If you don’t know the Social Security number of the bond recipient and you are buying a paper savings bond, you may use your own. The Social Security Number printed on the paper savings bond does not establish tax liability or ownership. It is used only to find records if the savings bond is lost, stolen, or destroyed, should the owner not have a record of the serial number.

On paper savings bonds issued or replaced starting August 1, 2006, the first five digits of your Social Security number or Employer Identification number will be masked and replaced with asterisks. This is being done to protect your privacy and to prevent the information from being used for identity theft.

To purchase an electronic savings bond as a gift, the TreasuryDirect account holder needs to know the recipient’s full name and Social Security Number and/or taxpayer ID number. The gift bond is placed in the account holder’s “Gift Box” until the account holder obtains the TreasuryDirect account number of the recipient and is ready to transfer the bond into the recipient’s account. The gift recipient will then receive an e-mail announcing the transfer of the bond.

In a state that has a permanent escheatment law, can the state claim the money represented by securities that the state has in its possession. For example, can a state cash savings bonds that it’s gotten from abandoned safe deposit boxes?

The Department of the Treasury will recognize claims by States for payment of United States securities where the States have succeeded to the title and ownership of the securities pursuant to valid escheat proceedings. The Department, however, does not recognize claims for payment by a State acting merely as custodian of unclaimed or abandoned securities and not as successor in title and ownership of the securities.

In other words, the Treasury recognizes escheat statutes that provide that a State has succeeded to the legal ownership of securities because in such case payment of the securities results in full discharge of the Treasury’s obligation and this discharge is valid in all jurisdictions.

But, payment of securities to a State claiming only as a custodian results in the substitution of one obligor, the Department of the Treasury, for another, the State. Not only is there serious question whether there is authority for a State to effect such a substitution, but also there seems to be no basis for believing that payment to a State custodian would discharge Treasury of its obligation. Even if the discharge were claimed effective in the State to which the payment is made, it is believed that the Treasury’s obligation and liability would still remain in force in all other jurisdictions.

Keywords:  Cash, Savings, Bonds, Security, Social, Treasury, Obligations, Gift

Filed under: Cash Savings Bonds Article by admin