How do I report a T-bill 1099 ? Is the financial institution the "department of the treasury"? What goes into box 1?

[LindaS5247]

Yes, Treasury Bills (or T-Bills for short) are a short-term financial instrument that are issued by the Department of Treasury.

If you received interest income from a T-Bill, but didn't receive a Form 1099-INT, you can report the interest as follows:

1. Open or continue your return.
2. Search 1099-INT or 1099INT (lowercase also works)
3. Select the Jump to link.
4. Answer Yes to Did you have any interest income? ...
5. On the Get ready to be impressed screen, select Continue.
6. Select Enter a different way.
7. Select Interest 1099-INT and Continue.
8. Select Type it in myself.

Your "Received from" in TurboTax will be the U.S. Department of Treasury.

When you enter your "Received From" information it will look like this:

Your next screen will look like this:

Note: 

You will only receive a 1099 for your T-Bill:

• If you cashed a savings bond in 2022.
• If you owned a marketable security which earned interest in 2022.

You will not receive a 1099 if you only purchased a savings bond and did not cash it.

 The interest income received in a year is generally reported on a Form 1099-INT.  If you received a Form 1099-INT for your Treasury Bill, Box 3 "Interest on U.S. Savings Bonds and Treasury obligations",  should have been completed.

If you have received a Form 1099 for your Treasury Bill, you should enter it as shown.

You can click here for more detailed information regarding entering your Form 1099-INT.

Click here for additional information on Form 1099 INT.

Click here for Instructions for Form 1099 INT.
 

[Edited 02/21/23|3:10 pm PST] @lauracalili 

[hbl3973]

lauracalili,

Before entering your T-Bill information, there are a couple of things to clarify. 

If you purchased that security through the online-only TreasuryDirect system (treasurydirect.gov) you would log into your TreasuryDirect account and go to the "Manage Direct" tab and select "Year 2022" under the "Manage My Taxes" area.  This will take you to your 1099 forms for transactions in your account.  You will indeed find that the Payer Information is "Department of the Treasury" and their tax ID number is 53-0197074.  The 1099-INT portion will direct you to enter the T-Bill interest in Box 3 when you transfer it to TurboTax.  (In most circumstances interest appears in Box 1, but US govt. interest is special and appears in Box 3 instead.)

If you, instead, purchased the T-Bill through a brokerage account, you would use the Broker's Payer Name and Tax ID number shown on the tax forms that the broker sends you.

T-Bills can also show up in 1099-B forms as well if you paid other than the face value of the T-Bill, i.e., at a discount or a premium.  When the bill matures (or if you sell it), the difference between what you paid and what you sold it for is a capital gain that shows up on a 1099-B.  Enter the numbers from the 1099-B where TurboTax deals with stock and bond sales.  Again, the Payer Name and Tax ID depend upon how you purchased the T-Bill.

[Mike9241]

if you got a 1099 for interest on a t-bill use the payer's name on the form. the interest gets reported or should be reported in box 3 not box 1

[lauracalili]

Thank you! that helped!

[lauracalili]

Great! Thanks.