A Treasury bill needs nothing from you at the end of its term. On the maturity date Treasury pays the full face value, and the gap between that amount and your purchase price is your interest. What happens to the money next depends on where the bill sits and what instructions you left. This page walks through maturity day at TreasuryDirect and at brokers, when the cash actually shows up, how weekends and holidays shift it, and why the maturity date rather than the purchase date decides the tax year. For how bills are priced in the first place, see what a Treasury bill is; the rest of the series lives on the US Treasuries hub.
What happens on the day a T-bill matures?
Treasury pays the bill's full face value on its maturity date, automatically, and the difference between that payment and the price you paid is your interest. Bills pay no coupons along the way, so this single payment is the entire return: a $10,000 bill bought for $9,896.11 returns $10,000.00, of which $103.89 is interest. Repayment is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.
Where the money goes depends on where you hold the bill and on any instructions in place before the cutoff.
| Where the bill is held | With no instructions | With a rollover set up |
|---|---|---|
| TreasuryDirect | Face value deposited to your primary linked bank account | A new bill of the same term is bought with the face value, and the leftover goes to your bank |
| Brokerage account | Face value credited to your cash or sweep balance | Auto-roll buys a new bill at the auction before maturity, paid from the proceeds |
| Bank custody or trust account | Credited under the institution's terms | Depends on the institution's reinvestment service |
Once paid, the bill drops off your holdings. On a brokerage statement its CUSIP disappears and the cash line grows by the face value; in TreasuryDirect it moves out of current holdings.
Where does TreasuryDirect send the money?
TreasuryDirect deposits the face value in your primary linked bank account on the maturity date, unless you scheduled a reinvestment. You do not have to sign in or request anything.
One change matters for long-time users. Since August 24, 2026, the zero-interest Certificate of Indebtedness can no longer receive maturity payments. If it was your payment destination, your primary bank account became the destination automatically, and TreasuryDirect has been redeeming leftover certificate balances to linked bank accounts on a rolling basis through fall 2026. TreasuryDirect's page on redeeming securities still lists the certificate as an option, but its certificate FAQ, written for the change, makes the bank account the only destination.
Two practical points follow. First, the bank details on file decide where every maturity lands, so review them under Account Info well before a large bill comes due. TreasuryDirect locks each security during a closed book period that starts four business days before a scheduled maturity payment, and no changes to the payment destination are allowed inside that window. Second, sign-in changes do not stop payments: TreasuryDirect says maturities and reinvestments keep processing even for customers who have not yet set up an ID.me account, the only way to sign in since October 28, 2026, although they cannot view or edit those instructions until they do.
How does a scheduled reinvestment work on maturity day?
A scheduled reinvestment uses the maturing bill's face value to buy a new bill of the same term, issued on the day the old one matures. Your reinvestment goes into the replacement auction a few days earlier as a noncompetitive bid, so you receive whatever rate that auction sets. You can change or cancel it only until four business days before the auction of the new security; after that it is locked.
Worked example: A $10,000 13-week bill rolled at 3.99%
- The maturing bill pays its $10,000.00 face value.
- Suppose the replacement 13-week bill auctions at a 3.99% discount rate. Its price is $10,000 × (1 − 0.0399 × 91 ÷ 360) = $9,899.14.
- TreasuryDirect applies $9,899.14 to the new bill and deposits the remaining $100.86 in your bank account.
- You now hold a new $10,000 bill due 13 weeks later. For tax purposes, the interest on the old bill is its full discount, face value minus your original price, not the $100.86 you received.
A few edge cases are spelled out in Treasury's rules and on its reinvestment page:
- The new bill costs more than the proceeds. This can happen if you asked TreasuryDirect to withhold tax. The difference is debited from your bank account; if that fails, the reinvestment is canceled and the proceeds are paid to you.
- No matching bill is issued. If no bill of the same term is issued on the maturity date, the reinvestment is canceled and the money is deposited instead.
- Partial transfers. Transferring part of a security out of TreasuryDirect cancels all of its scheduled reinvestments.
