Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks to provide current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes while maintaining liquidity and a stable share price of $1.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

 

Example

The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that you would incur over various periods if you were to invest $10,000 in the Fund’s shares. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% each year and that total annual fund operating expenses remain as stated in the preceding table. You would incur these hypothetical expenses whether or not you were to redeem your investment at the end of the given period. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

1

 

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund invests in a variety of high-quality, short-term municipal securities. To be considered high quality, a security must be determined by Vanguard to present minimal credit risk based in part on a consideration of maturity, portfolio diversification, portfolio liquidity, and credit quality. The Fund invests in securities with effective maturities of 397 days or less, maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity of 60 days or less, and maintains a dollar-weighted average life of 120 days or less.

Principal Risks

The Fund is designed for investors with a low tolerance for risk; however, the Fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the Fund’s performance:

• Income risk, which is the chance that the Fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Because the Fund’s income is based on short-term interest rates—which can fluctuate significantly over short periods—income risk is expected to be high.

• Credit risk, which is the chance that the issuer of a security 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 security to decline. Credit risk should be very low for the Fund because it invests primarily in securities that are considered to be of high quality.

• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

• Tax risk, which is 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.

• Derivatives risk. The Fund may invest in structured products such as tender option bonds and long-term municipal bonds combined with a demand feature (i.e., variable rate demand notes or VRDNs), which may involve risks different from, and possibly greater than, those of investments directly in the underlying securities or assets.

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. Although the Fund seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, it cannot guarantee it will do so. The Fund may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Fund’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. An investment in the Fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The Fund’s sponsor has

2

 

no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Fund, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Fund at any time.

Annual Total Returns

The following bar chart and table are intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund has varied from one calendar year to another over the periods shown. The table shows how the average annual total returns of the Fund compare with those of a comparative benchmark, which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Returns for the Municipal Money Market Funds Average are derived from data provided by Lipper, a Thomson Reuters Company. Keep in mind that the Fund’s past performance does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on our website at vanguard.com/performance or by calling Vanguard toll-free at 800-662-7447.

Annual Total Returns — Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund Investor Shares

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a calendar quarter was 0.39% (quarter ended December 31, 2018), and the lowest return for a quarter was 0.00% (quarter ended March 31, 2014).

 

3

 

Investment Advisor
The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard)

Portfolio Manager

Justin A. Schwartz, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard and head of Vanguard’s Municipal Money Market Funds. He has managed the Fund since 2016.

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase or redeem shares online through our website (vanguard.com), by mail (The Vanguard Group, P.O. Box 1110, Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110), or by telephone (800-662-2739). When your trade is processed depends on the day and time Vanguard receives your request in good order and the manner in which it is submitted. Generally, trades placed after the close of business are processed during the next business day. The minimum investment amount required to open and maintain a Fund account for Investor Shares is $3,000. The minimum investment amount required to add to an existing Fund account is generally $1. Financial intermediaries and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Investor Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility. The Fund is only eligible for purchase within accounts beneficially owned by natural persons.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gain. A majority of the income dividends that you receive from the Fund are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. However, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state, or local income taxes or the federal alternative minimum tax.

Payments to Financial Intermediaries

The Fund and its investment advisor do not pay financial intermediaries for sales of Fund shares.

4

 

Vanguard Short-Term Tax-Exempt Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks to provide current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes, with limited price volatility.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold Investor Shares or Admiral Shares of the Fund.

 

 

5

 

Examples

The following examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund’s Investor Shares or Admiral Shares with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. They illustrate the hypothetical expenses that you would incur over various periods if you were to invest $10,000 in the Fund’s shares. These examples assume that the shares provide a return of 5% each year and that total annual fund operating expenses remain as stated in the preceding table. You would incur these hypothetical expenses whether or not you were to redeem your investment at the end of the given period. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in more taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the previous expense examples, reduce the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 42% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund has no limitations on the maturity of individual securities but is expected to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 1 to 2 years. At least 75% of the securities held by the Fund are municipal bonds in the top three credit-rating categories as determined by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) (e.g., Aaa, Aa, and A by Moody‘s Investors Service, Inc. (Moody‘s)) or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in medium-grade quality bonds, as determined by an NRSRO (e.g., Baa by Moody’s) or by the advisor. The remaining 5% may be invested in securities with lower credit ratings or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor.

6

 

• Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the Fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.

• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to

Principal Risks

The Fund is designed for investors with a low tolerance for risk, but you could still lose money by investing in it. The Fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the Fund’s performance:

• Income risk, which is the chance that the Fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Income risk is generally high for short-term bond funds, so investors should expect the Fund’s monthly income to fluctuate.

• Interest rate risk, which is the chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be low for the Fund because it invests primarily in short-term bonds, whose prices are less sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of longer-term bonds.

• Call risk, which is 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, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally low for short-term bond funds.

• Credit risk, which is 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 should be relatively low for the Fund because it invests primarily in bonds that are considered to be of high quality.

underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

• Tax risk, which is 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.

• Derivatives risk. The Fund may invest in structured products such as tender option bonds and long-term municipal bonds combined with a demand feature (i.e., variable rate demand notes or VRDNs), which may involve risks different from, and possibly greater than, those of investments directly in the underlying securities or assets.

7

 

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Annual Total Returns

The following bar chart and table are intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund‘s Investor Shares has varied from one calendar year to another over the periods shown. The table shows how the average annual total returns of the share classes presented compare with those of a relevant market index, which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Keep in mind that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on our website at vanguard.com/performance or by calling Vanguard toll-free at 800-662-7447.

Annual Total Returns — Vanguard Short-Term Tax-Exempt Fund Investor Shares

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a calendar quarter was 1.09% (quarter ended March 31, 2009), and the lowest return for a quarter was –0.34% (quarter ended June 30, 2013).

8

 

 

Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown in the preceding table. When after-tax returns are calculated, it is assumed that the shareholder was in the highest individual federal marginal income tax bracket at the time of each distribution of income or capital gains or upon redemption. State and local income taxes are not reflected in the calculations. Please note that after-tax returns are shown only for the Investor Shares and may differ for each share class. After-tax returns are not relevant for a shareholder who holds fund shares in a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account or a 401(k) plan. Also, figures captioned Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares may be higher than other figures for the same period if a capital loss occurs upon redemption and results in an assumed tax deduction for the shareholder.

Investment Advisor
The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard)

Portfolio Manager

Justin A. Schwartz, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard and head of Vanguard’s Municipal Money Market Funds. He has managed the Fund since 2016.

9

 

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase or redeem shares online through our website (vanguard.com), by mail (The Vanguard Group, P.O. Box 1110, Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110), or by telephone (800-662-2739). The minimum investment amount required to open and maintain a Fund account for Investor Shares or Admiral Shares is $3,000 or $50,000, respectively. The minimum investment amount required to add to an existing Fund account is generally $1. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gain. A majority of the income dividends that you receive from the Fund are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. However, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state, or local income taxes or the federal alternative minimum tax.

Payments to Financial Intermediaries

The Fund and its investment advisor do not pay financial intermediaries for sales of Fund shares.

