documentation confirming that the original owner is responsible for paying the accumulated interest on a savings bond at the time of transfer into the name of another person? I called TreasuryDirect this morning and they confirmed that they will not generate a 1099-INT at the time of transfer using Form 4000 for my paper savings bonds-to-our daughter’s TD account transfer. After being transferred from one IRS department to another and being on-hold for 56 minutes, I was disconnected. When I called back, the message said to call another day. If the original owner does in fact pay taxes on the accumulated interest, records such as transfer confirmations would be needed to prove that part of the interest eventually shown on the 1099-INT has already been paid.
It looks like TD gave me bad information over the telephone. Page 14 of IRS Publication 550 says:
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.
Note. This is true for paper bonds. Treasury reporting
process for electronic bonds is more refined. If
Treasury is aware that the transfer of an electronic
savings bond is a reportable event, then the transferor
will receive a 1099-INT for the year of the transfer for
the interest accrued up to the time of the transfer;
when the transferee later disposes of the bond
redemption, maturity, or further transfer), the transferee
will receive a 1099-INT showing interest accrued
reduced by the amount reported to the transferor at the
time of the original transfer.
So, rather than using Form 4000 for the transfer, I need to convert our paper bonds to electronic bonds and then transfer them to our daughter’s TD account in order for a 1099-INT to be generated in my name that shows the accumulated interest.
Also from IRS Publication 550:
U.S. savings bond interest previously reported. If you received a Form 1099-INT for U.S. savings bond interest, the form may show interest you do not have to report. On Schedule B (Form 1040), Part I, line 1, report all the interest shown on your Form 1099-INT. Then follow these steps. (1) Several rows above Schedule B (Form 1040), Part I, line 2, enter a subtotal of all interest listed on Schedule B (Form 1040), Part I, line 1. (2) Below the subtotal, enter “U.S. Savings Bond Interest Previously Reported” and enter amounts previously reported or interest accrued before you received the bond. (3) Subtract these amounts from the subtotal and enter the result on Schedule B (Form 1040), Part I, line 2.
Question – what happens when you click on “Create Manifest” on TreasuryDirect”? Do you have to be connected to a printer at that moment, or can you save the manifest and print it later? I’ve entered the serial numbers for 50 I-Bonds and don’t want to mess up and have to do it over again.
I am not sure exactly what happens, but it would be good to have a printer ready: https://tipswatch.com/2022/05/08/ready-to-convert-paper-i-bonds-into-electronic-form-heres-a-step-by-step-guide/
No more treasuries for me, gold and bitcoin.
If the price of gold was recognized as an official inflation indicator, then we Tip’s and I-bond holders would rack up bigly.
Unbiased Gov measurements are about to go away.
Until the mining industry digs up more of it. See, it is not that different than the U.S. dollar. The government releasing more dollars is just like when miners release more gold.
Another problem is that there could be an abrupt rejection of gold in the future. There may soon be synthetic polymers with characteristics needed to replace the role of gold in electronics.
As far as fashion, steel and nickel have proven to be affordable and fashionable due to the inflation in gold pricing, once gold looses its appeal it may take a while for people to return to it for fashion.
Is it a finite resource? Oil was considered a finite resource.
Gold has been valued for thousands of years, serving as a form of currency and a symbol of wealth. Nothing to do with its practical worth. Like diamonds. Gold has not lost its intrinsic value over thousands of years!
gg, in a year when gold is up 50% and Bitcoin up 18% a lot of people are probably thinking this way. I don’t invest in either. There are logical reasons for the rise in gold, mainly being distrust in U.S. dollars by central banks. I think of Bitcoin as a proxy for “risk” — when risk is appealing, the price rises. When risk is dangerous, the price falls. Obviously, it has been an excellent investment over these bull-market years and it is now being mainstreamed into ETFs.
TIPS and I Bonds, on the other hand, are very low risk investments. It’s nice to have some of that in your portfolio, especially inflation-protected.
