Use Your Tax Refund Although each individual can only purchase $10,000 in I bonds each calendar year, there's a loophole: Those who use their federal income tax refunds can buy an additional $5,000, bringing the total to $15,000.
Normally, you're limited to purchasing $10,000 per person on electronic Series I bonds per year. However, the government allows those with a federal tax refund to invest up to $5,000 of that refund into paper I bonds.
2022 Annual Purchase Limits
As of October 2022, each individual entity can purchase up to $10,000 worth of Series I bonds in a year. All bonds must be registered electronically through TreasuryDirect.
$10,000 limit: Up to $10,000 of I bonds can be purchased, per person (or entity), per year. A married couple can each purchase $10,000 per year ($20,000 per year total). 7.12% interest: The yield on I bonds has two components—a fixed rate and an inflation rate.
Entities like businesses and trusts can also purchase up to $10,000 in I Bonds. This means that if you own a business and you have a living trust, you can purchase up to $30,000 in I Bonds each year.
Family – Each person can buy I bonds for up to $10,000 in a calendar year. For 2022, a married couple could each buy $10,000, thus investing $20,000 as a family. Then, in January 2022, they could buy $20,000 more. Also, you can purchase I bonds for each child, and if you have a trust, the trust can buy them.
I Bond Cons
The initial rate is only guaranteed for the first six months of ownership. After that, the rate can fall, even to zero. One-year lockup. You can't get your money back at all the first year, so you shouldn't invest any funds you'll absolutely need anytime soon.
Married couples and children
The limit for purchasing I bonds is per person, so a married couple can each put up to $10,000 in the investment annually, or up to $15,000 each if they both also elect to get tax refunds in paper I bonds.
You can buy I bonds in electronic form, at face value, after you open a TreasuryDirect® account. Purchase prices start at $25, and you can buy in any amount above that up to $10,000 per person, per calendar year. You also can buy an I bond in paper form, through the Tax Time Purchase Program.
How long will the money be locked in if you purchase an I bond? I bonds earn interest for 30 years, as long as you don't cash them in before then. You need to hold them for at least one year, and if you redeem them after less than five years, you forfeit the previous three months of interest.
The composite rate for I bonds issued from November 2022 through April 2023 is 6.89%.
When we compare the historical 6-month composite rates against 12-month Treasuries at the time we see that the 6-month I bond rate is an average of 0.31% lower. At an initial rate of 6.89%, buying an I bond in October gets roughly 2.1% more compared to the 4.76% 12-month treasury rate (December 13, 2022).
It's not as strong as the 9.62% rate I bond owners enjoyed from April 2022 until the end of October 2022, but it's tough to find a guaranteed rate approaching 7%, and that's what you'll get for your first 6 months if you buy I Bonds between November 2022 until the end of March 2023.
Can church members buy bonds? Yes. Usually the church will make the bonds available to members first, and then – if additional bonds are available – to the public. In the latter case, an additional fee usually is charged to the church.
The biggest red flag for short-term investors: You can't redeem these bonds for a year after you purchase them, and you'll owe a penalty equal to three months' interest if you cash out any time over the first five years of owning the bond.
Cons of Buying I Bonds
I bonds are meant for longer-term investors. If you don't hold on to your I bond for a full year, you will not receive any interest. You must create an account at TreasuryDirect to buy I bonds; they cannot be purchased through your custodian, online investment account, or local bank.
Call risk is the likelihood that a bond's term will be cut short by the issuer if interest rates fall. Default risk is the chance that the issuer will be unable to meet its financial obligations. Inflation risk is the possibility that inflation will erode the value of a fixed-price bond issue.
To buy an I bond, you'll first need to set up an account with TreasuryDirect. [1] The person you're buying one for also needs an account, but they can create that after receiving the I bond. You'll need the recipient's full name and Social Security or tax ID number.
Only Series I savings bonds are available in paper. Paper Series I savings bonds come in 5 denominations: $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1,000. The only way to get a paper savings bond is to use your IRS tax refund. With your tax refund, you can buy savings bonds for anyone (yourself, your child, or as a gift to anyone).
Register Paper bonds in your name or someone else
You can request up to three different savings bond registrations – for yourself and spouse, if married and filing a joint return, or someone other than yourself. If you order bonds for yourself and spouse, the bonds will be issued in the names shown on the return.
The good news is that you can buy I bonds as often as you'd like! The bad news is that you can't surpass the limits, and they are pretty tight: You can buy up to $10,000 in bonds online. You can buy up to $5,000 in additional bonds on paper using your federal income tax return.
While each individual can purchase only $10,000 in I bonds for themselves per year, you can buy multiple I bonds as gifts for others. There's a $10,000 maximum per recipient for each purchase, but there's no limit to how many recipients you have and no limit on how often you can buy bonds for the same recipient.
This means that I Bonds are an extremely tax-efficient savings vehicle, especially for high income earners as a buyer can defer taxation for up to 30 years.