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Bond Investing Economic Data Markets Rates and Bonds. If you want to accurately compare the return, you will receive from a municipal bond versus a taxable bond , you must compute its taxable equivalent yield.
The formula is as follows:. Example — Taxable Equivalent Yield Joe is trying to decide whether he should invest in a corporate or municipal issue. Which is the best choice?
This is true for most investors in the lower tax brackets. Corporate bonds are the simplest type of bond from a tax perspective, as they are fully taxable at all levels.
Regardless of the type of bonds that are sold, any debt issue that is traded in the secondary market will post either a capital gain or loss, depending on the price at which the bonds were bought and sold. This includes government and municipal issues as well as corporate debt. Gains and losses on bond transactions are reported the same as with any other type of security, such as stocks or mutual funds, for the purposes of capital gains. As discussed previously, when a bond is issued at a discount, a prorated portion of the discount is reported as income by the taxpayer each year until maturity.
You also have the option of deducting nothing each year and simply declaring a capital loss when you redeem the bonds at maturity or sell them for a loss. However, it is not necessary to amortize premium in the year that you buy the bond; you can begin doing so in any tax year.
One important rule to remember is that if you elect to amortize the premium for one bond, then you must also amortize the premium for all other similar bonds, both that year and going forward. Another caveat is that if you do decide to amortize the premium from a bond, you must reduce the cost basis of your position by an equivalent amount.
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Companies used to raise funds with a written guarantee of the promise to pay it back in full with interest. This guarantee is known as a bond. A coupon is a periodic interest received by a bondholder from the time of issuance of the bond till maturity.
They are offered at a large discount on the face value of the bond. On maturity, the bondholder receives the face value of his investment.
In short, yes, buyers of zero-coupon municipal bonds may incur a tax liability, but that liability does not have to be recognized until the bond is redeemed or sold. In case of non-notified zero coupon bonds, the difference between maturity and.
In simple words, the investor purchasing a zero coupon bond profits from the difference between the buying price and the face value, contrary to a coupon-based bond which provides regular interest a zero coupon bonds carries no intermittent payments of interest. The basic definition of these bonds indicates the absence of regular interest payments to investors. You must keep that in mind before opting for them.
If your investment portfolio primarily consists of growth investments and you are looking to add diversity to it, then zero coupon bonds can help you secure a guaranteed return for a fixed time period. Finally, these bonds tend to offer great discounts for longer tenures of investment and are perfect for long-term investment plans. Zero coupon bonds are subject to interest rates risk if sold prior to the date of maturity.