- New money. If new funds are needed to pay for the replacement, for example because of tax withholding, the new bill must be held for 45 calendar days before it can be transferred or sold. A reinvestment paid for entirely by the maturing bill has no hold.
- Limits. The most reinvestments you can schedule on one bill is 25 for 4-week bills, 16 for 6-week, 10 for 8-week, 7 for 13-week, 6 for 17-week, 3 for 26-week and 1 for 52-week; after the last one the bill pays out unless you schedule more. Reinvestments do not count toward the limit on new noncompetitive purchases, which is $10 million per auction.
Using reinvestments to keep several bills rolling on a schedule is the subject of how to build a T-bill ladder.
Sign in and find the bill
Sign in to TreasuryDirect, choose ManageDirect, then Manage My Securities, and select the bill you want to roll.
Schedule the reinvestment
Choose the reinvestment option and the number of times to roll, up to the limit for that term. You can also do this when you first buy the bill.
Edit or cancel before the cutoff
To change your mind, use Edit reinvestments under Manage My Securities more than four business days before the new auction.
Check the price after the auction
Look under Pending Purchases and Reinvestments for the new bill's price, and keep enough in your bank account to cover any difference before the issue date.
What happens at a broker when a bill matures?
At a brokerage, the face value is credited to your account as cash on the maturity date, unless you switched on an automatic roll. Treasury pays through the commercial book-entry system, the chain of banks and brokers that holds Treasuries outside TreasuryDirect, and your broker passes the payment on to your account.
What happens next depends on your settings:
- No roll. The cash sits in the account's core or sweep position and earns whatever that position pays, which can be far below bill yields. How sweeps work and what they pay is covered in cash sweep accounts explained.
- Auto-roll. Brokers that offer it place a noncompetitive bid for a new bill of the same term at the auction before your bill matures, and the maturing proceeds pay for it on the issue date. Check whether the broker rolls the full proceeds or only the same face value, and when its order cutoff falls.
- Secondary-market bills. A bill you bought from another investor rather than at auction pays its face value at maturity exactly like an auction bill.
- Bills inside an IRA. The cash stays inside the IRA, and no tax is due at maturity; see T-bills in an IRA.
Because brokers handle these details differently, read the broker's own description of its roll feature before relying on it, and confirm on the statement after each maturity that the roll happened.
When does the cash arrive, and what if the date is a holiday?
Bills mature on business days, and each term has a set weekday: Tuesdays for 4-, 8- and 17-week bills, Thursdays for 6-, 13-, 26- and 52-week bills. Payment is made on the maturity date itself. TreasuryDirect sends the deposit that day, and when it becomes available depends on your bank; at a broker the cash normally appears on the maturity date, subject to the broker's own rules on withdrawals.
Weekends and holidays move payments by a day. Under Treasury's auction rules, when a principal or interest payment date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or other day the Federal Reserve is closed, Treasury pays on the next business day without additional interest. For bills, Treasury usually deals with holidays at issue, by setting the maturity date on the next business day and lengthening that bill's term.
Worked example: The Thanksgiving 2026 maturity
- Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, the day a batch of 13-week bills would normally mature. Treasury's auction data shows the 13-week bill auctioned August 24 and issued August 27 was given a Friday, November 27 maturity: a 92-day term instead of 91.
- At its 3.715% discount rate, a $10,000 bill cost $10,000 × (1 − 0.03715 × 92 ÷ 360) = $9,905.06 and pays $94.94 of interest at maturity.
- A 91-day bill at the same rate would have cost $9,906.09 and paid $93.91. The extra day is worth about $1.03, built into the lower purchase price rather than added at maturity.
- The same CUSIP and Friday payment day are shared by a 26-week bill issued May 28, 2026, a 6-week bill issued October 15, 2026 and a 52-week bill issued November 28, 2025.
This season's other big holidays will not move bills: Christmas Day 2026 and New Year's Day 2027 both fall on Fridays, while bills mature on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Which tax year does a T-bill's interest fall in?
