A bond matures on the specific date, set when it was issued, when the issuer repays your original principal and stops paying interest. For U.S. Treasury securities, that date can arrive as soon as four weeks after purchase or as far out as 30 years, depending on which type you bought. Corporate and municipal bonds can stretch even longer. So the honest answer to when does a bond mature is: whatever date is printed on the bond itself, and that date was locked in the moment you bought it.
How to Find Your Bond’s Maturity Date
If you hold bonds through an online brokerage, the maturity date appears in your account’s holdings or position details, usually labeled “maturity date” or “redemption date.” The bond’s prospectus, filed when the bond was first issued, also spells out the maturity date along with the coupon rate.
For older paper certificates, the maturity date is printed on the face of the document. Savings bonds show the issue date on the front, and you calculate maturity from there: 30 years for Series EE and Series I bonds.
Every bond issue also carries a CUSIP number, a nine-character identifier assigned to that specific security. For municipal bonds, the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) website lets you type in a CUSIP and pull up the security’s details page, including the maturity date and disclosure documents.1Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. About CUSIP Numbers For corporate bonds, FINRA’s Fixed Income Security Lookup lets you search by CUSIP or TRACE symbol to review bond details and real-time trade history.2FINRA. Fixed Income Data
Typical Maturity Ranges by Bond Type
Bonds fall into three broad categories based on how long they take to mature.
Short-Term Bonds
Short-term bonds generally mature in one to three years. Treasury bills are the most common example and come in even shorter increments: 4, 8, 13, 17, 26, and 52 weeks.3TreasuryDirect. Treasury Bills Because the money comes back quickly, short-term bonds carry less interest-rate risk but typically pay lower yields.
Intermediate-Term Bonds
Intermediate-term bonds mature in roughly three to ten years. Treasury notes are the main federal instrument here, issued in terms of 2, 3, 5, 7, or 10 years.4TreasuryDirect. Treasury Notes
Long-Term Bonds
Long-term bonds extend beyond ten years. Treasury bonds are currently issued in 20-year and 30-year terms.5TreasuryDirect. Treasury Bonds Corporate and municipal issuers also offer long-term debt, sometimes stretching to 40 years or more. You lock up your money for longer, but the coupon rate is typically higher.
Two Treasury products have their own quirks around maturity. Zero-coupon bonds pay no periodic interest; you buy at a discount and receive the full face amount on the maturity date, with the built-in return called original issue discount.6FINRA. The One-Minute Guide to Zero Coupon Bonds Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), issued in 5, 10, and 30-year terms, pay either the inflation-adjusted principal or the original par value at maturity, whichever is greater.7TreasuryDirect. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS)
When a Bond Can Mature Early
Some bonds don’t make it to their printed maturity date. A callable bond gives the issuer the right to repay your principal early, and issuers typically exercise that right when interest rates drop enough to make refinancing worthwhile. If your bond is called, the issuer pays you the call price (usually face value) plus accrued interest, and future interest payments stop.8Investor.gov. Callable or Redeemable Bonds
Call provisions come in a few flavors:
- Optional redemption lets the issuer call the bonds at its discretion after a set date, often 10 years after issuance for municipal bonds.
- Sinking fund redemption requires the issuer to retire a fixed portion of the bonds on a set schedule, regardless of interest rates.
- Extraordinary redemption applies if a specific triggering event occurs, such as the project the bonds financed being damaged or destroyed.
Some callable bonds include a make-whole provision. Instead of paying just face value, the issuer pays a lump sum calculated to compensate you for the future interest payments you’re losing.9FINRA. Callable Bonds: Be Aware That Your Issuer May Come Calling The exact formula varies, and in extreme market conditions the payout may not fully replace what you would have earned, but make-whole calls provide meaningfully better protection than a standard call at par.
What Happens on the Maturity Date
On the maturity date, the issuer returns your par value, typically $1,000 per bond for most corporate and Treasury issues, along with any final interest payment.10Kiplinger. What Is the Par Value of Bonds? For bonds held electronically through a brokerage, the process is automated. Proceeds generally settle within one business day and may take a few additional days to become available as withdrawable cash.
Paper bond certificates require more legwork. You surrender the physical certificate to a paying agent or financial institution, which then verifies its authenticity before releasing payment. This can add days or weeks compared to electronic settlement.
If the issuer fails to pay at maturity, the bond goes into default. Default triggers specific remedies spelled out in the bond’s indenture agreement, which can include declaring the entire unpaid principal and interest immediately due, applying for appointment of a receiver for the collateral, or imposing a default penalty interest rate.11eCFR. 12 CFR 1808.617 – Events of Default and Remedies With Respect to Bond Loans Corporate bond defaults typically involve a trustee acting on behalf of all bondholders to pursue recovery.
Taxes Owed When a Bond Matures
Maturity is a taxable event, and your broker reports it to the IRS on Form 1099-B. The form includes the maturity proceeds, your acquisition date, your adjusted cost basis, and whether the resulting gain or loss is short-term or long-term.12Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-B (2026) Any final interest payment shows up separately on Form 1099-INT.
The tax outcome depends on what you paid for the bond relative to its face value. If you bought at par, you get back exactly what you paid, so there’s no capital gain or loss and you’ve been paying tax on the coupon interest all along. If you bought at a discount on the secondary market, the difference between your purchase price and the par value received at maturity may be taxable as ordinary income (market discount) or as original issue discount, depending on how the discount arose. OID on bonds like zero-coupon bonds is reported annually as it accrues, not all at once at maturity.13Internal Revenue Service. Guide to Original Issue Discount (OID) Instruments If you paid a premium and elected to amortize it over the bond’s life, your basis should match the par value by maturity, producing no gain or loss.
Savings bonds deserve special attention. If you’ve been deferring the interest on Series EE or Series I bonds, which most people do, all accumulated interest becomes reportable income in the year the bond reaches final maturity or is redeemed, whichever comes first.14TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for HH Savings Bonds On a 30-year savings bond, that can be a large tax hit if you’re not expecting it.
Final Maturity on Savings Bonds and Forgotten Bonds
Series EE and Series I savings bonds both reach final maturity 30 years after their issue date, at which point they stop earning interest entirely.15eCFR. Subpart B – Maturities, Redemption Values, and Investment Yields of Series EE Savings Bonds Every month a fully matured savings bond stays unredeemed after that 30-year mark is a month of lost potential earnings.
The old Treasury Hunt tool, which let you search for unredeemed bonds online, was retired in September 2025 under the SECURE 2.0 Act. Inquiries about unclaimed Treasury securities are now routed through your state’s unclaimed property program, and you can search at unclaimed.org.16TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt – Searching for Treasury Securities Have the original purchaser’s full legal name, their state of residence at the time of purchase, and any supporting documentation like a death certificate if you’re an heir.
Corporate and municipal bonds follow a different path. If you don’t redeem a matured corporate bond, the proceeds are eventually turned over to the state as unclaimed property. The holding period before escheatment varies by state, typically ranging from one to five years after the bond becomes payable. Once escheated, you can still claim the money through your state’s unclaimed property office, but the process takes longer and the funds no longer earn interest.