Savings Bonds as a form of your tax refund.

Buying Savings Bonds

This year, a taxpayer for the first time can request a portion of his refund be used to buy up to $5,000 in low-risk, liquid Treasury I Bonds, which earn interest and protect owners against inflation.

The resulting bonds will be issued in the taxpayer’s name. If the refund is a joint refund, the bonds will be issued in the names of both taxpayers. No beneficiary may be selected. The taxpayer need not have a TreasuryDirect account to purchase I Bonds using this option.

Using Form 8888, the taxpayer enters 043736881 as the routing number and checks the “savings” box. He must use the letters “BONDS” as the account number.

An I Bond request must be a multiple of $50. The taxpayer also needs to designate an account to which he wants the IRS to deposit the balance of his refund. For example, if his refund is $280, the taxpayer can request that $250 be used to purchase I Bonds and that the remaining $30 be deposited into a checking, savings or investment account.

In cases where a refund is an exact multiple of $50 but less than $5,000, the taxpayer may direct that all of the refund be applied to I Bond purchases by filling out the direct deposit information on his tax return and simply not using Form 8888.

The savings bonds will be mailed to the taxpayer.

Bonds will not be purchased in situations where the taxpayer makes an error figuring his refund, or if the bond request is not a multiple of $50 or the refund is offset for any reason. In these cases, the requested purchase will be cancelled and the entire refund mailed to the taxpayer in the form of a check.

Once the IRS has processed a tax return and placed an order for I Bonds, the taxpayer can inquire about the status of his bond purchase by calling the Treasury Retail Securities Site at 1-800-245-2804.