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VTEAX Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond Index Fund Admiral Shares

Also available as an ETF (starting at the price of $1).

Management style

Index

Asset class

Intermediate-Term Bond

Category

Muni National Interm

Risk / reward scale

Start of Risk Scale. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 is less risk less reward, 5 is more risk more reward
The fund risk level is a 2

Less

More

End of Risk Scale.

Expense ratio

0.07%

as of 02/28/2025

30 day SEC yield

3.88%

 

A SEC yield footnote code

 

as of 06/05/2025

Investment minimum

$3,000

as of 06/09/2025

NAV price

$19.46

as of 06/09/2025

Overview

Key facts

CUSIP

922907753

Management style

Index

Asset class

Intermediate-Term Bond

Category

Muni National Interm

Inception date

08/25/2015

Fund Number

0591

Ratings

Risk / reward scale

Start of Risk Scale. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 is less risk less reward, 5 is more risk more reward
The fund risk level is a 2

Less

More

End of Risk Scale.
Price

Minimum Investment

$3,000

NAV Price

$19.46

as of 06/09/2025

NAV change

increased$0.01 (0.05%)

as of 06/09/2025

Expense Ratio

0.07%

as of 02/28/2025

Performance

YTD returns

-1.62%

as of 06/09/2025

Product summary

The investment objective of this index fund is to seek to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment-grade segment of the U.S. municipal bond market. The fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the Standard & Poor’s National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index using a sampling technique to closely match key benchmark characteristics. All of the fund’s investments will be selected through the sampling process, and at least 80% of the fund’s assets will be invested in securities held in the index. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the fund’s assets will be invested in securities whose income will be exempt from federal income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax. Risks of the fund include the fact that changes in interest rates can affect the fund by resulting in lower bond prices (when interest rates go up) or an eventual decrease in income for the fund (when rates decline). Investors who are looking for a fund that may provide federal tax-exempt income and can tolerate moderate price and income fluctuations may wish to consider this fund.

With respect to 75% of its total assets, the fund may not: (1) purchase more than 10% of the outstanding voting securities of any one issuer or (2) purchase securities of any issuer if, as a result, more than 5% of the fund’s total assets would be invested in that issuer’s securities; except as may be necessary to approximate the composition of its target index. This limitation does not apply to obligations of the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities.

Fund management

Vanguard Fixed Income Group

Performance & fees

Total returns
Month-end/Quarterly Pre-Tax Toggle

as of 05/31/2025

Recent returns

Average annual

Month-end3-Month totalYTD1-yr3-yr5-yr10-yr

Since inception

08/25/2015

VTEAX

-0.29%-2.67%-1.52%1.59%1.45%0.44%—1.97%

Benchmark

-0.23%-2.56%-1.44%1.64%1.55%0.53%2.08%2.03%

as of 03/31/2025

Year1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th QtrYear-end

Benchmark

2025-0.66%———— —
2024-0.43%0.18%2.53%-0.90%1.36% 1.32%
20232.76%-0.06%-3.65%7.27%6.15% 6.24%
2022-5.90%-2.87%-3.23%3.78%-8.22% -8.10%
2021-0.48%1.51%-0.44%0.84%1.43% 1.59%
2020-0.41%2.46%1.00%1.85%4.98% 4.95%
20192.82%2.28%1.56%0.60%7.45% 7.42%
2018-1.23%0.84%-0.21%1.56%0.94% 1.01%
20171.26%1.91%1.13%0.60%4.99% 5.09%
20161.48%2.71%-0.30%-3.45%0.33% 0.36%
2015———1.75%2.31% —

as of 12/31/2024

Year

Capital return by NAV

Income return by NAV

Total return by NAV

Benchmark

2024-1.72% 3.08%1.36%1.32%
20233.19% 2.96%6.15%6.24%
2022-10.05% 1.84%-8.22%-8.10%
2021-0.18% 1.61%1.43%1.59%
20202.90% 2.08%4.98%4.95%
20195.00% 2.44%7.45%7.42%
2018-1.31% 2.25%0.94%1.01%
20172.94% 2.05%4.99%5.09%
2016-1.28% 1.61%0.33%0.36%
20151.70% 0.61%2.31%—

as of 05/31/2025

1-yr3-yr5-yr10-yr

Since inception

08/25/2015

VTEAX1.59% 4.42%2.20% — 21.03%

Benchmark

1.64%4.71%2.66%22.83%—

Expense ratio

VTEAX

0.07%

Average expense ratio of similar funds2

0.67%

Historical volatility measures
as of 04/30/2025
BenchmarkR-Squared3Beta3
S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index11.001.00
Bloomberg Municipal Bond Index0.990.97
Fund-specific fees

Purchase fee

None

Fund family redemption fee

None

See Vanguard annual account service fees

The performance data shown represent past performance, which is not a guarantee of future results. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate so that investors' shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data cited.

Performance data do not reflect the deduction of the $25 annual account service fee that may be applied to certain accounts. If this fee was included, performance would be lower.

Price

Closing price

Closing price as of 06/09/2025

NAV

$19.46

NAV change

increased$0.01 (0.05%)

52-week High

$20.45

as of 10/03/2024

52-week Low

$19.11

as of 04/09/2025

52-week Difference

$1.34 (7.01%)

30 day SEC yield

3.88%

 

A SEC yield footnote code

 

as of 06/05/2025

Historical prices
Chart/Table Toggle
NameDateNAV
VTEAX 06/09/2025
$19.46

This chart can’t be displayed on mobile devices. For the best viewing experience, visit this page from your desktop or laptop.

Portfolio composition

Characteristics

This information is temporarily unavailable.

Holding details

This information is temporarily unavailable.

Distributions

Realized/Unrealized gains

as of 04/30/2025

Realized gain

-$0.12

% of NAV

decreased-0.63%

Unrealized gains of NAV

-$0.63

% of NAV

decreased-3.20%

Fiscal year end

10/31/2025

Distribution schedule

Monthly

How your fund can affect your taxes

A fund's capital gains and losses can reveal the tax implications of holding a particular fund in a taxable account. This is true of both realized and unrealized capital gains and losses.

These tax implications don't apply to investors holding a fund in a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Learn about realized and unrealized gains and losses

How your fund can affect your taxes

A fund's capital gains and losses can reveal the tax implications of holding a particular fund in a taxable account. This is true of both realized and unrealized capital gains and losses.

These tax implications don't apply to investors holding a fund in a tax-deferred account, such as an IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Learn about realized and unrealized gains and losses
Dividend income and capital gains
Type$/Share Payable date Record date Reinvest date Reinvest price Distribution yield
Dividend$0.05410006/02/202505/29/202505/30/2025$19.483.36%
Dividend$0.05400005/01/202504/29/202504/30/2025$19.593.15%
Dividend$0.05340004/01/202503/28/202503/31/2025$19.763.37%
Dividend$0.05450003/03/202502/27/202502/28/2025$20.183.53%
Dividend$0.05190002/03/202501/30/202501/31/2025$20.032.31%
Dividend$0.05330012/24/202412/20/202412/23/2024$19.984.18%
Dividend$0.05180012/02/202411/27/202411/29/2024$20.343.36%
Dividend$0.05160011/01/202410/30/202410/31/2024$20.072.82%
Dividend$0.05300010/01/202409/27/202409/30/2024$20.393.28%
Dividend$0.05190009/03/202408/29/202408/30/2024$20.253.12%
Label

Fund management

Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond Index Fund seeks to track the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index, which measures the performance of the investment-grade segment of the U.S. municipal bond market. The fund invests in investment-grade municipal bonds from issuers that are primarily state or local governments or agencies whose interest is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax. The fund’s passive investment style uses a sampling technique to closely match key benchmark characteristics: sector weight, coupon, maturity, effective duration, convexity, and credit quality. Optimized sampling is designed to avoid the expense and impracticality of fully replicating the index. All of the fund’s investments will be selected through the sampling process, and at least 80% of the fund’s assets will be invested in securities held in the index. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the fund’s assets will be invested in securities whose income will be exempt from federal income taxes and the federal AMT.

Vanguard Fixed Income Group
Launched in 1975, The Vanguard Group, Malvern, Pennsylvania, is among the world’s largest equity and fixed income managers. As chief investment officer, Gregory Davis, CFA, oversees Vanguard’s Equity Index, Investment Strategy, Quantitative Equity, and Fixed Income Groups. Sara Devereux, principal and global head of Fixed Income Group, has direct oversight responsibility for all money market, bond, and stable value portfolios managed by the Fixed Income Group. The Fixed Income Group offers actively managed investments in U.S. Treasury, corporate, and tax-exempt securities, as well as passively managed index portfolios. Since 1981, it has refined techniques in total-return management, credit research, and index sampling to seek to deliver consistent performance with transparency and risk control. The group has advised Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond Index Fund since 2015.

