How to Buy US Treasury ETFs in Singapore: SGOV, SHY, TLT and IDTL Compared

On 22 October 2026, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) had an effective duration of 14.96 years, while the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) had an effective duration of 0.12 years. Both hold US government debt, yet one barely moves when interest rates change and the other can swing by double digits.

A US Treasury ETF is an exchange-traded fund that holds bills, notes or bonds issued by the US Treasury, usually within a set maturity band. You buy and sell it like a share, and the fund rolls its holdings as they approach the edge of that band, so the ETF itself never matures. TLT, for instance, held 47 bonds with a weighted average maturity of 26.03 years on 22 October 2026.

For investors in Singapore, the choice turns on which part of the maturity curve you want, whether you hold a US-listed or an Ireland-domiciled fund, and how much US dollar exposure you are prepared to carry. Buying a US Treasury bill directly is harder from Singapore, so most investors reach Treasuries through an ETF.

The main options run in steps of duration: SGOV for 0 to 3 month bills, SHY for 1 to 3 year notes, SCHR and IEF in the middle, TLH for 10 to 20 years, and TLT or its Irish counterpart IDTL for 20 years and longer. GOVT spreads across the whole curve in one fund.

This guide explains how each Treasury ETF works, what duration means for your returns when rates move, how yields on these funds are measured, how to buy them from Singapore, how they compare with owning a T-bill directly, and how tax applies to their distributions.

US Treasury ETFs at a glance

Each fund tracks a different slice of the US Treasury market. Duration is the most useful single number for comparing them: it estimates how much the price changes when yields move by one percentage point.

US Treasury ETF duration ladder from SGOV at 0.12 years to TLT and IDTL at 14.96 years

Source: iShares SGOV, iShares SHY, Schwab SCHR, iShares GOVT fact sheet, iShares IEF, iShares TLH fact sheet, iShares TLT, iShares IDTL (as of 25 October 2026)

What a US Treasury ETF actually owns

The US Treasury borrows through three kinds of marketable debt. Treasury bills mature in a year or less and pay no coupon; you buy them at a discount and receive face value at maturity. Treasury notes run from 2 to 10 years and Treasury bonds run longer, and both pay interest twice a year.

A Treasury ETF holds a basket of these and follows an index that sets the maturity window. SGOV follows the ICE 0-3 Month US Treasury Securities Index, so its holdings are almost all bills. TLT follows the ICE US Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index and holds only long bonds. As a bond drifts below the index's minimum maturity, the fund sells it and buys a longer one, which keeps the fund's duration roughly steady over time.

A single Treasury note held to maturity repays its face value on a known date. An ETF has no such date, so the price you get depends on where yields are on the day you sell.

The Treasury ETF ladder, from bills to 30-year bonds

Each step out along the curve adds price movement. On 22 October 2026 the longer funds also paid higher yields, though that relationship shifts over time.

SGOV: 0 to 3 month Treasury bills

SGOV holds bills that mature within three months, and its expense ratio is 0.09%. With a duration of 0.12 years, a one percentage point jump in yields moves its price by roughly 0.12%. It pays distributions monthly, and the income tracks short-term rates closely, so it falls quickly when the Federal Reserve cuts. Investors use it to park US dollar cash.

SHY: 1 to 3 year Treasury notes

SHY tracks the ICE U.S. Treasury 1-3 Year Bond Index and held 90 notes on 22 October 2026. Its 1.79-year duration means more price movement than SGOV, but it locks in yields for longer, so its income falls more slowly when short-term rates drop.

SCHR, GOVT and IEF: the intermediate part of the curve

SCHR tracks the Bloomberg US Treasury 3-10 Year Index with a 0.03% expense ratio, the lowest fee among these funds. IEF sits a little further out, tracking 7 to 10 year Treasuries. GOVT holds the ICE US Treasury Core Bond Index, a mix of maturities that gives one-fund exposure to the whole market at a duration of about five and a half years.

TLH: 10 to 20 year Treasuries

TLH tracks the ICE U.S. Treasury 10-20 Year Bond Index, with a weighted average maturity of 16.55 years at the end of September 2026. At 11.48 years of duration, it moves about three quarters as much as TLT for the same change in yields.

TLT and IDTL: 20+ year Treasury bonds

TLT had net assets of about US$47.5 billion on 23 October 2026. IDTL tracks the same ICE 20+ year index but is an Ireland-domiciled UCITS ETF with a 0.07% TER and ISIN IE00BSKRJZ44, listed in US dollars on the London Stock Exchange. IDTL pays distributions semi-annually, against monthly for TLT. Both had an effective duration of 14.96 years on 22 October 2026, so their price response to rates is practically identical.

