Investors & landlords

You have a choice on when you report your bond interest. You can:

• report the interest every year or
• put off (defer) reporting the interest until you file a federal income tax return for the year in which the first of these events occurs:
• you redeem (cash in) the bond and receive what the bond is worth, including the interest, or
• you give up ownership of the bond and the bond is reissued, or
• the bonds stops earning interest because it has reached final maturity.

To report Bond interest, without form 1099-INT, enter it as if you had a 1099-INT form.

• Log on and continue your return then
• Press the TurboTax "Search" button near the top right of your screen
• Type "1099-int" into the TurboTax search box
• Select "Jump to 1099-int" from the dropdown list of results
• If you reach the "Here's the interest we have so far" screen, click "Add interest income"
• On the "Let Us Enter Your 1099-INT" screen, scroll down and press "I'll type it in myself"
• On the "Let's get the details from your 1099-INT or brokerage statement" screen, be sure to check the checkbox for "My form has info in more than just box 1 (this is uncommon)" See the screenshot below.
• You can now add Box 3 interest from your savings bonds.
• Continue along with answering the questions in the following screens and pressing "Continue"
• If you reach the "Did you cash any Series EE or I U.S. savings bonds?" screen, press "Yes" if you did
• On the "Did you use your U.S. savings bonds to pay for higher education expenses?" screen, press "Yes" if you used your savings bonds for educational costs
• If you qualify, TurboTax will help you to record your exclusion of savings bond interest for Form 8815 on a series of screens