Investment Manager Biography

Justin A. Schwartz
CFA, Head of Municipal Index and Money Markets Portfolio manager.
Advised the fund since 2023. Worked in investment management since 2004. B.S., University of Richmond.

Performance & fees

1
A broad, market value-weighted index designed to measure the performance of the investment-grade tax-exempt U.S. municipal bond market. Bonds issued by U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, are excluded from the index.
2

Most recent data available. © 2023 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; (3) does not constitute investment advice offered by Morningstar; and (4) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

3

R-squared and beta are calculated from trailing 36-month fund returns relative to the associated benchmark.

© 2023 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Vanguard average mutual fund expense ratio: 0.09%. Industry average mutual fund expense ratio: 0.50%. All averages are asset-weighted. Industry average excludes Vanguard. Sources: Vanguard and Morningstar, Inc., as of December 31, 2023.

Total returns: Short-term total return information is provided only as a service. Historical performance—particularly short-term performance—is no guarantee of future returns. Price, yield, and return on an actual investment will fluctuate, and you may have a gain or loss when you sell. Average annual returns include changes in price and reinvestments of dividends and capital gains. Since-inception returns for less than 1 year and year-to-date returns aren't annualized. Index performance is provided as a benchmark but isn't illustrative of any particular investment. You can't invest in an index.

Standardized returns: To see quarterly fee-adjusted returns, refer to the Price & Performance details.

Expense ratios: Expense ratios are displayed on Overview. For investments that are less than 1 fiscal year old, expense ratios are estimated.

Risk: All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Funds that concentrate on a relatively narrow market sector face the risk of higher share-price volatility. Investments in stocks or bonds issued by non-U.S. companies are subject to risks including country/regional risk and currency risk.

An investment in the fund could lose money over short or even long periods. You should expect the fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range, like the fluctuations of the overall bond market. The fund’s performance could be hurt by:

  • Interest rate risk: The chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates.
  • Income risk: The chance that the fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates.
  • Call risk: The chance that during periods of falling interest rates, issuers of callable bonds may call (redeem) securities with higher coupon rates or interest rates before their maturity dates. The fund would then lose any price appreciation above the bond’s call price and would be forced to reinvest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the fund’s income. Such redemptions and subsequent reinvestments would also increase the fund’s portfolio turnover rate.
  • Extension risk: The chance that during periods of rising interest rate rates, certain debt obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall.
  • Credit risk: The chance that a bond issuer will fail to pay interest or principal in a timely manner, or that negative perceptions of the issuer’s ability to make such payments will cause the price of that bond to decline. In general, credit risk is expected to be relatively low for the fund because it invests primarily in bonds that are considered to be of high quality.
  • Index sampling risk: The chance that the securities selected for the fund, in the aggregate, will not provide investment performance matching that of the index. Index sampling risk for the fund should be low.
  • Index-related risks: The fund is subject to risks associated with index investing, which include passive management risk, tracking error risk, and index provider risk. Passive management risk is the chance that the fund's use of an indexing strategy will negatively impact the fund's performance. Because the fund seeks to track the performance of its target index regardless of how that index is performing, the fund's performance may be lower than it would be if the fund were actively managed. Tracking error risk is the chance that the fund's performance will deviate from the performance of its target index. Tracking error risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or under other unusual market conditions. Index provider risk is the chance that the fund will be negatively impacted by changes or errors made by the index provider. Any gains, losses, or costs associated with or resulting from an error made by the index provider will generally be borne by the fund and, as a result, the fund's shareholders.
  • Liquidity risk: The chance that the fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.
  • Tax risk: The chance that all or a portion of the tax-exempt income from municipal bonds held by the fund will be declared taxable, possibly with retroactive effect, because of unfavorable changes in tax laws, adverse interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service or state or local tax authorities, or noncompliant conduct of a bond issuer.
  • Regional risk: The chance that economic, political, or regulatory occurrences within a certain state may adversely affect the value of securities offered by issuers located within that state. Because the fund may invest a large portion of its assets in securities located in any one state, the fund’s performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of its investments in that area.
  • Nondiversification risk: Because the fund seeks to closely track the composition of the fund's target index, from time to time, more than 25% of the fund's total assets may be invested in issuers representing more than 5% of the fund's total assets due to an index rebalance or market movement, which would result in the fund being nondiversified under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The fund’s performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of bonds issued by just a few issuers or even a single issuer, and the fund’s shares may experience significant fluctuations in value.