My concern is the current administration cares nothing and will kill the messengers of inflation till they are reported cooked to zero. When their is no one to or willing to report, then what? This makes em high risk if you are counting on an inflation component.
gg, you are right to have these concerns. Many of us share them. No one distrusts the motives and veracity of whatever comes out of this administration more than I do, with good reasons and daily examples to back that up. But so far, I have seen no evidence of inflation reporting manipulation. Inflation has gone from 2.4% in April to 2.5% to 2.7% to 2.9%. This feels right to me. Is it? I have no way of knowing. But that is no different than at any other time. If the next inflation report coming out delayed on 10/24/25 is 0% or negative (deflation) to back up the president’s recent false assertion that inflation is gone, then we have real cause for concern, imo. That is not a prediction I am willing to make at this time. The individuals working these numbers are data people, not political appointees, at least for now. I will take their report at face value until there’s a confirmed reason not to. I feel this way enough to have just purchased the current I bond anticipating decent returns for the current and subsequent 6 month periods even as the Fed lowers interest rates which will lowers nominal treasuries
I could see the Treasury reducing gift box purchases to $1,000 or $5,000 and only having it be for minor recipients. The original point of the gift box was for grandparents to buy some bonds for their grandkids or similar such transactions.
I could also see them raising the annual limit to $20,000 or $50,000. That would eliminate much of the gift box finagling that many sophisticated investors are forced to do.
@clearlyc1655a3a91, Mr. Enna has given good pointers on your issue.
Harry Sit has a nice article on his Finance Buff site about Treasury Bond taxation in various scenarios: https://thefinancebuff.com/i-bonds-taxes-simple-default.html
The important thing to know is that the Treasury issues a 1099 only upon redemption or maturity of the bond, not for a transfer. So the tax calc must be done by the owner while transferring & then good records must be kept to avoid double taxation when the bond finally matures. Just reading about all the pitfalls was enough for me.
https://thefinancebuff.com/split-savings-bond-multiple-beneficiaries.html
This link discusses how to split an existing bond, which may address your problem of $21k bond vs $10k transfer requirement. I have not tried it.
On an unrelated note, I have my TD settings to Withhold taxes at a rate specified by me. Less hassles to deal with taxes on maturing bonds since IRS loves Withholding vs Estimated tax payments.
Thank you GinaR
Hi David, I’m trying to learn the rules about transferring some I-Bonds to our daughter as a gift in order to shift some of our December 1998 – October 2001 I-Bond interest away from our 2028 – 2031 income tax returns. If we do nothing, then about $500k in interest will become taxable to my wife and I over those four years. From what I’ve read so far, I think there’s a Treasury Department transfer form we can fill out at the bank, send some of our paper I-Bonds to be converted to Treasurydirect, pay taxes for the interest accrued up to that point, and transfer up to $10,000 per year into our daughter’s treasurydirect account. I believe these count against her $10,000 annual limit. The I-Bonds do not have to be redeemed at the time they’re transferred and will continue earning ~6% until they reach their 30-year maturities. Interest after the transfer date would be taxable income for our daughter.
One question I have is whether I can do this in two steps: first convert some I-Bonds from paper bonds into my Treasurydirect account; and then make the transfer into her name electronically afterward. For example, my $30,000 purchase price of 3/1999 I-Bonds are all in $5,000 denominations. Each of these $5,000 bonds is worth about $21,000, so if there’s in fact a $10,000 annual limit, then I can only give part of it to her. Please provide any comments you may have. Thanks!
This is beyond my expertise, but I would think you’d need to first convert the paper I Bonds to electronic form, which can take some time. I’d predict 3 to 4 months. TreasuryDirect does have detailed instructions on transferring savings bonds to a different account on this page. See the section titled “How do I transfer savings bonds …” Your daughter would need a TreasuryDirect account. I would *expect* that you would be transferring the entire tax burden to your daughter, due on redemption. I am not sure about your idea of paying taxes up to the point of the transfer. Do you have a source for that idea?
According to TerrySavage.com, savings bonds may be transferred into the name of another person if you own the bond. They are yours to do with what you wish. You may request a formal change of title to switch the bonds into the names of other persons. If the bonds are transferred as a gift and you completely remove your name from the bonds, you are responsible for paying taxes on all of the accrued interest of the bonds.
How Do You Transfer Savings Bonds to Another Person?
The Terry Savage article is from 2019, but there is a link to the current form FSF400. https://treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav4000.pdf
Highly complicated and also interesting. But it appears what is happening here is that the savings bonds will be “reissued,” and the original owner will pay taxes owed up to that point. Then the new owner takes over and the interest earned at that point is zero. So the bonds are more or less “closed out” for the original owner and “opened” for the new owner.
