How is savings bond interest determined

[Anonymous]

I am cashing in some bonds for my 18-year old daughter who is away at college. Who claims the interest on their taxes, me or her.

[fanfare · Accepted solution]

fhe owner of the bonds will get 1099-INT for reporting the interest.

[Anonymous]

How do I know who the owner of the bonds is? My name is on some bonds, her father's name is on some, and other family members are on some. Some of the bonds were bought by family members that have passed on. Her name is on all of the bonds. Some bonds have my SSN, some have hers, some have SSN's that I don't know who they belong to.

[TaxGuyBill]

It should go with the names on the bonds.  See this for who paid the tax for Jointly owned bonds:
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/publications/p550/ch01.html#en_US_2016_publink10009909">https://www.irs.gov/publ...>

[TaxGuyBill]

Also, be aware of the possibility that you may be able to file a form to avoid the taxes on the bonds used for college.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch10.html">https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch10.html</a>

[Anonymous]

Thanks. The bonds that have my name and her name were bought by other family members. I didn't buy any of the bonds. A couple of I bonds were bought by her father (they have his name and her name on them).

[TaxGuyBill]

As the link above shows, the ones bought by her father are taxable to him.

The ones bought by others and don't have their name on them are a bit trickier.  Assuming their names were never on the bonds, they are not taxable to the person who bought the bond.  As for if they are taxable to you or your daughter, I suspect the proper way is that both of you would report half of that interest.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious why I report half the tax since they're her boff, she gets the money, and I didn't use any of my own money to buy them.