10

 

Vanguard Limited-Term Tax-Exempt Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks to provide current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes, with limited price volatility.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold Investor Shares or Admiral Shares of the Fund.

 

 

11

 

Examples

The following examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund’s Investor Shares or Admiral Shares with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. They illustrate the hypothetical expenses that you would incur over various periods if you were to invest $10,000 in the Fund’s shares. These examples assume that the shares provide a return of 5% each year and that total annual fund operating expenses remain as stated in the preceding table. You would incur these hypothetical expenses whether or not you were to redeem your investment at the end of the given period. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in more taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the previous expense examples, reduce the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 28% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund has no limitations on the maturity of individual securities but is expected to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 2 to 6 years. At least 75% of the securities held by the Fund are municipal bonds in the top three credit-rating categories as determined by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) (e.g., Aaa, Aa, and A by Moody‘s Investors Service, Inc. (Moody‘s)) or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in medium-grade quality bonds, as determined by an NRSRO (e.g., Baa by Moody’s) or by the advisor. The remaining 5% may be invested in securities with lower credit ratings or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor.

12

 

Principal Risks

The Fund is designed for investors with a low tolerance for risk, but you could still lose money by investing in it. The Fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the Fund’s performance:

• Income risk, which is the chance that the Fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Income risk is generally high for limited-term bond funds, so investors should expect the Fund’s monthly income to fluctuate.

• Interest rate risk, which is the chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be low for the Fund because it invests primarily in short-term bonds, whose prices are less sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of longer-term bonds.

• Call risk, which is 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. Call risk is generally low to moderate for limited-term bond funds.

• Extension risk, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally low for limited-term bond funds.

• Credit risk, which is 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 should be relatively low for the Fund because it invests primarily in bonds that are considered to be of high quality.

• Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the Fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.

• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to

underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

• Tax risk, which is 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.

• Derivatives risk. The Fund may invest in structured products such as tender option bonds and long-term municipal bonds combined with a demand feature (i.e., variable rate demand notes or VRDNs), which may involve risks different from, and possibly greater than, those of investments directly in the underlying securities or assets.

13

 

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Annual Total Returns

The following bar chart and table are intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund‘s Investor Shares has varied from one calendar year to another over the periods shown. The table shows how the average annual total returns of the share classes presented compare with those of a relevant market index, which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Keep in mind that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on our website at vanguard.com/performance or by calling Vanguard toll-free at 800-662-7447.

Annual Total Returns — Vanguard Limited-Term Tax-Exempt Fund Investor Shares

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a calendar quarter was 2.31% (quarter ended September 30, 2009), and the lowest return for a quarter was –1.53% (quarter ended December 31, 2016).

14

 

 

Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown in the preceding table. When after-tax returns are calculated, it is assumed that the shareholder was in the highest individual federal marginal income tax bracket at the time of each distribution of income or capital gains or upon redemption. State and local income taxes are not reflected in the calculations. Please note that after-tax returns are shown only for the Investor Shares and may differ for each share class. After-tax returns are not relevant for a shareholder who holds fund shares in a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account or a 401(k) plan. Also, figures captioned Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares may be higher than other figures for the same period if a capital loss occurs upon redemption and results in an assumed tax deduction for the shareholder.

Investment Advisor
The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard)

Portfolio Manager

Adam M. Ferguson, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard. He has managed the Fund since 2017.

15

 

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase or redeem shares online through our website (vanguard.com), by mail (The Vanguard Group, P.O. Box 1110, Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110), or by telephone (800-662-2739). The minimum investment amount required to open and maintain a Fund account for Investor Shares or Admiral Shares is $3,000 or $50,000, respectively. The minimum investment amount required to add to an existing Fund account is generally $1. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gain. A majority of the income dividends that you receive from the Fund are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. However, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state, or local income taxes or the federal alternative minimum tax.

Payments to Financial Intermediaries

The Fund and its investment advisor do not pay financial intermediaries for sales of Fund shares.

16

 

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks to provide a moderate and sustainable level of current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold Investor Shares or Admiral Shares of the Fund.

 

 

17

 

Examples

The following examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund’s Investor Shares or Admiral Shares with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. They illustrate the hypothetical expenses that you would incur over various periods if you were to invest $10,000 in the Fund’s shares. These examples assume that the shares provide a return of 5% each year and that total annual fund operating expenses remain as stated in the preceding table. You would incur these hypothetical expenses whether or not you were to redeem your investment at the end of the given period. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in more taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the previous expense examples, reduce the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 15% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund has no limitations on the maturity of individual securities but is expected to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 6 to 12 years. At least 75% of the securities held by the Fund are municipal bonds in the top three credit-rating categories as determined by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) (e.g., Aaa, Aa, and A by Moody‘s Investors Service, Inc. (Moody‘s)) or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in medium-grade quality bonds, as determined by an NRSRO (e.g., Baa by Moody’s) or by the advisor. The remaining 5% may be invested in securities with lower credit ratings or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor.

18

 

Principal Risks

An investment in the Fund could lose money over short or long periods of time. You should expect the Fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range. The Fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the Fund’s performance:

• Income risk, which is the chance that the Fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Income risk is generally moderate for intermediate-term bond funds, so investors should expect the Fund’s monthly income to fluctuate accordingly.

• Interest rate risk, which is the chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be moderate for the Fund because it invests primarily in short- and intermediate-term bonds, whose prices are less sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of long-term bonds.

• Call risk, which is 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. Call risk is generally moderate for intermediate-term bond funds.

• Extension risk, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally moderate for intermediate-term bond funds.

• Credit risk, which is 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 should be relatively low for the Fund because it invests primarily in bonds that are considered to be of high quality.

• Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the Fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.

• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to

underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

• Tax risk, which is 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.

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

19

 

Annual Total Returns

The following bar chart and table are intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund‘s Investor Shares has varied from one calendar year to another over the periods shown. The table shows how the average annual total returns of the share classes presented compare with those of a relevant market index, which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Keep in mind that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on our website at vanguard.com/performance or by calling Vanguard toll-free at 800-662-7447.

Annual Total Returns — Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund Investor Shares

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a calendar quarter was 6.14% (quarter ended September 30, 2009), and the lowest return for a quarter was –3.60% (quarter ended December 31, 2010).

 

Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown in the preceding table. When after-tax returns are calculated, it is assumed that the

20

 

shareholder was in the highest individual federal marginal income tax bracket at the time of each distribution of income or capital gains or upon redemption. State and local income taxes are not reflected in the calculations. Please note that after-tax returns are shown only for the Investor Shares and may differ for each share class. After-tax returns are not relevant for a shareholder who holds fund shares in a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account or a 401(k) plan. Also, figures captioned Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares may be higher than other figures for the same period if a capital loss occurs upon redemption and results in an assumed tax deduction for the shareholder.

Investment Advisor
The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard)

Portfolio Manager

James M. D’Arcy, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard. He has managed the Fund since 2013.

