Savings & CDs Long-form guide

FS Form 5396: Treasury Direct Deposit Sign-Up, Not an IRS Form

FS Form 5396 is a Treasury direct deposit form, not an IRS form, and needs no certified signature. When savings bond paperwork still requires it, and when not.

CC
Author

Cristian Corrales

Founding editor of finbarrow. Math-first analysis of US personal finance, anchored to primary sources (CFPB, FDIC, FRB, IRS, FICO, FINRA, SEC, NCUA).

Published · 9-minute read
A blank paper form and fountain pen on a wooden desk beside a small classical bank building model and a navy checkbook — signing up for Treasury direct deposit with FS Form 5396.

FS Form 5396 is a one-page Treasury form that tells the Bureau of the Fiscal Service which bank account to pay. Search engines suggest “IRS form 5396,” but the form does not belong to the IRS. The revision discussed here is dated April 2026, and unlike most savings bond forms, you can sign it on your own.

The short answer. FS Form 5396 is the Treasury's Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form, not an IRS form. FS Publication 0063 exempts it from the rule that bond forms be signed before a certifying officer, so no bank stamp or notary is needed. You still need it for a few applications, such as FS Form 3565 and the interest option on FS Form 2513. Forms such as FS Form 1522 and FS Form 5394 carry their own bank section and do not need it. Series HH interest stopped on August 1, 2024.

The practical questions are which agency gets it, whether the signature has to be certified, and whether the form you are already filing makes it unnecessary. Here is what the form says, and what the surrounding Treasury paperwork says about when to use it.

What FS Form 5396 asks for

The form’s instructions say to “complete and sign this form to request direct deposit of either a redemption payment for any series savings bond or interest payments of Series HH or Series H savings bonds.” At the top you check “one or both boxes”: Interest payments, Redemption payments. Below that you give a name, which can be more than one name for a joint account, a mailing address, a daytime telephone number and an e-mail address, followed by either a Social Security Number or an Employer Identification Number.

Then comes the bank information. The form asks for the bank routing number (“nine digits and begins with 0, 1, 2, or 3”), the depositor’s account number, whether the account is checking or savings, and the financial institution’s name and phone number. The form estimates about 10 minutes to complete. Unless you are instructed otherwise, you mail it to Treasury Retail Securities Services, PO Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150, along with any properly signed and certified bonds and other forms the transaction needs.

One line affects couples in particular: “For a joint account, only the person whose Taxpayer Identification Number is shown should sign the form.” So if a husband and wife share the checking account and her Social Security Number is on the form, she signs and he does not. That is different from forms that ask each co-owner of a bond to sign.

When more people must sign than the form has room for, Treasury publishes a companion, FS Form 5396-1, the Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form Attachment. TreasuryDirect’s forms page says to use it with FS Form 5396 “if FS Form 5396 doesn’t provide sufficient space for signatures.” The attachment is headed “Attached to and made a part of FS Form” and has a blank for the form it belongs to.

Why it is not an IRS form, and what the certification does

The title block reads Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and the OMB control number is 1530-0050. The Privacy Act notice explains the connection to taxes: furnishing a Social Security Number is required by Section 6109 of the Internal Revenue Code, and one purpose of collecting the information is to “provide reports to the Internal Revenue Service.” That is reporting, not filing.

The certification is where the resemblance to IRS Form W-9 comes from. Above the signature line, the signer certifies under penalty of perjury that:

  1. the Taxpayer Identification Number shown “is my correct Taxpayer Identification Number”;
  2. the signer is not subject to backup withholding, for one of three reasons the form lists (exempt, not notified by the IRS, or notified that the withholding has ended); and
  3. “I am a U.S. person (including a U.S. resident alien).”

The form adds one instruction. If the IRS has notified you that you are currently subject to backup withholding because you failed to report all interest and dividends on your tax return, you “must cross out Item 2.” The rest of the certification is a statement about your own tax status, made under penalty of perjury over your own signature.

No certified signature, unlike most savings bond forms

Most Treasury forms for savings bonds demand a signature in front of an authorized individual. FS Publication 0063, Savings Bonds, Redemption and Reissue, Instructions for Surviving Registrants (revised January 2025), says on page 1: “All bonds and/or forms, except Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form (FS Form 5396), must be signed in the presence of an authorized certifying officer.” FS Publication 0065, the matching publication for nonadministered estates (revised January 2025), repeats the exception word for word, and so does FS Publication 0106 on trust transactions.

The form itself fits that description: it has a signature line and a date line, and none of the certifying-officer boxes that the other forms carry. For the rules on which forms need a bank stamp, which accept a notary and which need neither, see our table of notary and certifying-officer rules for TreasuryDirect forms. Nothing in the form or in those publications asks for a notary.

When another form tells you to attach it

FS Form 5396 is not optional on a few applications. Two are worth knowing.

FS Form 3565, the application for disposition of retirement plan and/or individual retirement bonds without administration of the deceased owner’s estate (revised August 2022), puts it in a note: “To receive payment, each payee must complete either FS Form 5396 or SF 1199A, and submit it with this application.” SF 1199A is the other direct deposit form, available at financial institutions in the United States, and the note says each payee’s financial institution can help complete either one.

FS Form 2513, the application by a voluntary guardian of an incapacitated owner of savings bonds or notes (revised August 2022), has an interest option for Series H and Series HH bonds. It says that interest “must be paid by direct deposit to the owner’s account at a financial institution” and that “you must complete a direct deposit form, FS Form 5396 or SF 1199A, and submit it with this application.” Our guide on cashing a parent’s savings bonds with FS 5188 or FS 2513 covers when a guardian form applies at all. Because Series HH interest has stopped, that clause is now largely historical, though the form itself still lists it.

