Renea Maclean

The U.S. federal government provides its own bonds from the treasury and from a number of government firms. Those developing in less than one year are called T-bills. Bonds that develop in one to 10 years are T-notes, and those that take more than ten years to mature are treasury bonds. In some cases, you do not have to pay state or regional income taxes on the interest they earn.

Munis financing things like hospitals, schools, power plants, streets, office complex, airports, bridges and the like. Towns usually provide bonds when they need more money than they gather through taxes. The excellent thing about community bonds is that you don't need to pay federal earnings taxes on the interest they make.