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase or redeem shares online through our website (vanguard.com), by mail (The Vanguard Group, P.O. Box 1110, Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110), or by telephone (800-662-2739). The minimum investment amount required to open and maintain a Fund account for Investor Shares or Admiral Shares is $3,000 or $50,000, respectively. The minimum investment amount required to add to an existing Fund account is generally $1. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gain. A majority of the income dividends that you receive from the Fund are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. However, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state, or local income taxes or the federal alternative minimum tax.

Payments to Financial Intermediaries

The Fund and its investment advisor do not pay financial intermediaries for sales of Fund shares.

21

 

Vanguard Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks to provide a high and sustainable level of current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold Investor Shares or Admiral Shares of the Fund.

 

 

22

 

Examples

The following examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund’s Investor Shares or Admiral Shares with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. They illustrate the hypothetical expenses that you would incur over various periods if you were to invest $10,000 in the Fund’s shares. These examples assume that the shares provide a return of 5% each year and that total annual fund operating expenses remain as stated in the preceding table. You would incur these hypothetical expenses whether or not you were to redeem your investment at the end of the given period. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in more taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the previous expense examples, reduce the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 16% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund has no limitations on the maturity of individual securities but is expected to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 10 to 25 years. At least 75% of the securities held by the Fund are municipal bonds in the top three credit-rating categories as determined by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) (e.g., Aaa, Aa, and A by Moody‘s Investors Service, Inc. (Moody‘s)) or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in medium-grade quality bonds, as determined by an NRSRO (e.g., Baa by Moody’s) or by the advisor. The remaining 5% may be invested in securities with lower credit ratings or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor.

23

 

Principal Risks

An investment in the Fund could lose money over short or long periods of time. You should expect the Fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range. The Fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the Fund’s performance:

• Income risk, which is the chance that the Fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Income risk should be low for the Fund because it invests primarily in long-term bonds.

• Interest rate risk, which is the chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be high for the Fund because it invests primarily in long-term bonds, whose prices are more sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of shorter-term bonds.

• Call risk, which is 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. Call risk is generally high for long-term bond funds.

• Extension risk, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally high for long-term bond funds.

• Credit risk, which is 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 should be relatively low for the Fund because it invests primarily in bonds that are considered to be of high quality.

• Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the Fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.

• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to

underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

• Tax risk, which is 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.

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

24

 

Annual Total Returns

The following bar chart and table are intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund‘s Investor Shares has varied from one calendar year to another over the periods shown. The table shows how the average annual total returns of the share classes presented compare with those of a relevant market index, which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Keep in mind that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on our website at vanguard.com/performance or by calling Vanguard toll-free at 800-662-7447.

Annual Total Returns — Vanguard Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund Investor Shares

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a calendar quarter was 7.95% (quarter ended September 30, 2009), and the lowest return for a quarter was –4.64% (quarter ended December 31, 2010).

 

Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown in the preceding table. When after-tax returns are calculated, it is assumed that the

25

 

shareholder was in the highest individual federal marginal income tax bracket at the time of each distribution of income or capital gains or upon redemption. State and local income taxes are not reflected in the calculations. Please note that after-tax returns are shown only for the Investor Shares and may differ for each share class. After-tax returns are not relevant for a shareholder who holds fund shares in a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account or a 401(k) plan. Also, figures captioned Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares may be higher than other figures for the same period if a capital loss occurs upon redemption and results in an assumed tax deduction for the shareholder.

Investment Advisor

The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard)

Portfolio Manager

Mathew M. Kiselak, Principal of Vanguard. He has managed the Fund since 2010.

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase or redeem shares online through our website (vanguard.com), by mail (The Vanguard Group, P.O. Box 1110, Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110), or by telephone (800-662-2739). The minimum investment amount required to open and maintain a Fund account for Investor Shares or Admiral Shares is $3,000 or $50,000, respectively. The minimum investment amount required to add to an existing Fund account is generally $1. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gain. A majority of the income dividends that you receive from the Fund are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. However, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state, or local income taxes or the federal alternative minimum tax.

Payments to Financial Intermediaries

The Fund and its investment advisor do not pay financial intermediaries for sales of Fund shares.

26

 

Vanguard High-Yield Tax-Exempt Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund seeks to provide a high and sustainable level of current income that is exempt from federal personal income taxes.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold Investor Shares or Admiral Shares of the Fund.

 

 

27

 

Examples

The following examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund’s Investor Shares or Admiral Shares with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. They illustrate the hypothetical expenses that you would incur over various periods if you were to invest $10,000 in the Fund’s shares. These examples assume that the shares provide a return of 5% each year and that total annual fund operating expenses remain as stated in the preceding table. You would incur these hypothetical expenses whether or not you were to redeem your investment at the end of the given period. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in more taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the previous expense examples, reduce the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 17% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in investment-grade municipal bonds, as determined by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) (e.g., Baa or higher by Moody‘s Investors Service, Inc. (Moody‘s)) or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the advisor. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in less-than-investment-grade bonds, as determined by an NRSRO (e.g., Baa by Moody’s) or by the advisor. The Fund has no limitations on the maturity of individual securities but is expected to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of 10 to 25 years.

28

 

Principal Risks

An investment in the Fund could lose money over short or long periods of time. You should expect the Fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range. The Fund is subject to the following risks, which could affect the Fund’s performance:

• Credit risk, which is 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. Credit risk should be relatively moderate for the Fund because it invests a portion of its assets in moderate to low-quality bonds.

• Income risk, which is the chance that the Fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Income risk should be low for the Fund because it invests primarily in long-term bonds.

• Interest rate risk, which is the chance that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be high for the Fund because it invests primarily in long-term bonds, whose prices are more sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of shorter-term bonds.

• Call risk, which is 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. Call risk is generally high for high-yield bond funds.

• Extension risk, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally high for high-yield bond funds.

• Liquidity risk, which is the chance that the Fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.

• Manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to

underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

• Tax risk, which is 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.

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

29

 

Annual Total Returns

The following bar chart and table are intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund‘s Investor Shares has varied from one calendar year to another over the periods shown. The table shows how the average annual total returns of the share classes presented compare with those of a relevant market index, which has investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund. Keep in mind that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on our website at vanguard.com/performance or by calling Vanguard toll-free at 800-662-7447.

Annual Total Returns — Vanguard High-Yield Tax-Exempt Fund Investor Shares

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a calendar quarter was 9.71% (quarter ended September 30, 2009), and the lowest return for a quarter was –4.81% (quarter ended December 31, 2010).

 

Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown in the preceding table. When after-tax returns are calculated, it is assumed that the

30

 

shareholder was in the highest individual federal marginal income tax bracket at the time of each distribution of income or capital gains or upon redemption. State and local income taxes are not reflected in the calculations. Please note that after-tax returns are shown only for the Investor Shares and may differ for each share class. After-tax returns are not relevant for a shareholder who holds fund shares in a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account or a 401(k) plan. Also, figures captioned Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares may be higher than other figures for the same period if a capital loss occurs upon redemption and results in an assumed tax deduction for the shareholder.

Investment Advisor

The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard)

Portfolio Manager

Mathew M. Kiselak, Principal of Vanguard. He has managed the Fund since 2010.