When you do not need it

The opposite case is a form that already has its own bank section.

  • FS Form 1522, the special form of request for payment of savings and retirement securities (revised April 2026), has a “Bank Routing No.” line, and its Item 2 instructions explain how to describe the account for a direct deposit payment. See our guide to cashing paper savings bonds by mail with FS Form 1522.
  • FS Form 5336 (revised April 2026) also has a “Bank Routing No.” line.
  • FS Form 5394 (revised May 2026) has a direct deposit section, and the payment choice for savings bonds is marked “Payment (must be by direct deposit).” See FS Form 5394 for a closed or small estate.

In each of these, the bank information goes on the form you are already filling out, and none of the three asks for FS Form 5396. Having a bank section is not a rule on its own, though: FS Form 2513 has one (Item 4, Delivery Instructions) and still asks for FS Form 5396 or SF 1199A when a guardian requests Series H or HH interest. The instructions of the form you are filing decide.

The Series HH box, and why the form is mostly about redemptions now

Two parts of the form speak to Series H and HH bonds: the “Interest payments” box, and the default rule that “unless otherwise notified, the address and direct deposit information furnished will be updated on all HH and H accounts under the Taxpayer Identification Number provided.” The way around the default is a separate checkbox, “Check this box if the address furnished below should NOT be used to update HH and H accounts.” If you have no HH or H accounts, that box means nothing to you.

TreasuryDirect’s page on HH direct deposit states: “Interest payments on HH bonds have ceased as of August 1, 2024, as all bonds have reached final maturity.” Its only remaining instruction for the form is on the topic of changing direct deposit when a hold on an HH account has caused TreasuryDirect to hold interest: fill out FS Form 5396 and send it to the address on the form. So for most people today the box to check is “Redemption payments,” and even then only when the application you are filing calls for it.

One outdated instruction is worth flagging. FS Publication 0106, Trust Transactions (revised June 2022), says on page 2: “If Series HH bonds are being reissued, the trustee must complete and sign a Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form (FS Form 5396) for direct deposit of the interest payments.” Treasury’s page on changing information for HH bonds now says: “All Series HH savings bonds have reached final maturity and can no longer be reissued.” So the publication’s instruction describes a reissue that Treasury no longer performs. TreasuryDirect’s page on non-administered estates still lists FS Form 4000 together with FS Form 5396 for an heir who wants to keep an HH bond, which sits awkwardly beside the statement that HH bonds can no longer be reissued. FS Publication 0065, Treasury’s instruction sheet for the same kind of estate, points the other way: “All HH savings bonds have reached final maturity, therefore payment is the only option.”

If you are not a U.S. person

The third certification, “I am a U.S. person (including a U.S. resident alien),” is the one that stops some filers. The Treasury forms and pages we reviewed do not say what a non-U.S. person should do to receive a direct deposit. What they do say is narrower: TreasuryDirect’s page on cashing paper bonds from outside the United States tells a U.S. citizen to include a statement of citizenship and a Social Security Number with the request for payment, and “Not a U.S. citizen: Fill out and include IRS Form W-8BEN.” That page concerns a request for payment signed before an official abroad, and it does not mention FS Form 5396. If you cannot sign the certification, call Treasury Retail Securities Services at the number on the form before you mail anything.

A worked scenario

Suppose two payees are applying together under FS Form 3565 for a deceased owner’s individual retirement bonds. The form’s note says each payee must complete FS Form 5396 or SF 1199A and submit it with the application, so each payee fills out a separate one with his or her own Social Security Number and bank details, signs it, and mails it with the application. No certifying officer is involved in that step. Now suppose one of them also cashes an ordinary paper bond with FS Form 1522. The bank details go on the 1522 itself, and a second FS Form 5396 would add nothing.

Sources

Frequently asked

Quick answers

Is FS Form 5396 an IRS form?

No. The form is headed Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and carries OMB No. 1530-0050. It does contain a certification about the Taxpayer Identification Number and backup withholding, which is why it can look like an IRS form, but you file it with Treasury Retail Securities Services, not with the IRS.

Does FS Form 5396 have to be notarized or signed in front of a certifying officer?

No. FS Publication 0063 says all bonds and forms must be signed in the presence of an authorized certifying officer "except Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form (FS Form 5396)." The form has a signature and date line and no certification box. A signature of your own is enough.

Who signs when the bank account is joint?

The form says that for a joint account, only the person whose Taxpayer Identification Number is shown should sign. Put that person's Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number on the form, and have only that person sign.

Do I need FS Form 5396 when I cash a bond with FS Form 1522?

No. FS Form 1522 has its own section for the bank routing number, account number and institution, so it carries the direct deposit instructions itself. FS Forms 5336 and 5394 also have a routing section.

Can a non-U.S. person use FS Form 5396?

The form makes the signer certify, under penalty of perjury, "I am a U.S. person (including a U.S. resident alien)." The Treasury forms and pages we reviewed do not describe a direct deposit route for someone who cannot make that statement. For paper bonds cashed from abroad, TreasuryDirect tells a person who is not a U.S. citizen to include IRS Form W-8BEN with the request for payment.

Where do I send the form?

To Treasury Retail Securities Services, PO Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150. The phone number printed on the form is 844-284-2676, toll free. Legal evidence or documentation you submit cannot be returned.

Educational content only. finbarrow is an independent editorial publication, not a licensed financial advisor, broker, tax preparer, or attorney. Verify rates and terms with the issuer or relevant regulator. See disclaimers and funding disclosures.

← Back to Savings & CDs

Continue in this topic