Goodbye, physical US savings bonds! Per this TreasuryDirect announcement, the US Treasury will no longer allow to you to buy an additional $5,000 in paper Series I savings bonds each year with your tax refund, effective January 1st, 2025. (If you haven’t filed your 2023 Tax Year returns, you can still get them with your late filing by October 15, 2024 using IRS Form 8888.)
Honestly, I’m very surprised it lasted this long. You haven’t been able to buy paper bonds anywhere else for over a decade. Finding a bank to even cash in an existing paper bond is like a treasure hunt. (It’s easier to just convert them to electronic first, then sell them online.) My theory is that there was some warehouse full of blank paper bonds that they wanted to use up. Here are some stats on who actually used this option:
– On average, 35,000 tax filers each year bought paper Series I bonds: this represented .03 percent of tax filers, and less than 10 percent of Series I bond purchasers.
– Less than 10 percent of participants consistently participated (more than 2 years).
– Sales of paper I bonds through this program made up less than 1 percent of all series I savings bond purchases.
(I might be too lazy to update all of my old Savings Bonds update posts…)
Purchase limits otherwise remain the same: $10,000 in electronic I Bonds and $10,000 in electronic EE bonds per year per Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number. For those looking for another way to expand their purchasing power, that means you can also buy for a child, grandchild, LLC, or a trust.