Tesouro Direto: bonds, fees and risks

Tesouro Direto is a program of Brazil’s National Treasury (Tesouro Nacional), developed with B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, that has sold federal government bonds to individuals online since 2002, according to the program’s official website. When you buy a bond, you lend money to the federal government and receive interest for it. It is fixed income: the payment rule is known at the time of purchase. For the comparison with other investment families, see Fixed income and equities: risks and characteristics.

This article describes the bonds, costs and risks based on the official rules consulted on October 8, 2026. It does not recommend any bond, does not compare returns and does not forecast interest rates. Rates and prices change every day; check the figures on the platform at the time of the transaction.

How buying works

Under the Tesouro Direto rules (regulation of October 11, 2024):

• there is no fixed minimum amount in reais: purchases are made in fractions of 0.01 bond, that is, at least 1% of the price of one bond. That is why the entry amount varies from bond to bond. When the rule came into force, on November 18, 2024, Bora Investir, from B3, cited entry amounts of R$ 7.67 for Tesouro Prefixado 2027 and R$ 156.13 for Tesouro Selic 2027 (figures as of that date);
• the investment limit is R$ 2 million per person per month, across all bonds;
• purchases are made through an authorized financial institution (bank or brokerage firm), which may charge its own fee, or through the official Tesouro Direto channel.

The bonds available

Each bond has a commercial name and a technical code. The table summarizes how each one pays, according to the official rules and the Investor Portal of the CVM (Brazil’s securities regulator):

Bond	Code	How it earns	How it pays
Tesouro Selic	LFT	Tracks the daily Selic rate	All at maturity
Tesouro Prefixado	LTN	Fixed rate set at purchase; R$ 1,000 per bond at maturity	All at maturity
Tesouro Prefixado with semiannual interest	NTN-F	Fixed rate	Interest every six months and principal at maturity
Tesouro IPCA+	NTN-B Principal	Inflation (IPCA) plus a fixed rate	All at maturity
Tesouro IPCA+ with semiannual interest	NTN-B	Inflation (IPCA) plus a fixed rate	Interest every six months and principal at maturity
Tesouro Educa+	NTN-B1	Inflation (IPCA) plus a fixed rate	Monthly income for 5 years, after the accumulation phase
Tesouro RendA+	NTN-B1	Inflation (IPCA) plus a fixed rate	Monthly income for 20 years, after the accumulation phase
Tesouro Reserva	-	100% of the Selic rate	Redemption at any time (see below)

Three groups help make sense of the table:

• floating rate (Selic and Reserva): the return tracks the benchmark interest rate, set by the Copom, the Central Bank of Brazil’s monetary policy committee. How central banks use interest rates is explained in What central banks are and how they work;
• fixed rate: you know, at purchase, how much you will receive at maturity, in reais. You do not know how much that amount will buy, because that depends on inflation;
• inflation-linked (IPCA+, Educa+, RendA+): the value is adjusted by the IPCA, Brazil’s official consumer price index, plus a fixed rate. The logic of inflation is in Inflation: causes, measures and consequences.

Bonds with semiannual interest return part of the yield before maturity. Each payment is taxed on its date, and the money received has to be reinvested if you want it to keep earning, which affects the effect of compound interest.

Tesouro Reserva

Tesouro Reserva was launched on May 11, 2026 by the National Treasury and B3, in partnership with Banco do Brasil, according to a B3 announcement. The features reported:

• return indexed to the Selic rate, with a minimum investment of R$ 1 and a limit of R$ 500,000 per investor per month;
• operation practically 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with settlement via Pix, Brazil’s instant payment system; the bond’s page reports daily unavailability between midnight and 1 a.m.;
• unlike Tesouro Selic, it has no mark-to-market, according to B3;
• at launch, available only to Banco do Brasil customers, with other institutions expected later. Check the official page for which institutions already offer the bond on the date you consult it.