“If the name of a living owner or principal coowner of the bonds is eliminated from the registration, the owner or principal coowner must
include the interest earned and previously unreported on the bonds to the date of the transaction on his or her Federal income tax return for the year of the reissue.” Then, in all caps . THE OBLIGATION TO REPORT THE INTEREST CANNOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SOMEONE ELSE THROUGH A REISSUE TRANSACTION.
My question is: Will the Treasury or IRS then record that the tax was paid? Will the Treasury record the higher cost basis for the new owner, so that on redemption this will be a simple process? If anyone has completed this process, let us know.
I’m going to try this and I’ll let you know how it works in a few months after all of the dust settles. I would think TreasuryDirect would create a 1099-INT on my account, the same way they do for redemptions, listing the accrued interest up to the point it was transferred, and send a copy of that to the IRS.
Since you are being taxed as if you redeemed the bonds anyway, it might be easier to just redeem them (on the first of the month) and purchase new gift bonds (near the end of the month) and then deliver the gift bonds whenever, assuming that unlimited gift bonds purchases and deliveries are still a thing when your bonds are converted to electronic form. This might be less complicated, and you could pocket nearly a month’s money market fund interest on what sounds like a substantial principal amount.
clearlyc1655a3a91, if you said you could only gift your daughter $10,000 per year because you thought there was a $ limit on gifts to one person then you are mistaken. My wife and I have gifted over $100,000 in gifts to each other more than once in the same year (purchased and delivered after the 5-day waiting period). You are only limited to one I-Bond being $10,000. You can give your daughter as many bonds as you want. Just beware of the annual gift limit from the IRS which I have copied below.
“The IRS limits the amount a child can receive from a parent before they must file a gift tax return. As of 2025, the maximum gift exclusion is $19,000 per child per parent. That means your child could get as much as $38,000 in tax-free gifts from both parents.”
What I don’t know is that if your I-Bonds are co-owned by both you and your wife, could you give her the $38,000 or you have to have separate bonds in each of your names. That’s above my pay grade.
Thanks for your comments, Doug. It feels like my head’s about to explode. I’m trying to accomplish conflicting goals – pay taxes at the 12% rate on as much of our income as possible, AGI for 2025 of $143,650 for married filing joint return, both over age 65 ($96,950 top of the 12% tax bracket + ($31,500 + $1,600 x 2) std. ded. + $6,000 additional senior deduction x 2 = $143,650); stay below the IRMAA Medicare threshold when that isn’t possible ($224k in 2025); and continue earning ~6% interest on our 1998-2001 I-Bonds until they reach their 30-year maturities. I don’t want to redeem these great 3.0-3.6% fixed rate bonds in order to purchase 3% I-Bonds for our daughter. Keeping track of the interest to avoid double taxation sounds a little dangerous (convincing the IRS) if TreasturyDirect doesn’t issue a 1099-INT for the transfer and issues a 1099-INT to our daughter for all 30 years. TreasuryDirect seems to be indicating that the amount transferred is limited to $10,000.
“If you transfer savings bonds to another customer, the amount of the transfer is applied toward the annual purchase limitation for each savings bond type in the year the transfer occurs.”
TreasuryDirect FAQ — TreasuryDirect
Wondering if that $10k limit is current value or original bond price. Obviously a big difference in your case.
Clearly, you have touched on the other vehicle to transfer ownership of ibonds to others…similar (dollar wise) to the ibond gift box strategy you have highlighted the avenue that TD apparently (also) sanctions! Good work!
clearlyc1655a3a91, You said in your post:
“If you transfer savings bonds to another customer, the amount of the transfer is applied toward the annual purchase limitation for each savings bond type in the year the transfer occurs.”
The key phrase is “annual purchase limit” which is correct. That is why it is recommended to have the recipient of the gift to complete any purchases before delivering any gifts to them. You are still allowed to purchase gift bonds in their name and deliver them. They may change this in the future, but for now it is still allowed as I have said. I also have some of the early 3% fixed bonds and have looked at several work arounds to avoid the dreaded cliff at maturity. Good luck!
Thank you again.
clearlyc1655a3a91,
This is printed on page 4 of the FS Form 4000:
“TAX LIABILITY: If the name of a living owner or principal co-owner of the bonds is eliminated from the registration, the owner or principal co-owner must include the interest earned and previously unreported on the bonds to the date of the transaction on his or her Federal income tax return for the year of the reissue.
If the reissue is a reportable event, the interest earned on the bonds to the date of the reissue will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by a Federal Reserve Bank or the Bureau of the Fiscal Service under the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. THE OBLIGATION TO REPORT
THE INTEREST CANNOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SOMEONE ELSE THROUGH A REISSUE TRANSACTION.”
The way I read this is that Treasury Direct, also called the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, will be the one reporting it to the IRS. They will probably create a 1099 at the end of the year on the amount reported.
Mr. Enna, as always an excellent & timely article. I had received the Gift bond email and came here to check knowing that you would be on top of these matters. I delivered my gift bonds and my husband did the same. Then I went in to change the Registration on these (me WITH husband). Thanks to my fat fingering, messed up the security answer & got the dreaded message “You have made too many invalid entries and your account has been locked. Please contact us at (844) 284-2676. We will never ask you for your password. While your account is locked, scheduled transactions, including reinvestments, may be cancelled.”
Short story, called the TD number today and my account was unlocked. Total time spent under 5 minutes! I am beyond impressed!! I confirmed that the security answers are not case sensitive.
Also, agree with you on the TD website. I too am used to it, quirks & all.
Would prefer it to stay the same. IMHO there are better policy things for TD to focus on now than website design.
If anyone is considering doing the gift box strategy, they should do it ASAP before TD changes their policy. There is theoretically some risk, but basically it’s a huge loophole that allows purchases in excess of the annual limit.
It might be gone tomorrow.
Can you purchase more than$10,000 in gift bonds in the same year for your spouse? I think previous commenters have said they have. The TD FAQs seem to indicate you cannot. Thanks!
You can purchase a gift bond up to the $10,000 limit per bond. But you can purchase as many as you want for one person or several persons.
This is all very interesting. Thank you David for the excellent article and your guests for some very good posts. After buying 10K of I-bonds in 2025, I purchased 3,000 In wife’s gift box and delivered them a week later with no problem. I more recently bought 4,000 more in the wife’s gift box, but was going to wait until Jan 26 to deliver in order to avoid any possible issues with TD. This gives us confidence to deliver all gift bonds despite reaching 10K limit in 2025. Or even buy more in gift box and deliver.
Off-topic, but important: The New York Times and Bloomberg are reporting that the BLS is recalling furloughed employees and will release the October 15 CPI report on time despite the shutdown.
I feel a TipsWatch article is in draft form as we speak.
This is a positive development.
It’s not a stretch to read a little into this and think that this decision could be an indication that September inflation will come in lower than expected, given the nature of how this administration thinks and operates.
But the Q is will it be the real CPI or the alternative formula that the regs specify in lieu thereof? I suspect the latter
If it is the BLS experts, it will be September’s data.
This is very good news. I am hoping they can stick to the Oct. 15 date. The release carves out hours of a morning for me, and I need to plan for a specific date!
Statement from BLS:
“BLS will publish the September 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Friday, October 24, 2025, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time. No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services. This release allows the Social Security Administration to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits.”
The specific date is now October 24th.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/10/10/cpi-inflation-data-government-shutdown.html
I don’t think they said the CPI report would be delivered “on time”, they said it would be delivered prior to the Federal Reserve Meeting on October 28-29. They seem to indicate it was vital information needed for Social Security inflation adjustments. Of course it’s also available for the I-bond reset on 11/1
Hi David,
On Jan 1st this year, both me and my spouse delivered 10k gift bonds to each other’s account.
We have not made any I bonds purchases this year yet (assuming the 10k limit).
I received this same email from TD today.
If we have not made any I Bonds purchases this year yet but have received 10K gift bonds each, does this mean we can go ahead and deliver rest of our gift bonds to each other (leaving a 5 days gap in between) ?
If I were to purchase I-Bonds for my spouse as a gift, then deliver those bonds to her TD account, they would be registered with her as the sole owner, correct?
Could I then edit the registration on the delivered bonds with either a POD or as jointly held? Just thinking about avoiding probate… makes sense that the registration could be edited AFTER they have been delivered (but not while sitting in your gift box waiting for delivery.)
Thanks.
JCM, I always register the gift bonds I gift to my spouse as HER NAME & SS#-POD-MY NAME & SS#. That way they are already registered Before they are delivered to her account.
When you add a new listing to your registrations list in Treasury Direct, you can choose among three options: Sole Owner, Primary Owner, and Beneficiary. Sole Owner will result in the bond belonging to {First-Named Registrant}. Primary Owner will identify the bond as belonging to {First-Named Registrant WITH Second-Named Registrant}. Beneficiary will identify the bond as belonging to {First-Named Registrant POD Second-Named Registrant}.
And if spouses want to be able to take action on one another’s I Bonds while both are living, whether the bonds were directly purchased in their individual accounts or delivered to those accounts as gift box purchases from one to the other, they’ll probably also want to use the TreasuryDirect site to “grant transact rights” to the other spouse, even if the bonds themselves are registered as joint ownership or POD (Pay on Death) for estate planning purposes. This must be done separately for each electronic I Bond.
From my experience, they will be delivered with the spouse as sole owner, but then you can log into that account and change the registration to the “with” registration.
TD will let me create a gift registration in either my wife’s name, or my wife’s name POD to me, but will not let me create a “with” registration with me as the joint owner. Oh well, that can be fixed later it seems. Thanks again.
First of all, the “BOOM” was hilarious.
Second, you have a typo:
“Wrong. We though maybe future purchases by the recipient would be limited. Wrong.”
(the last “t”is missing in “thought.”
Third, I continue to posit that they are migrating to a new website. Everyone complains about it so it is long overdue. My guess is the gift boxes can’t be automatically migrated so it’s easier to have account holders do it themselves rather than having to do it manually after the update. We will see if I’m right.
Fourth, procedurally, the new normal is buy and receive gift, in that order.
Fifth, as far as policy goes, the ability to buy savings bonds as gifts has long and storied tradition in America. I don’t see it going away. I can envision a limitation per person per year on it in the future. That said, the purchase limit never made sense to me. Why are we limiting a safe investment? If anything, since the limit was previously $30,000, I can see then bumping that up at the same time they limit the gift amounts.
One of these years, we may find out.
Thanks for catching that typo. I am among the few Americans who actually likes (OK, tolerates) the TreasuryDirect website and its clunkiness. I use it almost every day as I check results of daily Treasury auctions. When I log in a few times a month, it does the job for me. It’s nostalgic.
That’s one word for it. 😂
I don’t mind it either, but it is lacking in navigation, ease of use, and modern Web functionality (I.e. responsive design, app access, etc).
Having created a website from scratch for a large institution, maintained it, and then migrated it to a Web hosting solution years later, I understand why certain practices might need to be done in preparation for the redesign. I sense that’s what is going on with the gift box, but it’s just a hunch.
Count me among the few who like TreasuryDirect as well (and this is coming from a millennial). There is a certain logic and predictability behind the website’s clunkiness, particularly the way issue dates and confirmation codes are displayed. I’m not in a hurry to see a major refresh.
Migrating to a new website as the obscure reason for these emails makes a lot of sense – reducing future internal workload of migration by having the customers do the work! But TD doesn’t actually know if or when that is happening.
I agree with David, I don’t find the website to be anywhere near as bad as so many people believe.
Yes, agreed. Even the unknown timeframe leads me to the same conclusion, though I have no inside information at all. There’s a lot of revision, functional development, and intrusion testing for cybersecurity reasons needed before a new website launches. Add in the usual government red tape, change in administrations, change in priorities, changes in staffing, and it has TBD written all over it – if it is what I think it is.
I have been dealing with Treasury Direct since before transactions were made on the internet and were done by snail mail. We still own paper I Bonds from 2003-2005.
When I first saw the posting about the email from Treasury Direct last year (both my wife and I had I Bonds in gift boxes but never received the email) I was thinking that it was a wonderful opportunity for those individuals that purchased 4 and 5 years worth of gift box I Bonds when the rate was over 9% (0% fixed rate) for their spouses and children to get out of jail free. I frankly never understood the logic of making an investment where the last tranche would be completely illiquid for more than 4 years (as the rules were understood to be at that time) and the only thing they were guaranteed was a very nice return for one 6 month period of the 4 plus years.
We currently have some gift box I Bonds from replacing 0% fixed rate I Bonds and we will be delivering them during the next few weeks. I want to get away from the whole gift box I Bond mode.
This is both humorous and sad. Another vague email from TD, and new – almost useless and completely non-transparent – FAQs. It’s like a spooky halloween message: “something may happen….”. or not.
