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I have been purchasing T-bills from TreasuryDirect, but I recently realized that I can also purchase new issue T-bills from Fidelity. The UX is better and when the money is between bond auctions, it can sit in the Fidelity money market rather than my low-interest savings account.

Also, TreasuryDirect has 4 week, 8 week, 13 week,... maturity but Fidelity has only 4 week. I suppose this could be the one benefit of using TreasuryDirect, but it doesn't make sense why Fidelity would not include these options.

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    Fidelity most definitely has other maturities, not just 4 weeks
    – littleadv
    Commented Oct 20, 2023 at 19:33
  • If your bank’s savings apy is that low, find a different bank. It’s trivially easy in 2023.
    – RonJohn
    Commented Oct 20, 2023 at 20:23
  • @littleadv RonJohn Ok, well is there any benefit for me to keep using tdirect? Commented Oct 20, 2023 at 20:25
  • Not really.....
    – littleadv
    Commented Oct 20, 2023 at 20:30
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    The treasury will occasionally release special bonds with extraordinary interest rates that would only be available through treasury direct but other than that I prefer to go through my broker.
    – jesse_b
    Commented Oct 20, 2023 at 22:43

1 Answer 1

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One advantage you may care about is the possibility of withholding a percentage of your gain on your T-bill directly to the IRS for your federal taxes. There is a setting in TreasuryDirect where you can set the withholding percentage as high as 50%.

Likely, you will not owe half of your T-bill's gain to the IRS, but if you know that your total federal tax liability (due to other activities) will be greater than the amount your employer is withholding, this feature may be convenient.

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