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase or redeem shares online through our website (vanguard.com), by mail (The Vanguard Group, P.O. Box 1110, Valley Forge, PA 19482-1110), or by telephone (800-662-2739). The minimum investment amount required to open and maintain a Fund account for Investor Shares or Admiral Shares is $3,000 or $50,000, respectively. The minimum investment amount required to add to an existing Fund account is generally $1. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gain. A majority of the income dividends that you receive from the Fund are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. However, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state, or local income taxes or the federal alternative minimum tax.

Payments to Financial Intermediaries

The Fund and its investment advisor do not pay financial intermediaries for sales of Fund shares.

31

 

Investing in Tax-Exempt Funds

What Are Municipal Bond Funds?

Municipal bond funds invest primarily in interest-bearing securities issued by state and local governments and by other governmental authorities to support their needs or to finance public projects. A municipal bond—like a bond issued by a corporation or the U.S. government—obligates the issuer to pay the bondholder a fixed or variable amount of interest periodically and to repay the principal value of the bond on a specific maturity date. Unlike most other bonds, however, municipal bonds generally pay interest that is exempt from federal income taxes and, in some cases, from state and local taxes. For certain shareholders, the interest may be subject to the alternative minimum tax.

Taxable Versus Tax-Exempt Funds

Yields on tax-exempt bonds—such as some municipal bonds—are typically lower than those on taxable bonds, so investing in a tax-exempt fund makes sense only if you stand to save more in taxes than you would earn as additional income while invested in a taxable fund.

To determine whether a tax-exempt fund—such as one of the Vanguard Municipal Bond Funds—makes sense for you, compute the tax-exempt fund’s taxable-equivalent yield. This figure enables you to take taxes into account when comparing your potential return on a tax-exempt fund with the potential return on a taxable fund.

To compute the taxable-equivalent yield, divide the tax-exempt fund’s yield by the difference between 100% and your federal tax bracket. For example, if you are in the 37% tax bracket and subject to the 3.8% Medicare tax, and can earn a tax-exempt yield of 5%, the taxable-equivalent yield would be 8.45% (5% divided by 59.2% [i.e.,100%–37%–3.8%]).

In this example, you would choose the tax-exempt fund if its taxable-equivalent yield of 8.45% were greater than the yield of a similar, though taxable, investment.

Remember that we have used an assumed tax bracket in this example. Actual taxable equivalent yields depend on your individual tax situation. Make sure to verify your actual effective marginal tax rate before calculating taxable-equivalent yields of your own.

There is no guarantee that all of a tax-exempt fund’s income from its municipal bonds will remain exempt from federal, state, or local income taxes. Income from municipal bonds held by a fund could be declared taxable, possibly with retroactive effect, because of unfavorable changes in tax laws, adverse interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or state or local tax authorities, or noncompliant conduct of a bond issuer.

32

 

Investing in Money Market Funds

What is Money Market Reform?

In July 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented a number of regulatory changes designed to enhance the stability and resilience of all money market funds. The reforms have created three categories of money market funds:

• Retail money market funds, which may maintain a stable net asset value (NAV) but are subject to liquidity fees and redemption gates.

• Government money market funds, which may maintain a stable NAV but are not required to implement liquidity fees and redemption gates.

• Institutional money market funds, which are required to have a floating NAV and are subject to liquidity fees and redemption gates.

The board of trustees of Vanguard Municipal Bond Funds (the Board), in accordance with the best interest of the shareholders, approved a number of changes in response to the SEC’s 2014 amendments to the rules governing money market funds. These changes—including the Board’s ability to implement liquidity fees and redemption gates if Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund’s weekly liquid assets fall below established thresholds—are now in effect. As part of these changes, information regarding the Fund’s weekly liquid assets for the prior six months (by day, as of the close of business) is available on the Fund’s Portfolio page at vanguard.com.

How Does This Affect Vanguard Money Market Funds?

The money market fund reforms impact money market funds differently depending on the types of investors permitted to invest in a fund and the types of securities in which a fund may invest.

Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund

Vanguard has designated Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund as a retail money market fund.

Retail money market funds are defined as prime or municipal money market funds that have policies and procedures reasonably designed to limit all beneficial owners of such money market funds to natural persons. Retail money market funds are permitted to continue to maintain a stable NAV through the use of amortized cost accounting. If a retail money market fund’s weekly liquid assets fall below a certain threshold, the retail money market fund is subject to fees and gates.

There are two types of liquidity fees: discretionary liquidity fees and default liquidity fees. Liquidity fees are designed to transfer the costs of liquidating securities from shareholders who remain in the Fund to those who leave the Fund during periods when liquidity is limited.

33

 

Discretionary liquidity fee. The Fund may impose a liquidity fee of up to 2% on all redemptions in the event that the Fund’s weekly liquid assets fall below 30% of its total assets if the Board determines that it is in the best interest of the Fund. Subject to practical limitations necessary to implement the fee, the discretionary liquidity fee may be implemented the same day that the Board determines to impose a fee. Once the Fund has restored its weekly liquid assets to 30% of total assets, any liquidity fee must be suspended.

Default liquidity fee. The Fund is required to impose a liquidity fee of 1% on all redemptions in the event that the Fund’s weekly liquid assets fall below 10% of its total assets unless the Fund’s Board determines that (1) the fee is not in the best interest of the Fund or (2) a lesser/higher fee (up to 2%) is in the best interest of the Fund. A default liquidity fee is required to be implemented the business day after the Board determines to impose a fee.

In addition to, or in lieu of, the liquidity fee, the Fund is permitted to implement temporarily a redemption gate (i.e., suspend redemptions) if the Fund’s weekly liquid assets fall below 30% of its total assets. The gate could remain in effect for no longer than 10 days in any 90-day period. Once the Fund has restored its weekly liquid assets to 30% of total assets, the gate must be lifted.

Once the Fund imposes a redemption gate, then unprocessed orders to redeem or exchange will be canceled and the Fund will not accept redemption or exchange orders until the gate is no longer in effect. If you still wish to redeem or exchange once the gate is lifted, you will need to submit a new redemption or exchange request to the Fund or your financial intermediary.

The Board also may determine that it would not be in the interests of the Fund to continue operating if the Fund’s weekly liquid assets fall below 10% of its total assets. In the event that the Board approves liquidation of the Fund under these circumstances, the Fund may permanently suspend redemptions and liquidate.

Notices regarding liquidity fees or redemption gates will be filed with the SEC on Form N-CR. In addition, announcements will also be made in supplements to the Fund’s prospectus and on the Fund’s website.

The Fund is subject to money market fund reform regulatory risk, which is the chance that 2014 SEC reforms will affect the Fund’s investment strategy, fees and expenses, portfolio, share liquidity, and return potential as a result of the implemented rules.

34

 

More on the Funds

This prospectus describes the principal risks you would face as a Fund shareholder. It is important to keep in mind one of the main principles of investing: generally, the higher the risk of losing money, the higher the potential reward. The reverse, also, is generally true: the lower the risk, the lower the potential reward. As you consider an investment in any mutual fund, you should take into account your personal tolerance for fluctuations in the securities markets. Look for this  symbol throughout the prospectus. It is used to mark detailed information about the more significant risks that you would confront as a Fund shareholder. To highlight terms and concepts important to mutual fund investors, we have provided Plain Talk® explanations along the way. Reading the prospectus will help you decide whether a Fund is the right investment for you. We suggest that you keep this prospectus for future reference.