I guess the takeaway is if you have a trusted partner, buy as many gift box purchases as you want to deliver them 5 days later.
I have a trust and a personal account with the same social security number. Can I gift to each other account?Sent from my iPad
The gift box can only be used for personal accounts, not businesses or trusts.
Maybe the Treasury is looking at an issue of mounting numbers of undelivered or undeliverable I-bonds.
Trying to figure out what Treasury is up to concerning the I Bond program is rather like understanding the workings of a “black box,” or–considering all the overlapping rules imposed on customers, a Rube Goldberg machine.
But I note that this latest Treasury announcement has been issued in October, and last year’s similar announcement was also issued in October, as reported by David here
https://tipswatch.com/2024/10/22/deciphering-treasurydirects-mysterious-gift-box-email/
And so I wonder if these deliver-your-gift-bonds messages, happening in the same month in two consecutive years, may, despite their intentionally vague suggestions about future changes in the I Bond program, simply be on their way to becoming an annual ritual of their own, and Treasury doesn’t actually know its future plans about anything. All of us must “stay tuned.” 🙂
Side note: governments and corporations love to engage in unnecessarily multisyllabic bureauspeak. So, “now” becomes “at this time,” and “right now” becomes “at this particular point in time.” Thanks, David for your usual verbal economy.
Re:
“Gift bond recipients are the sole legal owners as soon as they are purchased, so holding undelivered gift bonds introduces potential complications.
Reaction: Potential complications? Not under the current gift-box system, but possibly after changes are made. I am not sure what to make of this.”
I welcome correction if I’m mistaken, but isn’t the “potential complication” that the buyer is holding the gift bond in his/her own account but can’t do anything else with the bond because it’s in the name of the recipient/owner, but the recipient also can’t access the bond or do anything with it as long as it remains in the buyer’s gift box and hasn’t yet actually been delivered to the recipient/owner’s separate account? Therefore. the case for not “sitting” on gift box contents unnecessarily.
Am I correct in understanding that I can buy and deliver an unlimited amount of bonds to my spouse this year as long as he doesn’t purchase any himself?!
Ann, you are correct in that you can buy your spouse unlimited gift bonds. But he can purchase his $10,000 limit before you deliver his gift bonds. Once you deliver the gift bonds to his account his annual limit is met.
Thanks Doug, I phrased that wrong. He won’t need to buy any if I give him enough —the whole rule is ridiculous as being implemented!
Regardless of whether the recipient buys 10k bonds for themselves, they can still receive unlimited bonds from their spouse ?
My spouse has not purchased any for himself this year but has received one 10k gift bond so far. Can I deliver the rest of the gift bonds to him immediately ?
Jane, You asked “Can I deliver the rest of the gift bonds to him immediately?”
YES, you can deliver as many gift bonds as you want. He just can’t buy any for himself now because when he got the first gift bond his annual limit was met for buying his own. He can still receive gift bonds. Or he could buy a gift bond for you.
At this time, current as of September 29, the Code of Federal Regulations regarding the gifting of bonds still does not appear to indicate any time limit on delivery:
“You may deliver the bond upon purchase, or you may hold the bond in your TreasuryDirect ® account until you are ready to deliver the bond to the owner named on the gift bond.“
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-II/subchapter-A/part-363/subpart-C/subject-group-ECFR351402ce0015a77
I hope that they provide a reasonable transition to any change. Currently I have gift bonds held in my gift box for grandchildren’s birthdays well into 2026. This would be a case where preferring at least some means of grandfathering would be quite literal.
The 5-day holding period is noted on the TreasuryDirect site: “You must hold the savings bonds in your account for at least 5 business days before you deliver them to the gift recipient.” (But I know you were referring to the longer-term holding periods.)
I have had bonds in the gift box for quite some time, but just got a reminder message for the first time. I did recently deliver two to my spouse. No way to deliver bonds to older grandson who has not opened an account, and I’m not going to deliver to the younger one until he graduates in May, if I can help it!
These are the most common reasons I hear for not delivering gift-box purchases. 1) the person has no TD account and 2) the person isn’t quite old enough to be trusted.
I repeat my earlier post…
“If TD or the government was at all interested in the public to best prepare for…then it would provide more due process, public notice of “proposed” changes, use the Federal Register (minimum of 60 days notice), solicit and consider public inputs before any implementation. Otherwise non-compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act could dampen a “best prepare” experience!”