Government Help Now Available To Assist In Finding Old Or Lost Savings Bonds And Getting Cash You Can Use

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Government Help Now Available To Assist In Finding Old Or Lost Savings Bonds And Getting Cash You Can Use (NAPSA)—A growing number of Americans are engaged in a treasure hunt—somein their own home. They’re looking for U.S. Savings Bonds, the Series E in particular. The good newsis that there’s a new Website designed to help them in their search. Series E U.S. Savings Bonds that are at least 30 years old— that’s nearly all E bonds—have stopped earning interest. That means bond holders can actually lose money to inflation by not cashing them, so it’s in the interest of bond holders to find the bonds and get the cash. Many of these bonds are worth at least four times their face value—sometimes much more. For example, a $100 Series E bond bought for $75 in 1960 is worth more than $700 today. So why aren’t people cashing It’s in the interest of those hold- ing Series E Savings Bonds to cash them if the bonds have reached maturity. Otherwise, they may lose moneyduetoinflation. enter the Social Security number of the owner or purchaser. The their bonds? In many cases, they have simply been forgotten. A Treasury Hunt database will now in their 50s and 60s may have received the bonds when they were children as graduation or birthday gifts, or bought them using savings stamps at school. Or they may have purchased them through the Payroll Savings Plan instructions on thesite for finding great number of baby boomers whentheyfirst started working. While it’s a smart idea to start your search for bonds in old fam- ily “hiding places,” you can also visit www.treasuryhunt.gov. The U.S. Department of the Treasury created the site to help people locate unredeemed mature bonds. If the bonds were purchased in 1974 or later, you just have to match the number against unre- deemed bonds. There are also bonds issued before 1974. For the vast majority of owners, cashing bonds will not affect their tax rate, but may provide an aftertax windfall. Federal income taxes are only due on the interest earned, while bonds are completely free of state and local income taxes. You can find out more about unredeemed savings bonds, including how to cash them at your local financial institution, by visiting www.treasuryhunt.gov. You'll also find a calculator there that tells you how muchold bonds can be worth.

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