Share Class Overview

Each Fund (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund) offers two separate classes of shares: Investor Shares and Admiral Shares. The Municipal Money Market Fund does not offer Admiral Shares.

Both share classes offered by a Fund have the same investment objective, strategies, and policies. However, different share classes have different expenses; as a result, their investment returns will differ.

 

The following sections explain the principal investment strategies and policies that each Fund uses in pursuit of its objective. The Funds‘ board of trustees, which oversees each Fund‘s management, may change investment strategies or policies in the interest of shareholders without a shareholder vote, unless those strategies or policies are designated as fundamental.

Market Exposure

The Funds invest mainly in state and local municipal securities that provide tax-exempt income. As a result, they are subject to certain risks.

35

 

Each Fund is subject to interest rate risk, which is the chance that securities prices overall will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk should be negligible for money market funds, low for short-term bond funds, moderate for intermediate-term bond funds, and high for long-term bond funds.

Even though money market funds generally have a negligible interest rate risk, a low interest rate environment could adversely affect the Municipal Money Market Fund’s return. Low interest rates could prevent the Fund from providing a positive yield.

Although bonds are often thought to be less risky than stocks, there have been periods when bond prices have fallen significantly because of rising interest rates. For instance, prices of long-term bonds fell by almost 48% between December 1976 and September 1981.

To illustrate the relationship between bond prices and interest rates, the following table shows the effect of a 1% and a 2% change (both up and down) in interest rates on the values of three noncallable bonds (i.e., bonds that cannot be redeemed by the issuer) of different maturities, each with a face value of $1,000.

 

These figures are for illustration only; you should not regard them as an indication of future performance of the bond market as a whole or the Funds in particular.

 

36

 

Changes in interest rates can affect bond income as well as bond prices.

Each Fund is subject to income risk, which is the chance that the Fund‘s income will decline because of falling interest rates. A fund‘s income declines when interest rates fall because the fund then must invest new cash flow and cash from maturing instruments in lower-yielding instruments. Income risk is generally higher for short-term bond funds and lower for long-term bond funds.

 

 

Although falling interest rates tend to strengthen bond prices, they can cause another problem for bond fund investors—bond calls.

37

 

Each Fund (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund) is subject to call risk, which is 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.

Call risk is generally low for short-term bonds, moderate for intermediate-term bonds, and higher for long-term and high-yield bonds. The greater the call risk, the greater the chance for a decline in income and the potential for taxable capital gains.

 

Each Fund (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund) is subject to extension risk, which is the chance that during periods of rising interest rates, certain debt securities will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated, and the value of those securities may fall. Extension risk is generally low for short-term bond funds, moderate for intermediate-term bond funds, and high for long-term bond funds.

Each Fund is subject to credit risk, which is the chance that the issuer of a security 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 security to decline. Credit risk is generally low for funds that invest in bonds considered to be of high quality and higher for funds that invest in bonds considered to be of lower quality.

38

 

 

The Funds try to minimize credit risk by purchasing a wide selection of municipal securities. As a result, there is less chance that a Fund will be seriously affected by a particular bond issuer’s failure to pay either interest or principal. Under certain circumstances, however, exposure to a single issuer could cause the Municipal Money Market Fund to fail to maintain a share price of $1.

Each Fund is subject to liquidity risk, which is the chance that the Fund may not be able to sell a security in a timely manner at a desired price.

Municipal securities are traded via a network among dealers and brokers that connect buyers with sellers. Liquidity in the tax-exempt bond market may be reduced as a result of overall economic conditions and credit tightening. There may be little trading in the secondary market for particular bonds and other debt securities, which may make them more difficult to value or sell.

39

 

The following summary table is provided to help you distinguish among the Funds and the expected degrees of their various risks.

 

Up to 20% of each Fund’s assets may be invested in securities that are subject to the alternative minimum tax.

 

Security Selection

Vanguard, advisor to the Funds, uses a hub-and-satellite approach to managing the Funds (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund). This allows for a team-oriented and consistent management process. The hub, composed of senior leaders, focuses on the macroeconomic outlook, high level risk allocation, and process oversight. Satellites, composed of portfolio managers, credit and quantitative analysts, and traders, construct the portfolio using the parameters set by the hub. For the Municipal Money Market Fund, Vanguard selects high-quality money market instruments. As a matter of fundamental policy, each Fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in tax-exempt municipal bonds under normal market conditions. The Municipal Money Market Fund may count securities that generate income subject to the alternative minimum tax toward the 80% investment requirement.

40

 

Each Fund is subject to manager risk, which is the chance that poor security selection will cause the Fund to underperform relevant benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective.

Other Investment Policies and Risks

In addition to investing in municipal securities, each Fund may make other kinds of investments to achieve its objective. Some of these investments may generate taxable income, and thus the Fund may need to distribute income subject to federal personal income tax or the alternative minimum tax.

Each Fund may purchase tax-exempt securities on a “when-issued” basis. When investing in “when-issued” securities, the Fund agrees to buy the securities at a certain price on a certain date, even if the market price of the securities at the time of delivery is higher or lower than the agreed-upon purchase price.

Each Fund may invest in derivatives. In general, investments in derivatives may involve risks different from, and possibly greater than, those of investments directly in the underlying securities or assets.

Generally speaking, a derivative is a financial contract whose value is based on the value of a financial asset (such as a stock, a bond, or a currency), a physical asset (such as gold, oil, or wheat), a market index, or a reference rate. Investments in derivatives may subject the Funds to risks different from, and possibly greater than, those of investments directly in the underlying securities or assets.

Each Fund may invest in derivatives only if the expected risks and rewards of the derivatives are consistent with the investment objective, policies, strategies, and risks of the Fund as disclosed in this prospectus. In particular, derivatives will be used only when they may help the advisor to accomplish one or more of the following:

• Invest in eligible asset classes with greater efficiency and lower cost than is possible through direct investment.

• Add value when these instruments are attractively priced.

• Adjust sensitivity to changes in interest rates.

The Funds’ (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund) derivative investments may include fixed income futures contracts, fixed income options, interest rate swaps, total return swaps, credit default swaps, or other derivatives. Losses (or gains) involving futures contracts can sometimes be substantial—in part because a relatively small price movement in a futures contract may result in an immediate and substantial loss (or gain) for a fund. Similar risks exist for other types of derivatives.

Each Fund may invest in tender option bond programs, a type of municipal bond derivative that allows the purchaser to receive a variable rate of tax-exempt income

41

 

from a trust entity that holds long-term municipal bonds. Each Fund may also invest in long-term municipal bonds combined with a demand feature (i.e., variable rate demand notes or VDRNs), which represents the right to sell the instrument back to the remarketer or liquidity provider, usually a bank, for repurchase on short notice, normally one day or seven days. A Fund may invest in these derivatives if, in the advisor’s opinion, they are consistent with the Fund’s objective. Derivative securities are subject to certain structural risks that, in very rare circumstances, could cause a Fund’s shareholders to lose money or receive taxable income.