Bill interest is federal income in the year the bill matures, not the year you buy it, because the IRS treats the discount as earned when it is paid. IRS Publication 550 says you generally report T-bill interest when the bill is paid at maturity, and the tax code agrees: for short-term federal obligations, the discount is not treated as accruing until the bill is paid at maturity, sold or otherwise disposed of (26 U.S.C. 454(b)).
Worked example: Two 13-week bills bought a week apart
- Bill A was auctioned September 28 and issued October 1, 2026 at a 4.110% discount rate. A $10,000 bill cost $9,896.11 and matures Thursday, December 31, 2026, so its $103.89 of interest is 2026 income.
- Bill B was auctioned October 5 and issued October 8, 2026 at 4.050%. A $10,000 bill cost about $9,897.63 and matures Thursday, January 7, 2027, so its roughly $102.37 of interest is 2027 income, reported on the return you file in 2028.
- Same term, same investor, one week apart: the tax on Bill B comes a full year later. In a 24% federal bracket that is about $24.57 of tax moved into the next year.
Three related rules round out the timing:
- Year-end holidays. If a bill is due on December 31 and that day is a weekend or holiday, TreasuryDirect pays on the first business day of the new year but reports the interest for the year of the maturity date. Coupon interest on notes and bonds works the other way: a December 31 coupon paid in January is reported in the new year.
- Rollovers do not defer tax. Each maturing bill's interest counts in its maturity year, even when the proceeds went straight into a new bill.
- The accrual election. You can elect to include the discount in income as it accrues, which would split Bill B across 2026 and 2027, but the election cannot be changed later without IRS consent.
TreasuryDirect posts one Form 1099 for all your Treasury holdings early each year under ManageDirect, with bill interest in the 1099-INT section; brokers include it on their consolidated 1099. The amounts go in box 3 of Form 1099-INT, and they are exempt from state and local income tax. The full federal and state picture, including funds, is on are T-bills taxable, and selling before maturity has its own timing, covered in selling Treasuries before maturity.
What to check before a bill matures
A week or more before maturity
- Bank details. Confirm the primary bank account in TreasuryDirect is open and correct; changes are blocked during the closed book period.
- Reinvestment status. Check whether a roll is scheduled, how many remain and whether you want it, before the cutoff four business days ahead of the new auction.
- Sign-in. Make sure you can sign in, so you can see and edit instructions.
- Broker settings. Check auto-roll on each position and the rate your sweep pays if the cash will sit.
- Tax year. For a bill due near December 31, note which year's return it belongs to.
- Withholding. If you ask TreasuryDirect to withhold tax, up to 50% of the interest, a reinvestment may need extra money from your bank.
- The plan for the cash. If the money is an emergency reserve, decide where it goes next; where to keep an emergency fund compares the options.
What are the risks around a T-bill's maturity?
Repayment is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, so maturity-day risks concern where the money goes next and when it arrives. The wider list of what Treasuries do and do not protect against is in are Treasuries risk-free.
- Reinvestment risk. A roll buys at whatever rate the next auction sets, and a noncompetitive bid cannot name a minimum. With the federal funds target at 3.75% to 4.00%, a rate cut before your maturity would mean a lower yield on the replacement bill.
- Idle cash. Proceeds credited to a low-paying sweep or checking account stop earning bill rates until you move them.
- Payment problems. A closed or outdated bank account can delay a payment, and TreasuryDirect notes that bank account issues can stop some certificate balances from being redeemed automatically.
- Canceled rolls. A reinvestment is canceled if no same-term bill is issued on the maturity date or if your bank cannot cover a shortfall, leaving the money in cash.
- Schedule changes. Treasury warns that its financing needs, policy decisions and Congressional action on the debt limit can change the auction pattern that rolls depend on.
- Tax timing. A large maturity lands entirely in one tax year, which can push income into a higher bracket or trigger underpayment issues if you have not planned for it.
For other places to keep cash between maturities, start from the Learn home page.