Costs: custody fee and institution fees

B3 holds the bonds and charges a custody fee. According to B3’s fee schedule, consulted on October 8, 2026:

• the fee is 0.20% a year on the value of the bonds, calculated daily from the settlement of the purchase;
• it is deducted, from the amount you receive, upon early sale, maturity or payment of semiannual interest;
• on Tesouro Selic, there is no charge up to R$ 10,000.00 per CPF (individual taxpayer number); above that, the fee applies only to the excess;
• on Tesouro Educa+ and Tesouro RendA+, a different rule applies, charged only on redemption or when the income is received: exemption up to 4 minimum wages (Educa+) or 6 minimum wages (RendA+) and 0.10% on anything above that; those who hold the bond to maturity pay nothing.

The Tesouro Reserva page also reports a fee of 0.20% a year, with an exemption up to R$ 10,000. In addition to custody, each financial institution decides whether to charge its own fee; check before choosing where to invest.

Taxes

Income tax is levied only on the return and is withheld at source. The rate follows the regressive table in Law No. 11,033/2004, art. 1, checked on October 8, 2026:

Investment period	Income tax rate
Up to 180 days	22.5%
181 to 360 days	20%
361 to 720 days	17.5%
Over 720 days	15%

According to the Tesouro Direto rules, there is also IOF (a tax on financial transactions) when redemption occurs less than 30 days after purchase. Semiannual interest payments are subject only to income tax, without IOF.

Liquidity: how to exit before maturity

You do not have to wait until maturity. The official rules state that the National Treasury buys back bonds on business days, from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., at market price. Requests made outside these hours are processed at the opening prices of the next business day. Redemptions requested between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. are settled from 1 p.m. the same day; between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., from 1 p.m. the next business day.

Two practical details: the rules allow investments and redemptions to be suspended during the day, and bonds with semiannual interest cannot be sold in the two business days before the coupon payment.

The risks

Credit risk. The debtor is the National Treasury, and the official website states that the bonds are guaranteed by it. The risk, therefore, is that of the Brazilian federal government, and there is no cover from the FGC (Brazil’s Credit Guarantee Fund): the FGC itself lists Tesouro Direto bonds among the investments outside its guarantee.

Market risk (mark-to-market). This is the point that surprises people most. Mark-to-market is the daily updating of the bond’s price to what it is worth today, not what you paid. If market interest rates rise after purchase, a fixed-rate or IPCA+ bond becomes worth less, because new bonds pay a higher rate. Those who sell before maturity receive that price and may earn less than the contracted return or even make a loss. Those who hold to maturity receive the agreed rate. The longer the bond, the greater the fluctuation tends to be. On Tesouro Selic, fluctuation is usually small, but it exists; on Tesouro Reserva, according to B3, there is no mark-to-market.

Inflation risk. With a fixed-rate bond, if inflation comes in above expectations, the real gain (above inflation) shrinks or disappears. With IPCA+ bonds, this risk is lower at maturity, but the price fluctuates before then.

Liquidity and timing risk. Buybacks occur on business days, always at market price, and may be suspended. On Tesouro Reserva, availability depends on the institution offering the product.

Reinvestment risk. With semiannual interest bonds, coupons arrive over time and may have to be reinvested at lower rates than the original.

Operational risk. B3 holds custody of the bonds, but buying and selling go through the institution you choose. Check that it is authorized on the official website and be wary of anyone offering “Tesouro” outside the official channels; see Digital financial scams: how to avoid them and how to react.

Government bonds and tokenization

In Tesouro Direto, custody of the bonds is handled by B3, in a traditional system. Projects testing government bonds represented on digital ledgers are a different subject, covered in Government bond tokenization: applications and limits.

Key takeaways

• Before choosing a bond, understand how it earns (Selic, fixed rate or IPCA plus a rate), when it pays and what its term is. A bond is suitable or not depending on your goal and time horizon, not on its name.
• The main costs are B3’s custody fee of 0.20% a year (with exemptions), any institution fees, regressive income tax and IOF in the first 30 days.
• Default risk is that of the federal government, with no FGC cover. The most common risk in practice is selling before maturity at a market price below what you expected.