FS Form 4000: Reissue Savings Bonds, Now Only as Electronic Bonds

The most important detail on FS Form 4000 sits in a short note at the top of its first page, and it is easy to read past: “When we reissue Series EE or Series I savings bonds, we no longer provide paper bonds. The reissued bonds are in electronic form, in our online system TreasuryDirect.” A request to reissue bonds now ends with an entry in an online account rather than a new certificate. That has a practical consequence for anyone dealing with a name change, a death or a divorce: for Series EE and Series I bonds, Part A asks for the number of the TreasuryDirect account that will receive them, so the person receiving the bonds needs an account before the form can be completed.

When this form applies, and when it does not

The instructions define the form’s job narrowly: it is used “to reissue paper (definitive) Series EE and Series I United States Savings Bonds, Retirement Plan Bonds, and Individual Retirement Bonds.” A separate form must be used for each new registration, along with the corresponding account number for Series EE and Series I. If what you want is money rather than a new registration, the instructions send you elsewhere: “To request payment, submit form FS Form 1522 (see www.treasurydirect.gov) instead of this form.” Our guide to FS Form 1522 for cashing paper bonds by mail covers that route.

Timing matters as well. Both Part A and Part B carry the same restriction: savings bonds within one month of final maturity cannot be reissued. The form does not say what to do instead, so a bond that is that close to maturity is a question for Treasury’s savings bond line rather than a reason to send the form anyway.

The chart on page one

The first page of the form is a chart with four columns: who you are, what you are asking for, which parts to complete, and who must sign and with what evidence. This is the full chart, rewritten as a table.

Two entries deserve a closer look. The Series I line for removing a living owner is the only place in the chart where a bond type changes the answer, and it ties the request to a court: parts A and C are available “only if directed by judicial proceedings.” And the chart’s footnote explains the apparent contradiction in the coowner line. “A bond reissued to an individual will be in one name alone. However, after the bond is reissued in TreasuryDirect, the owner can add a secondary owner or beneficiary to the bond.” A secondary owner “does not have the same rights as a co-owner,” but may still be given the ability to redeem the bond and “has survivorship rights.” A bond reissued to an entity such as a trust “always will be solely in the name of the entity.”

SmartExchange as the alternative

For three kinds of change, the chart offers a choice between FS Form 4000 and a program called SmartExchange: changing a name, adding, changing or removing a beneficiary, and removing a deceased registrant. The form describes it this way: “This program allows you to convert paper Series EE and paper Series I bonds to electronic form. In doing this, you can make some changes to the registration (ownership) of the bonds, provided you supply appropriate evidence and/or information.” The details live on a TreasuryDirect page the form points to: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/manage-bonds/convert-paper-to-electronic/. The form does not describe how SmartExchange is carried out, whether it requires an online login, or how it is signed, so it is worth reading that page before choosing.

Part A: the electronic reissue

Part A is for Series EE and Series I bonds, and it is where the electronic requirement shows up in the fields you fill out. You describe the bonds by issue date (the specific month and year of purchase), face amount, bond number and inscription, including the complete Social Security number, names with any middle names or initials, and the addresses exactly as they appear on the bonds. If there is not enough room, you can attach FS Form 3500 or a plain sheet of paper. Item 2 then asks you to agree to reissue the bonds in electronic form in a TreasuryDirect account, and you supply the account number, the Social Security number or Employer Identification Number, and the account name.

Item 3 asks for the reason for the reissue. If the reason is to correct an error in registration, you must say who purchased the bonds, whose funds were used and how the error occurred, then give the registration the bonds should have had originally: the Social Security number or EIN, the full name of the owner, and the name of any coowner or beneficiary. If the bonds will be held in the purchaser’s TreasuryDirect account as gifts, you give the recipient’s name and Social Security number. The note on the page adds that you may add a secondary owner or beneficiary once the bonds are in your account, and for instructions you access your account and click “How do I” at the top of the page.

Part B: retirement plan bonds

Part B is for a different set: Retirement Plan Bonds and Individual Retirement Bonds. The fields are similar, but here you request the new registration directly, giving the taxpayer identification number, the registration (a name or a fiduciary inscription), a mailing address and, if you want one, a coowner or beneficiary. The form says that if a name is shown and neither box is marked, coownership will be assumed. The instructions point to Department Circulars 1-75 for Individual Retirement Bonds and 1-63 for Retirement Plan Bonds for the complete rules on authorized reissues. The electronic-only note is written about Series EE and Series I bonds, and the text of Part B does not say that retirement bonds are reissued electronically, so do not assume either way. The form does not mention HH bonds anywhere that we could find.