Inflation-linked Treasuries

Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) adjust their principal with US inflation. The iShares $ TIPS UCITS ETF (ISIN IE00B1FZSC47) is an accumulating Irish fund with a 0.10% TER and an effective duration of 6.38 years at the end of September 2026. It still loses value when real yields rise.

How rate changes hit each Treasury ETF

Effective duration gives a quick estimate: the percentage price change roughly equals minus the duration multiplied by the change in yield, in percentage points. A fund with a 14.96-year duration loses about 14.96% if yields across its holdings rise by one point, and gains about the same if they fall by one point. Convexity makes the real result a little better than the estimate in both directions, more so for long bonds and large moves.

You can run the estimate yourself:

durations = {"SGOV": 0.12, "SHY": 1.79, "SCHR": 4.8, "GOVT": 5.43,
    "IEF": 6.86, "TLH": 11.48, "TLT": 14.96}
for fund, d in durations.items():
    print(fund, [round(-d * dy, 2) for dy in (-1, -0.5, 0.5, 1, 2)])

Example only, based on effective durations from iShares and Schwab (as of 25 October 2026). Assumes an instant, parallel shift in yields and ignores convexity, income and fees.

On a US$10,000 holding, a one-point rise in yields takes roughly US$12 off SGOV, US$179 off SHY and US$1,496 off TLT. A two-point rise would cost TLT holders about US$2,992 on paper. Credit risk is identical across the funds; the difference is how many years of fixed payments are locked in at the old rate.

TLT vs SGOV: income cushion against price risk

Income offsets part of a price fall, and the size of that cushion depends on the yield. The 30-day SEC yield, a standard US measure of a fund's net investment income over the past 30 days expressed as an annual rate, was 5.30% for TLT on 22 October 2026. The same measure was 3.76% for SGOV, 4.66% for SHY and 5.00% for SCHR.

Dividing a fund's yield by its duration gives a rough breakeven: how far yields could rise over a year before price losses wipe out a year of income.

Example only, based on 30-day SEC yields and durations from iShares SGOV, iShares SHY, Schwab SCHR and iShares TLT (as of 25 October 2026). Assumes the yield is earned for a full year and the rate change happens at once; SEC yields change daily.

A yield rise of just over a third of a point is enough to erase a year of TLT's income, while SHY can absorb more than two and a half points. SGOV's breakeven is so high because its bills mature within weeks and get reinvested at the new, higher rate. Run the same arithmetic the other way and TLT shows its appeal: a one-point fall in yields would add roughly 15% on top of its income, which is the upside long-bond holders want in recessions and equity sell-offs.

One-year yield and price effect for SGOV, SHY, SCHR and TLT if yields rise by one point

Treasury ETF yields explained

Fund pages show four yield figures that measure different things.

30-day SEC yield: net income earned over the last 30 days, after fees, annualised. It is the closest guide to current earnings.

Average yield to maturity: the return the current portfolio would earn if every bond were held to maturity and coupons reinvested at the same rate. TLT showed 5.35% on 22 October 2026, and it is calculated before fees.

Distribution yield: recent payouts divided by price. It looks backwards and can lag rate changes by months.

Total return: price change plus distributions. A fund with a 5% yield can still post a negative year if prices fall by more.

For a fair comparison, line funds up on the SEC yield taken on the same date.

How to buy US Treasury ETFs from Singapore

Buying works as for any US-listed or London-listed ETF. You need a brokerage or investment platform with access to NYSE Arca, Nasdaq or the London Stock Exchange, US dollars to settle the trade, and a completed W-8BEN form for US-listed funds. For Treasury funds, four checks matter most.

Pick the duration first, then the ticker. Decide whether you want cash-like stability, a short ladder or long-bond exposure. That decision affects returns far more than a few basis points of fees.

Confirm domicile through the ISIN. IDTL's ISIN starts with "IE", which marks an Irish fund, while US-domiciled funds such as TLT start with "US". The exchange a fund trades on says nothing about its domicile.

Use limit orders. Large Treasury ETFs usually trade with tight spreads, but a limit order protects you during volatile opens.

Check product classification. If your broker classifies a fund as a listed Specified Investment Product, it must first carry out a Customer Account Review before you can trade it.

Your SGD will usually be converted to USD for these trades, and the FX rate your platform uses is part of the cost.

Treasury ETF or a T-bill bought directly?

A Treasury bill bought directly matures on a set date and repays face value, so you know your return in US dollars the day you buy. The US government's own platform, TreasuryDirect, requires account managers to have a valid Social Security number, which rules it out for most investors here. Some brokers offer secondary-market access to individual Treasuries, usually with larger minimum sizes than an ETF share.