 

Cash Management

Each Fund‘s daily cash balance may be invested in Vanguard Market Liquidity Fund and/or Vanguard Municipal Cash Management Fund (each, a CMT Fund), which are low-cost money market funds. When investing in a CMT Fund, each Fund bears its proportionate share of the expenses of the CMT Fund in which it invests. Vanguard receives no additional revenue from Fund assets invested in a CMT Fund. Investment in a CMT Fund may generate taxable income for the Fund and potentially may require the Fund to distribute income subject to federal personal income tax or the alternative minimum tax.

Methods Used to Meet Redemption Requests

Under normal circumstances, each Fund typically expects to meet redemptions with positive cash flows. When this is not an option, each Fund seeks to maintain its risk exposure by selling a cross section of the Fund’s holdings to meet redemptions, while also factoring in transaction costs. Additionally, a Fund may work with larger clients to implement their redemptions in a manner that is least disruptive to the portfolio; see “Potentially disruptive redemptions” under Redeeming Shares in the Investing With Vanguard section.

Under certain circumstances, including under stressed market conditions, there are additional tools that each Fund may use in order to meet redemptions, including advancing the settlement of market trades with counterparties to match investor

42

 

redemption payments or delaying settlement of an investor’s transaction to match trade settlement within regulatory requirements. A Fund may also suspend payment of redemption proceeds for up to seven days; see “Emergency circumstances” under Redeeming Shares in the Investing With Vanguard section. Additionally under these unusual circumstances, a Fund may borrow money (subject to certain regulatory conditions and if available under board-approved procedures) through an interfund lending facility or through a bank line-of-credit, including a joint committed credit facility, in order to meet redemption requests.

Temporary Investment Measures

Each Fund may temporarily depart from its normal investment policies and strategies—for instance, by allocating substantial assets to cash equivalent investments, U.S. Treasury securities, or other investment companies (including exchange-traded funds)—in response to adverse or unusual market, economic, political, or other conditions. Such conditions could include a temporary decline in the availability of municipal obligations. By temporarily departing from its normal investment policies, the Fund may distribute income subject to federal personal income tax or the alternative minimum tax and may otherwise fail to achieve its investment objective.

 

Frequent Trading or Market-Timing

Background. Some investors try to profit from strategies involving frequent trading of mutual fund shares, such as market-timing. For funds holding foreign securities, investors may try to take advantage of an anticipated difference between the price of the fund’s shares and price movements in overseas markets, a practice also known as time-zone arbitrage. Investors also may try to engage in frequent trading of funds holding investments such as small-cap stocks and high-yield bonds. As money is shifted into and out of a fund by a shareholder engaging in frequent trading, the fund incurs costs for buying and selling securities, resulting in increased brokerage and administrative costs. These costs are borne by all fund shareholders, including the

43

 

long-term investors who do not generate the costs. In addition, frequent trading may interfere with an advisor’s ability to efficiently manage the fund.

Policies to address frequent trading. The Vanguard funds (other than money market funds and short-term bond funds, but including Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund) do not knowingly accommodate frequent trading. The board of trustees of each Vanguard fund (other than money market funds and short-term bond funds, but including Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund) has adopted policies and procedures reasonably designed to detect and discourage frequent trading and, in some cases, to compensate the fund for the costs associated with it. These policies and procedures do not apply to ETF Shares because frequent trading in ETF Shares generally does not disrupt portfolio management or otherwise harm fund shareholders. Although there is no assurance that Vanguard will be able to detect or prevent frequent trading or market-timing in all circumstances, the following policies have been adopted to address these issues:

• Each Vanguard fund reserves the right to reject any purchase request—including exchanges from other Vanguard funds—without notice and regardless of size. For example, a purchase request could be rejected because the investor has a history of frequent trading or if Vanguard determines that such purchase may negatively affect a fund’s operation or performance.

• Each Vanguard fund (other than money market funds and short-term bond funds, but including Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund) generally prohibits, except as otherwise noted in the Investing With Vanguard section, an investor’s purchases or exchanges into a fund account for 30 calendar days after the investor has redeemed or exchanged out of that fund account.

• Certain Vanguard funds charge shareholders purchase and/or redemption fees on transactions.

See the Investing With Vanguard section of this prospectus for further details on Vanguard’s transaction policies.

Each Vanguard fund (other than retail and government money market funds), in determining its net asset value, will use fair-value pricing when appropriate, as described in the Share Price section. Fair-value pricing may reduce or eliminate the profitability of certain frequent-trading strategies.

Do not invest with Vanguard if you are a market-timer.

44

 

Turnover Rate

Although the Funds (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund) generally seek to invest for the long term, each Fund may sell securities regardless of how long they have been held. The Financial Highlights section of this prospectus shows historical turnover rates for five of the Funds. (Turnover rates are not meaningful for money market funds because their holdings are so short-term.) A turnover rate of 100%, for example, would mean that a Fund had sold and replaced securities valued at 100% of its net assets within a one-year period. Shorter-term bonds will mature or be sold—and need to be replaced—more frequently than longer-term bonds. As a result, shorter-term bond funds tend to have higher turnover rates than longer-term bond funds.

 

The Funds and Vanguard

Each Fund is a member of The Vanguard Group, a family of over 200 funds holding assets of approximately $4.7 trillion. All of the funds that are members of The Vanguard Group (other than funds of funds) share in the expenses associated with administrative services and business operations, such as personnel, office space, and equipment.

Vanguard Marketing Corporation provides marketing services to the funds. Although fund shareholders do not pay sales commissions or 12b-1 distribution fees, each fund (other than a fund of funds) or each share class of a fund (in the case of a fund with multiple share classes) pays its allocated share of the Vanguard funds’ marketing costs.

 

45

 

Investment Advisor

The Vanguard Group, Inc., P.O. Box 2600, Valley Forge, PA 19482, which began operations in 1975, serves as advisor to the Funds through its Fixed Income Group. As of October 31, 2018, Vanguard served as advisor for approximately $4 trillion in assets. Vanguard provides investment advisory services to the Funds pursuant to the Funds’ Service Agreement and subject to the supervision and oversight of the trustees and officers of the Funds.

For the fiscal year ended October 31, 2018, the advisory expenses represented an effective annual rate of each Fund’s average net assets as follows: for the Municipal Money Market Fund, 0.02%; Short-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, 0.01%; Limited-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, 0.01%; Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, 0.01%; Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, 0.01%; and High-Yield Tax-Exempt Fund, 0.01%.

Under the terms of an SEC exemption, the Funds’ board of trustees may, without prior approval from shareholders, change the terms of an advisory agreement with a third-party investment advisor or hire a new third-party investment advisor—either as a replacement for an existing advisor or as an additional advisor. Any significant change in a Fund’s advisory arrangements will be communicated to shareholders in writing. As the Funds’ sponsor and overall manager, Vanguard may provide investment advisory services to a Fund at any time. Vanguard may also recommend to the board of trustees that an advisor be hired, terminated, or replaced or that the terms of an existing advisory agreement be revised. The Funds have filed an application seeking a similar SEC exemption with respect to investment advisors that are wholly owned subsidiaries of Vanguard. If the exemption is granted, the Funds may rely on the new SEC relief.

