TreasuryDirect 1099 Without ID.me: How to Get It for Tax Year 2026

Getting the tax form from TreasuryDirect used to mean signing in and downloading it. Since October 28, 2026, signing in requires ID.me, and the people for whom that is a problem, whether they are locked out, still waiting on identity verification or simply unwilling to use it, face the question of how to get the document they need for the return they will file in 2027. TreasuryDirect has answered it, in one sentence, and the answer is a phone call.

What the FAQ says, and what it leaves open

The relevant question in TreasuryDirect’s FAQ is how to access tax documents if you are locked out because of ID.me verification problems or did not sign up. The answer begins with a concession and then gives the workaround: “ID.me is the simplest way to access TreasuryDirect for online retrieval of your tax documents for the current tax year. However, you may request 1099 tax forms for the current tax year be mailed to by contacting TreasuryDirect Customer Support at 844-284-2676 (toll-free) after TreasuryDirect makes those forms available in January of the following tax year.” The wording has a typo, but the meaning is clear.

Everything else a reader would want to know is missing from that answer. It does not say how long the form takes to arrive, whether the caller has to verify identity by some other means, what address is used, or whether it applies to a prior year. The ID.me FAQ covers only the current tax year. Treasury’s marketable-securities tax page has a separate paragraph for accounts in Legacy Treasury Direct, an older system, which says that earlier years’ 1099-INT forms must be requested by writing to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150, but that page is written for Legacy accounts and does not mention ID.me, so treat it as a lead to confirm by phone rather than a rule for accounts in the new login.

When the form exists

Three TreasuryDirect pages describe the timing slightly differently. The page on EE and I bonds says the 1099-INT for bonds in your account is available “by January 31 of the following year.” The marketable-securities page says it is available “at the beginning of each year.” The ID.me FAQ says “in January.” All three are consistent with a form that exists sometime in January, and none gives an exact date, so the pages do not tell you which day in January to call.

The IRS side has its own calendar. A payer must furnish a Form 1099-INT to the recipient, and the IRS’s Guide to Information Returns lists “January 31” as the recipient due date for Form 1099-INT. The General Instructions for Certain Information Returns on the IRS site are the 2025 edition, written for forms due in 2026, and they say that “Generally, you must furnish Forms 1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, and W-2G information by February 2, 2026.” We did not find an edition for forms due in 2027. January 31, 2027 is a Sunday, so rather than assume a date, check the IRS general instructions for the current year when they appear. The same instructions note that Form 1099-INT may be given to a person redeeming U.S. savings bonds at the time of redemption.

What a TreasuryDirect 1099 contains

TreasuryDirect issues a single 1099 for all of your Treasury securities, and it has different sections.

Each section is in chronological order and identifies each security by its confirmation number and CUSIP number. For Treasury bills, TreasuryDirect describes the “interest” as the difference between the price you pay and the face value you get at maturity. If a note, bond or TIPS has an interest payment date of December 31 that falls on a weekend or holiday, TreasuryDirect pays and reports the interest on the first business day of the new year. For a bill that matures on such a December 31, it pays on the first business day of the new year but shows the payment on the 1099-INT “the day the bill matures, not the year it is paid.”

Savings bonds work differently. The interest on EE and I bonds is paid all at once, when you cash the bond or when it matures, and TreasuryDirect says: “Most people put off reporting the interest until they actually get it.” You then receive a 1099-INT for the year in which you got the interest. If you cashed bonds held in your TreasuryDirect account in 2026, for example by mail using FS Form 5512, the 2026 form is the one that reports the interest. If a financial institution paid the bond, TreasuryDirect says the 1099-INT comes from that institution “either soon after you cash your bond or by January 31 of the following year.” If a bond is reissued to a new owner, TreasuryDirect reports the interest earned so far on a 1099-INT in the name and Social Security number of the person removed from the bond.

The pages also warn that the “Taxable Transaction Summary” in your account is not your 1099. That summary is a page inside the account that links to the form, so without an ID.me login it is not a substitute and it is out of reach in any case.

Where the amounts go on your return

For filers of the form, the IRS instructions (the January 2024 edition on IRS.gov) say that Box 3 of Form 1099-INT is for “interest on U.S. Savings Bonds, Treasury bills, Treasury notes, and Treasury bonds,” and that it is not included in Box 1. TreasuryDirect tells bond owners where it goes on their side: “Interest from your bonds goes on your federal income tax return on the same line with other interest income.” For the box-by-box mechanics, see our guide to Form 1099-INT box by box. If you sold a Treasury bill before it matured and the sale shows up in the 1099-B section, selling a T-bill early explains how the gain is split.

State taxes are simpler. The IRS says interest income from Treasury bills, notes and bonds “is subject to federal income tax but is exempt from all state and local income taxes,” and TreasuryDirect says the same about savings bond interest.

The obligation does not depend on the form arriving

The IRS puts it directly in its guidance on interest income: “You must report all taxable and tax-exempt interest on your federal income tax return, even if you don’t receive a Form 1099-INT or Form 1099-OID.” For savings bonds, the same page notes that you can elect to include the interest in income each year, but generally you will not include interest on Series EE and Series I bonds until the earlier of maturity, redemption or disposal. A missing form therefore changes how you find the number, not whether it is owed.

The fallback: the IRS wage and income transcript

If the paper form has not come when you are ready to file, the IRS offers a record of what payers sent it. The IRS describes the wage and income transcript as one that “shows data from information returns we receive such as Forms W-2, 1098, 1099, and 5498.” Treat it as a cross-check, and read three limits the IRS states. It “will only display information return documents that have been filed with the IRS which may not reflect all the information return documents issued to you”; it is limited to approximately 85 income documents online; and the current year’s information is generally available in the first week of February. If you see “No record of return filed,” the IRS says the information has not yet populated and you should check back in early February. The transcript is available for the current and nine prior tax years.

The IRS pages and the form do not fully agree about timing. The transcript page says current-year information is generally available in the first week of February, while the April 2025 revision of Form 4506-T says that information for the current year “is generally not available until the year after it is filed with the IRS.” The form also says most requests are processed within 10 business days. The form carries one more caution worth quoting: “If you need a copy of Form W-2 or Form 1099, you should first contact the payer.” Here the payer is TreasuryDirect, which brings the plan back to the phone call.

A practical order of operations

Begin with the least costly option, which is finishing the ID.me setup if you can: the FAQ describes it as a 5 to 10 minute process and says logging in successfully through ID.me also unlocks an account locked for too many failed login attempts. If that is not possible or desirable, call 844-284-2676 in January 2027 for the mailed form and keep a note of the date you asked. Use the transcript to confirm the interest total before you file. The full picture of what continues and what stops without ID.me, including the forms that still work by mail, is in TreasuryDirect without ID.me.

Sources

• 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/
• TreasuryDirect, Tax Forms and Tax Withholding (marketable securities), read November 2, 2026: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/marketable-securities/tax-forms-and-withholding/
• IRS, Instructions for Forms 1099-INT and 1099-OID (January 2024): https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099int
• IRS, General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (2025): https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099gi
• IRS, Topic no. 403, Interest received: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc403
• IRS, Transcript types for individuals and ways to order them: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-types-for-individuals-and-ways-to-order-them
• IRS, Transcript services for individuals FAQs: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-services-for-individuals-faqs
• IRS, Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return (April 2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf