In autumn 2026 Slovenian treasury bills (zakladne menice) paid 2.85% a year and the best regular 12-month deposit 2.50%. At first sight the treasury bill wins. Once you count tax and costs, though, the deposit pays more on €10,000, and even on €50,000.
The reason is the €1,000 interest exemption, which applies to deposits but not to treasury bills. Below we work out when each option pays off, how to buy a treasury bill or a retail bond and what commercial paper is.
We checked the data on 17 October 2026 in the Ministry of Finance auction notices and results, the retail bond offering documents and our deposit comparison.
What treasury bills are
Treasury bills are short-term government debt. When you buy one, you lend the state money for 3, 6, 12 or 18 months. Interest is not paid out along the way. You buy the bill below face value and get the full 100% at maturity. The difference is your interest.
Example: at the auction on 8 September 2026 the price of the 12-month bill was 97.199%. For a bill with a face value of €1,000 you paid €971.99, and a year later you get €1,000.
Latest Ministry of Finance auctions:
| Treasury bill | Term | Auction date | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| DZ124 | 12 months | 7 Jul 2026 | 2.64% |
| DZ125 | 12 months | 8 Sep 2026 | 2.85% |
| OZ25 | 18 months | 6 Oct 2026 | 3.35% |
Source: treasury bill auction results, Ministry of Finance. The yield is the average accepted yield at auction.
Demand is strong. At the September auction investors bid €114 million while the state borrowed €30 million.
How to buy a treasury bill
Only so-called primary dealers can take part in the auction directly. As an individual you place an order with one of them. In October 2026 these were OTP banka, NLB, UniCredit, BKS Bank and the brokerage Ilirika.
What you need:
- a trading account with a bank or brokerage,
- at least €1,000, bills come in denominations of €1,000,
- an order in time: auctions are usually held on Tuesdays until noon, and the Ministry of Finance publishes the calendar and the notice for each auction in advance.
You can also buy or sell treasury bills before maturity on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. The price is then a market price, so if you sell early you may get more or less than you paid.
Costs
A deposit costs you nothing, a treasury bill costs you:
- a trading account fee, which banks charge yearly or half-yearly (free in some bank packages),
- fees of KDD (the central securities depository) for opening the account, transfers and yearly custody,
- possibly an order commission.
On €10,000 this usually adds up to €20 to €40 a year, almost a tenth of the interest. If you already have a trading account the cost is lower. Check your broker’s price list before ordering.
Tax: the key difference
Deposit interest has an exemption: you pay no tax on up to €1,000 of interest a year. The same limit covers retail bonds issued in 2024 to 2026.
Treasury bills don’t get this exemption. It only applies to government securities offered exclusively to individuals, while treasury bills are also bought by banks and companies at auction. So interest on treasury bills is taxed at 25% from the first euro. You normally file the tax return yourself by 28 February for the previous year. Ask your broker whether it withholds the tax for you.
What counts towards the €1,000 limit and how to file is explained in more detail in Tax on interest.
Calculation: which earns more
Maja has savings she won’t need for a year. She compared the best regular 12-month deposit (2.50%, October 2026) with the 12-month treasury bill from the latest auction (2.85%).
| Deposit 2.50% | Treasury bill 2.85% | |
|---|---|---|
| €10,000 | ||
| Interest before tax | €250 | €280 |
| Tax | €0 | €70 |
| Account costs (rough) | €0 | €20 to €40 |
| Maja keeps | €250 | about €170 to €190 |
| €50,000 | ||
| Interest before tax | €1,250 | €1,401 |
| Tax | €62.50 | €350 |
| Account costs (rough) | €0 | €25 to €45 |
| Maja keeps | €1,187.50 | about €1,005 to €1,025 |
Calculation: deposit with interest paid at the end of the term, Maja has no other interest, so the full €1,000 exemption applies to the deposit. For the treasury bill €9,719.90 or €48,599.50 is invested (price 97.199%), and the interest is the difference to face value.
Even at €50,000 the deposit is better, because the €1,000 exemption covers almost all of the interest. In October 2026 promotional deposits also paid over 3%, more than the treasury bill even before tax. Current offers are in Promotional deposits and in the deposit comparison.
When a treasury bill is better
A treasury bill becomes interesting in two cases:
- You have already used the €1,000 exemption. If your deposits are large enough that interest exceeds €1,000 a year (at 2.50% that is around €40,000), every extra euro of interest is taxed at 25%. For that extra money the higher rate decides, and the treasury bill wins as long as its rate stays above the deposit’s.
- You have more than €100,000 at one bank. The deposit guarantee covers up to €100,000 per person and bank. For larger amounts many people see the state as the safer debtor. More in Deposit guarantee of €100,000.
Retail bonds
Retail bonds (ljudske obveznice) are government bonds sold only to individuals. The state has issued them three times so far:
| Bond | Interest rate | Issued | Matures |
|---|---|---|---|
| RS94 | 3.40% | 23 Feb 2024 | 23 Feb 2027 |
| RS96 | 2.75% | 28 Mar 2025 | 28 Mar 2028 |
| RS99 | 3.00% | 2 Apr 2026 | 2 Apr 2029 |
Source: offering documents and explanations of the Ministry of Finance. For RS99 the ministry raised the rate from 2.60% to 3.00% on 23 March 2026.
At issue the minimum was €1,000 and the maximum €250,000. Interest is paid once a year.
Retail bonds come with two tax benefits:
- their interest counts towards the same €1,000 limit as deposit interest, including interest received after 2026,
- if you sell a bond at a profit, the gain is tax-free.
There is no new issue at the moment. All three are listed on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, where you can buy them through a trading account. The price moves: when market rates fall, a bond with a higher coupon gets more expensive, and the other way round. So the yield when buying on the exchange differs from the rate in the table. You can also hold the bonds in an individual investment account (INR), where INR tax rules apply.
So far the state has issued retail bonds in February or March. Under the current law, however, the €1,000 exemption only covers issues from 2024 to 2026, so a possible 2027 issue could be taxed differently.
Commercial paper
Commercial paper (komercialni zapisi) is short-term debt of companies and banks, usually up to one year. It works like a treasury bill, except that you lend to a company, not the state. So the risk is different: if the company gets into trouble, you can lose part or all of your money.
It is rarely offered to small investors, most is bought by banks, insurers and funds. If you come across it, keep in mind:
- it is not a deposit, so the deposit guarantee doesn’t apply,
- interest is taxed at 25% from the first euro, with no €1,000 exemption,
- the higher rate is payment for higher risk.
What to choose
For most savers with a few tens of thousands of euros, a fixed-term deposit is still the best choice. It is simple, free of costs, guaranteed up to €100,000 and up to €1,000 of interest a year is tax-free. You can work out what your amount earns in the deposit calculator.
Treasury bills and retail bonds on the exchange make sense if your savings already earn more than €1,000 of interest a year, or if you hold more than €100,000 at one bank. Then it pays to compare the return after tax and costs, not just the interest rate.
Before deciding, always check current deposit rates and the result of the latest auction. Both change every month.
