Q: I want to put $4,000 into my IRA by the April 17 deadline, and I’d like to invest in a municipal-bond fund for safety and dependable income. But I’ve been told these should not go into an IRA. Is that true?

A: Munis, which are bonds state and local governments sell to raise money for public projects, are very attractive investments for some people. But as a general rule, it’s best to buy them through an ordinary taxable account rather than an IRA.

That’s because the interest earned from munis is free of federal income tax, so there is no benefit to putting them in an IRA, which shelters investment gains and interest from federal tax. It’s overkill – like wearing a belt and suspenders, as the saying goes.

In fact, it actually could be worse. Withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as income. So interest earned on a muni held in a traditional IRA eventually would be taxed, while it would be tax-free if earned in a taxable account.

This problem could be avoided if you had munis in a Roth IRA, since withdrawals from those are tax-exempt. But since there’s an annual limit on how much you can put into IRAs, it’s best to reserve IRAs for investments that would incur big taxes if they were held in ordinary accounts.

Put the muni into a traditional IRA and the profit would be taxed upon withdrawal at income-tax rates, which go as high as 35 percent.

The same profit would be tax-free if the muni were in a Roth IRA, since all Roth withdrawals are exempt from income and capital-gains tax. But for most small investors, munis are best thought of as interest-paying investments, with any capital gains as gravy. So I don’t think it’s worth putting munis into a Roth, even though that would shelter the gains from tax.