For a discussion of why the board of trustees approved each Fund’s investment advisory arrangement, see the most recent semiannual report to shareholders covering the fiscal period ended April 30.

The managers primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Funds are:

James M. D’Arcy, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard. He has worked in investment management since 1996, has managed investment portfolios since 1999, has been with Vanguard since 2011, and has managed the Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund since 2013. Education: B.A., University of Colorado.

Adam M. Ferguson, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard. He has been with Vanguard since 2004, has worked in investment management since 2008, and has managed the Limited-Term Tax-Exempt Fund since 2017. Education: B.S., Wilmington University; M.B.A., Drexel University.

46

 

Mathew M. Kiselak, Principal of Vanguard. He has worked in investment management since 1987, has managed investment portfolios since 1990, and has managed the High-Yield Tax-Exempt and Long-Term Tax-Exempt Funds since joining Vanguard in 2010. Education: B.S., Pace University.

Justin A. Schwartz, CFA, Portfolio Manager at Vanguard and head of Vanguard’s Municipal Money Market Funds. He has been with Vanguard since 2004, has worked in investment management since 2005, has managed investment portfolios since 2010, and has managed the Municipal Money Market and Short-Term Tax-Exempt Funds since 2016. Education: B.S., University of Richmond.

The Statement of Additional Information provides information about each portfolio manager’s compensation, other accounts under management, and ownership of shares of the Funds.

Dividends, Capital Gains, and Taxes

Fund Distributions

Each Fund distributes to shareholders virtually all of its net income (interest less expenses) as well as any net short-term or long-term capital gains realized from the sale of its holdings. Income dividends generally are declared daily and distributed monthly; capital gains distributions, if any, generally occur annually in December. In addition, each Fund may occasionally make a supplemental distribution at some other time during the year. You can receive distributions of income or capital gains in cash, or you can have them automatically reinvested in more shares of the Fund.

 

47

 

Basic Tax Points

A majority of the income dividends you receive from the Funds are expected to be exempt from federal income taxes. In addition, you should be aware of the following basic federal income tax points about tax-exempt mutual funds:

• Distributions of capital gains and any investment income that is not exempt from federal income tax are taxable to you whether or not you reinvest these amounts in additional Fund shares.

• Distributions declared in December—if paid to you by the end of January—are taxable as if received in December.

• Any short-term capital gains distribution that you receive is taxable to you as ordinary income.

• Any distribution of net long-term capital gains is taxable to you as long-term capital gains, no matter how long you have owned shares in the Fund.

• Capital gains distributions may vary considerably from year to year as a result of the Funds‘ normal investment activities and cash flows.

• Exempt-interest dividends from a tax-exempt fund are taken into account in determining the taxable portion of any Social Security or railroad retirement benefits that you receive.

• Income paid from tax-exempt bonds whose proceeds are used to fund private, for-profit organizations may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax.

• A sale or exchange of Fund shares is a taxable event. This means that you may have a capital gain to report as income, or a capital loss to report as a deduction, when you

complete your tax return.

• If you redeem or exchange shares when the Municipal Money Market Fund has imposed a liquidity fee, then the amount you receive for your redemption will be reduced by the amount of the liquidity fee and will generally cause you to recognize a loss for tax purposes equal to the amount of that fee. If the Municipal Money Market Fund has imposed a liquidity fee, it is possible that the Fund may need to distribute to its remaining shareholders all or a portion of the amount of the fee collected. This distribution may be taxable to you as ordinary income or may constitute a non-taxable return of capital.

• Any conversion between classes of shares of the same fund is a nontaxable event. By contrast, an exchange between classes of shares of different funds is a taxable event.

• Vanguard (or your intermediary) will send you a statement each year showing the tax status of all of your distributions.

48

 

Individuals, trusts, and estates whose income exceeds certain threshold amounts are subject to a 3.8% Medicare contribution tax on “net investment income.” Net investment income takes into account distributions paid by the Fund (except exempt-interest dividends) and capital gains from any sale or exchange of Fund shares.

Income dividends and capital gains distributions that you receive, as well as your gains or losses from any sale or exchange of Fund shares, may be subject to state and local income taxes.

Income dividends from interest earned on municipal securities of a state or its political subdivisions are generally exempt from that state’s income taxes. Almost all states, however, tax interest earned on municipal securities of other states. Vanguard (or your intermediary) will annually provide you with information to help report your earnings by state from the Fund on your annual tax returns.

This prospectus provides general tax information only. Please consult your tax advisor for detailed information about any tax consequences for you.

General Information

Backup withholding. By law, Vanguard must withhold 24% of any taxable distributions or redemptions from your account if you do not:

• Provide your correct taxpayer identification number.

• Certify that the taxpayer identification number is correct.

• Confirm that you are not subject to backup withholding.

Similarly, Vanguard (or your intermediary) must withhold taxes from your account if the IRS instructs us to do so. The backup withholding rules may also apply to distributions that are designated as exempt-interest dividends.

Foreign investors. Vanguard funds offered for sale in the United States (Vanguard U.S. funds), including the Funds offered in this prospectus, are not widely available outside the United States. Non-U.S. investors should be aware that U.S. withholding and estate taxes and certain U.S. tax reporting requirements may apply to any investments in Vanguard U.S. funds. Foreign investors should visit the Non-U.S. investors page on our website at vanguard.com for information on Vanguard’s non-U.S. products.

Invalid addresses. If an income dividend distribution or capital gains distribution check mailed to your address of record is returned as undeliverable, Vanguard will automatically reinvest the distribution and all future distributions until you provide us with a valid mailing address. Reinvestments will receive the net asset value calculated on the date of the reinvestment.

49

 

Share Price

Share price, also known as net asset value (NAV), is calculated each business day as of the close of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), generally 4 p.m., Eastern time. In the rare event the NYSE experiences unanticipated disruptions and is unavailable at the close of the trading day, NAVs will be calculated as of the close of regular trading on the Nasdaq (or another alternate exchange if the Nasdaq is unavailable, as determined at Vanguard’s discretion), generally 4 p.m., Eastern time. Each share class (other than the Municipal Money Market Fund) has its own NAV, which is computed by dividing the total assets, minus liabilities, allocated to the share class by the number of Fund shares outstanding for that class. The NAV per share for the Municipal Money Market Fund is computed by dividing the total assets, minus liabilities, of the Fund by the number of Fund shares outstanding. On U.S. holidays or other days when the NYSE is closed, the NAV is not calculated, and the Funds do not sell or redeem shares.

Debt securities held by a Vanguard fund are valued based on information furnished by an independent pricing service or market quotations. When a fund determines that pricing-service information or market quotations either are not readily available or do not accurately reflect the value of a security, the security is priced at its fair value (the amount that the owner might reasonably expect to receive upon the current sale of the security).

