EE US Savings Bond Interest 1992-1994

Bonds Issued November 1982 through February 1993

• Began earning interest on a fixed graduated scale that started at 4.16% at six months and increased during the first five years to reach a guaranteed minimum rate at five years * Bonds with issue dates of November 1986 through February 1993 had a guaranteed minimum rate of 6% per year, compounded semiannually, for their 12-year original maturity period * Bonds with issue dates of November 1982 through October 1986 had a guaranteed minimum rate of 7.5% per year, compounded semiannually, for their 10-year original maturity period * Once held for five years, they became eligible for market-based rates

The whole thing sounds contradictory for me. The first bullet point says the interest increases from 4.16% to 5%. The second bullet point suggests you have 6%, maybe more, for 12 years, then you can use the tables after 1995 to figure out the market rates for each year. The

When you redeem the bond, won't Treasury direct calculate the interest for you? Say they give you $7200 -- that means your interest was $2200, and the details shouldn't concern you. Of course, you can subtract your qualified higher education expenses if this is a qualified EE bond.

The website has historical redemption value files, going back to May

Look for the rows beginning N1992, where is the year of redemption, and is the month. So this row is for redemption in March (03) of 1993. The 1992 represents your issue year.

The value of EE bonds issued in January (1992) is represented by the next six digits: 001314 (meaning $0013.14). That's how much a $25 EE bond, issued Jan 1992 (at $12.50) would have been worth in March 1993. The next six digits represents the value of a $25 bond issued in Feb

As you can see from looking at this row, bonds one month older (issued in Aug) were worth $12.80, 4c more. Those two months older (issued in July) were worth $12.85, etc. So each of the first six months was worth about 4-5c of interest, totaling 26c over six months. That should give a pretty good approximation for the first six months interest. You'll have exact numbers for each month thereafter.

It looks like this may give you what you want:

Thanks to all who responded. I'm sure I've got enough to get what I need now.

FYI I bought my young son a $10K EE bond in September 1992 and a couple of years later realized he should have been declaring the interest annually, since his overall income was low enough to put him in a no tax status.

He started declaring that bond's interest on his 1995 return and I've kept track of the interest he declared every year after that, and have kept copies of his returns for all those years too.

He's still young enough so his income and tax rates are pretty low, so I figured it might be a good idea to find out the amount of interest he didn't declare those first couple of years and declare it his 2010 return along with that bond's 2010 interest. It's probably less that $300, but every penny counts.

Jeff

If he made the election to report the interest as it is received, then he should file a 1992 tax return. If he didn't file a return, then he can file a 1992 return now -- the statute of limitations is still open if you didn't file a tax return. Then with the standard deduction maybe he owes nothing. If he did file a 1992 return then he can amend it. I'm sure the IRS will accept an amended return if you owe money, by normally they accept amended returns for only up to 3 years.

Where does that come from? They'll only provide refunds for amended returns up to 3 years later, but I don't know of any rule preventing amending returns older than that.

Seth