Part C: who signs and in front of whom

Part C is where this form differs from several of its cousins. The instructions say that persons named on the bonds, as well as the TreasuryDirect account owner or account manager if that is someone else, must sign. You sign in ink “in the presence of a notary or certifying officer,” and the instructions add that “Authorized certifying officers are available at financial institutions, including credit unions, in the United States.” Acceptable seals include the seal or stamp of a notary, a financial institution’s official stamp (Signature Guaranteed, Endorsement Guaranteed, corporate, or issuing or paying agent) and the stamp of a Treasury-recognized Signature Guarantee Program or other Treasury-approved Medallion Program. The notary or officer must write the name of each person who appeared and the date, and the form says that person must sign in the officer’s presence.

Several signing rules are specific. If a name has changed through marriage, divorce, court order, naturalization or otherwise, the person must sign in the form: “(PRESENT LEGAL NAME)”, changed by (specify manner in which change occurred) from “(NAME AS ON BONDS).” For a change other than marriage, a complete statement should follow the signature showing exactly how the change of name was authorized, and evidence may be required. For a corporate fiduciary, the corporation’s name comes first, followed by the signature and title of a notary or authorized officer. When two or more fiduciaries are involved, all must join unless a statute, a court decree or the instrument they act under allows one or more to sign alone.

The instructions also bar certain people from asking. For Series EE and Series I bonds, “A minor may not sign a request for reissue,” a minor under legal guardianship may not request reissue, and an incompetent owner, coowner or beneficiary may not request reissue. In those cases the reissue will be in the name of the minor or incompetent alone.

The tax warning on the form

Both Part A and Part B carry a boxed tax notice that is worth reading before anyone signs. If the name of a living owner or principal coowner is eliminated from the registration, that person “must include the interest earned and previously unreported on the bonds to the date of the transaction” on the federal return for the year of the reissue. If the reissue is a reportable event, the interest to the date of reissue is reported to the IRS. The notice puts it in capitals: “THE OBLIGATION TO REPORT THE INTEREST CANNOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SOMEONE ELSE THROUGH A REISSUE TRANSACTION.” The principal coowner is defined as the coowner who bought the bonds with his or her own funds, or received them as a gift, inheritance, legacy or through judicial proceedings and had them reissued in coownership form without receiving anything in exchange for naming the other coowner. Unless Treasury is told otherwise, the first-named coowner is treated as the principal coowner.

TreasuryDirect’s tax page for EE and I bonds matches this for electronic bonds: when Treasury reissues the bond, it reports the total interest the bond has earned so far on a Form 1099-INT in the name and Social Security number of the person being removed, and the new owner is later reported only the interest earned after the reissue. The form directs tax questions to the IRS.

ID.me and the new account

Because the reissued bonds land in a TreasuryDirect account, the login change matters here. TreasuryDirect’s FAQ says ID.me “became the only login method” for the online account on October 28, 2026, and in the one place where it discusses someone taking over an account, minor accounts reaching age 18, it says the new adult “must create their own TreasuryDirect account and verify their identity through ID.me.” The FAQ does not separately describe opening an account for the purpose of receiving reissued bonds, so what to expect for that case is a question for Customer Support. The form lists 844-284-2676 and [email protected] for bond-related inquiries. The login situation is explained in more detail in TreasuryDirect without ID.me, and our table of TreasuryDirect forms by certifier shows where the notary rule on this form differs from the others. If you are dealing with bonds that belonged to someone who died, the route in FS Form 5336 for a deceased owner without probate is the other form to compare before you choose.

Mailing it

The instructions say: “send this form (without instruction pages), the securities, if any, and any additional information” to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150. Legal evidence or documentation submitted cannot be returned, and Treasury reserves the right to require additional evidence in any case. The form estimates about 30 minutes to complete and gives no processing time. Bond-related inquiries can go to [email protected], 844-284-2676 (toll free) or fax 612-629-4285. The Parkersburg, West Virginia address printed at the end is for comments on the form only.

Sources

• FS Form 4000, Request To Reissue United States Savings Bonds (rev. April 2026), including its instructions: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav4000.pdf
• TreasuryDirect, FAQs about ID.me, read November 2, 2026: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/help-center/faqs/idme-faq/
• TreasuryDirect, Tax information for EE and I bonds, read November 2, 2026: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/tax-information-ee-i-bonds/