Source: 31 CFR 363.11 on TreasuryDirect eligibility, iShares SGOV (as of 25 October 2026)

For bills the gap is small. SGOV's 0.12-year duration means it behaves much like a rolling portfolio of bills, minus a 0.09% fee. The gap widens with maturity: a 20-year bond held to maturity returns its face value, while TLT keeps its long duration forever.

Currency risk for a Singapore dollar investor

Every fund here is priced in US dollars. If the US dollar weakens against the Singapore dollar, your SGD return falls even when the fund does well in USD terms. A 4% fall in the US dollar over a year would cancel most of SHY's 4.66% yield, and long Treasuries can add a rate loss on top. Singapore government bond funds such as A35 give government bond exposure without the currency swing.

Tax on US Treasury ETF distributions

Singapore generally does not tax individuals on gains from selling shares and financial instruments held as investments. US tax needs more care.

Distributions from a US-domiciled ETF are treated as dividends, and the US withholds tax on US-source dividends paid to nonresident aliens at 30% or a lower treaty rate. Bond funds get an exception: IRS Publication 519 lists certain interest-related dividends and certain short-term capital gain dividends among the income a nonresident alien can exclude. A Treasury fund whose income is almost all interest may designate much of its payout this way, with the share varying by fund and by year. Whether your broker applies the exemption at source depends on those designations and the broker's own process.

An Ireland-domiciled fund such as IDTL is an Irish company, so its distributions to you are not US-source dividends. Estate tax also differs. The executor of a nonresident, non-citizen must file Form 706-NA if US-situated assets at death exceed US$60,000, and stock in US corporations counts as property located in the United States. US-domiciled ETFs fall on that side of the line, while Irish UCITS funds do not. For large holdings, a tax adviser can confirm how these rules apply to you.

Where Treasury ETFs fit in a portfolio

Short and long Treasury funds do different jobs in a portfolio.

Source: iShares SGOV, iShares TLT, iShares TIPS UCITS fact sheet (as of 25 October 2026)

Match duration to when you need the money. If the cash is for a home renovation next year, a fund with a 15-year duration exposes it to a risk you are not paid for over that horizon. For money you will not touch for a decade or more, long Treasuries can balance equities, because their prices rise when growth fears push yields down.

If equities rally and long Treasuries fall, rebalancing (selling some shares to buy bonds) brings the portfolio back to its target and adds duration at higher yields.

Build a Treasury ladder with StashAway

ETF Explorer lets you build the Treasury ladder described above from one fund per maturity band: SHY for 1 to 3 years, SCHR for 3 to 10, TLH for 10 to 20 and IDTL for 20 years and more, with IDTP for inflation protection. Each order costs US$1 (excluding GST), with no management fee on top, and you can invest with cash or SRS.

For SGD cash you may need soon, the Simple Cash suite has a projected rate of 4.6% p.a. to 6.7% p.a.

Treasury ETF prices fall when yields rise, and Simple's projected rates aren't guaranteed.

Frequently asked questions

Singapore investors most often ask about safety, tax and maturity.

Is TLT safe?

TLT carries almost no credit risk because it holds US government bonds, but its price can swing widely. With a duration of 14.96 years on 22 October 2026, a one-point rise in long-term yields would cut its price by roughly 15%. Holders can lose money for years if yields keep rising.

Does SGOV have US withholding tax?

SGOV is US-domiciled, so its distributions count as US-source dividends, which carry 30% withholding by default for nonresident aliens. IRS rules let certain interest-related dividends be excluded, and an all-Treasury fund may designate most of its income that way. What you actually see withheld depends on the fund's designations and your broker's handling.

Can I buy US T-bills directly from Singapore?

TreasuryDirect requires a valid Social Security number, so most investors here cannot use it. Some brokers sell individual Treasuries on the secondary market, and SGOV or SHY give similar exposure in a single ETF share.

TLT vs IEF: what is the difference?

IEF holds 7 to 10 year Treasuries with a 6.86-year duration on 2 October 2026, while TLT holds 20+ year bonds at 14.96 years, so TLT moves about twice as much when yields change.

Do Treasury ETFs mature?

No. Each fund sells bonds as they fall below its index's maturity range and buys new ones, so it keeps a fairly constant duration indefinitely. For money needed on a known date, an individual bond or a short fund like SGOV is a closer fit.

Is IDTL the same as TLT?

Both track the ICE US Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index and had the same 14.96-year duration on 22 October 2026. IDTL is domiciled in Ireland, charges a 0.07% TER against TLT's 0.15% expense ratio, pays semi-annually and trades in London. As an Irish fund, it is not a US-situated asset for estate tax.