Refund used to purchase Savings Bonds

[SweetieJean]

I deliberately made an extra Estimated Tax payment so that I could apply part of my refund to the purchase of U,S. Savings Bonds.  All went well, and WMR confirmed that this would be happening.  But lo and behold, a deposit from the IRS landed in my bank account on the appointed date for the gross refund.  I waited a few days to see if it would be corrected, but it hasn't.  Getting through to the IRS is impossible.  Any ideas?  I hate to lose out on the current really good I Bond rate.

[fanfare]

Well, if your entire refund came back to you, you didn't purchase any bonds.

[rjs]

@SweetieJean 

You can buy I bonds in electronic form through TreasuryDirect. The only difference is that you don't get a paper bond. Using your tax refund is the only way to get paper bonds, but the interest rate on the electronic bonds is the same. And the maximum amount you can buy each year is twice as much for the electronic bonds.

Series I Savings Bonds

Series I Savings Bonds more info

TreasuryDirect

[SweetieJean]

 I know, but I 'd already purchased the maximum allowed through my Treasury Direct account this year.  Using the refund was a way to get another $5,000.  

[SteamTrain]

Bummer...hard to know what exactly happened.....but, did you make sure you requested the i-bonds in a $50 multiple?

[SweetieJean]

Yup, and my Form 8888 was correct. 

[baatsmth]

Same thing happened to several others. There’s another post on this topic with information. 

[rjs · Accepted solution]

Here's the other thread that baatsmth is referring to.

What to do now?--Form 8888 I-Bond Purchase Request Ignored by IRS

[SweetieJean]

I ended up sending the Tax Advocate all my documentation, and will now wait (probably a long time) to see what happens.  In the meantime, I'm missing out on the I Bond rate of 9.62%