The instruments held by a Vanguard retail or government money market fund are valued on the basis of amortized cost. The values of any foreign securities held by a fund are converted into U.S. dollars using an exchange rate obtained from an independent third party as of the close of regular trading on the NYSE. The values of any mutual fund shares, including institutional money market fund shares, held by a fund are based on the NAVs of the shares. The values of any ETF shares or closed-end fund shares held by a fund are based on the market value of the shares.

A fund also may use fair-value pricing on bond market holidays when the fund is open for business (such as Columbus Day and Veterans Day). Fair-value prices are determined by Vanguard according to procedures adopted by the board of trustees. When fair-value pricing is employed, the prices of securities used by a fund to calculate the NAV may differ from quoted or published prices for the same securities.

Although the stable share price is not guaranteed, the NAV of Vanguard retail and government money market funds is expected to remain at $1 per share. Instruments are purchased and managed with that goal in mind.

Vanguard fund share prices are published daily; share prices, along with money market fund yields, are available on our website at vanguard.com/prices.

50

 

Financial Highlights

The following financial highlights tables are intended to help you understand each Fund’s financial performance for the periods shown, and certain information reflects financial results for a single Fund share. The total returns in each table represent the rate that an investor would have earned or lost each period on an investment in the Fund (assuming reinvestment of all distributions). This information has been obtained from the financial statements audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, whose reports—along with each Fund’s financial statements—are included in the Funds‘ most recent annual reports to shareholders. You may obtain a free copy of the latest annual or semiannual reports by visiting vanguard.com or by contacting Vanguard by telephone or mail.

 

51

 

 

52

 

 

53

 

 

54

 

 

55

 

 

56

 

 

57

 

 

58

 

 

59

 

 

60

 

 

61

 

Investing With Vanguard

This section of the prospectus explains the basics of doing business with Vanguard. Vanguard fund shares can be held directly with Vanguard or indirectly through an intermediary, such as a bank, a broker, or an investment advisor. If you hold Vanguard fund shares directly with Vanguard, you should carefully read each topic within this section that pertains to your relationship with Vanguard. If you hold Vanguard fund shares indirectly through an intermediary (including shares held in a brokerage account through Vanguard Brokerage Services^®), please see Investing With Vanguard Through Other Firms, and also refer to your account agreement with the intermediary for information about transacting in that account. Vanguard reserves the right to change the following policies without notice. Please call or check online for current information. See

Contacting Vanguard.

For Vanguard fund shares held directly with Vanguard, each fund you hold in an account is a separate “fund account.” For example, if you hold three funds in a nonretirement account titled in your own name, two funds in a nonretirement account titled jointly with your spouse, and one fund in an individual retirement account, you have six fund accounts—and this is true even if you hold the same fund in multiple accounts. Note that each reference to “you” in this prospectus applies to any one or more registered account owners or persons authorized to transact on your account.

Purchasing Shares

Vanguard reserves the right, without notice, to increase or decrease the minimum amount required to open, convert shares to, or maintain a fund account or to add to an existing fund account.

Investment minimums may differ for certain categories of investors.

Account Minimums for Investor Shares

To open and maintain an account. $3,000. For Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund, financial intermediaries and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Investor Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

To add to an existing account. Generally $1.

Account Minimums for Admiral Shares

To open and maintain an account. $50,000. If you request Admiral Shares when you open a new account but the investment amount does not meet the account minimum for Admiral Shares, your investment will be placed in Investor Shares of the Fund. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to

62

 

them regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

To add to an existing account. Generally $1.

How to Initiate a Purchase Request

Be sure to check Exchanging Shares, Frequent-Trading Limitations, and Other Rules You Should Know before placing your purchase request.

Online. You may open certain types of accounts, request a purchase of shares, and request an exchange through our website or our mobile application if you are registered for online access.

By telephone. You may call Vanguard to begin the account registration process or request that the account-opening forms be sent to you. You may also call Vanguard to request a purchase of shares in your account or to request an exchange. See

Contacting Vanguard.

By mail. You may send Vanguard your account registration form and check to open a new fund account. To add to an existing fund account, you may send your check with an Invest-by-Mail form (from a transaction confirmation or your account statement) or with a deposit slip (available online). For a list of Vanguard addresses, see Contacting Vanguard.

How to Pay for a Purchase

By electronic bank transfer. You may purchase shares of a Vanguard fund through an electronic transfer of money from a bank account. To establish the electronic bank transfer service on an account, you must designate the bank account online, complete a form, or fill out the appropriate section of your account registration form. After the service is set up on your account, you can purchase shares by electronic bank transfer on a regular schedule (Automatic Investment Plan) or upon request. Your purchase request can be initiated online (if you are registered for online access), by telephone, or by mail.

By wire. Wiring instructions vary for different types of purchases. Please call Vanguard for instructions and policies on purchasing shares by wire. See Contacting Vanguard.

By check. You may make initial or additional purchases to your fund account by sending a check with a deposit slip or by utilizing our mobile application if you are registered for online access. Also see How to Initiate a Purchase Request. Make your check payable to Vanguard and include the appropriate fund number (e.g., Vanguard—xx). For a list of Fund numbers (for Funds and share classes in this prospectus), see Additional Information.

63

 

By exchange. You may purchase shares of a Vanguard fund using the proceeds from the simultaneous redemption of shares of another Vanguard fund. You may initiate an exchange online (if you are registered for online access), by telephone, or by mail with an exchange form. See Exchanging Shares.

Trade Date

The trade date for any purchase request received in good order will depend on the day and time Vanguard receives your request, the manner in which you are paying, and the type of fund you are purchasing. Your purchase will be executed using the NAV as calculated on the trade date. NAVs are calculated only on days that the NYSE is open for trading (a business day).

For purchases by check into all funds other than money market funds and for purchases by exchange, wire, or electronic bank transfer (not using an Automatic Investment Plan) into all funds: If the purchase request is received by Vanguard on a business day before the close of regular trading on the NYSE (generally 4 p.m., Eastern time), the trade date for the purchase will be the same day. If the purchase request is received on a business day after the close of regular trading on the NYSE, or on a nonbusiness day, the trade date for the purchase will be the next business day.

For purchases by check into money market funds: If the purchase request is received by Vanguard on a business day before the close of regular trading on the NYSE (generally 4 p.m., Eastern time), the trade date for the purchase will be the next business day. If the purchase request is received on a business day after the close of regular trading on the NYSE, or on a nonbusiness day, the trade date for the purchase will be the second business day following the day Vanguard receives the purchase request. Because money market instruments must be purchased with federal funds and it takes a money market mutual fund one business day to convert check proceeds into federal funds, the trade date for the purchase will be one business day later than for other funds.

For purchases by electronic bank transfer using an Automatic Investment Plan: Your trade date generally will be the date you selected for withdrawal of funds from your designated bank account. Your bank account generally will be debited on the business day after your trade date. If the date you selected for withdrawal of funds from your bank account falls on a weekend, holiday, or other nonbusiness day, your trade date generally will be the previous business day. For retirement accounts, if the date you selected for withdrawal of funds from your designated bank account falls on the last business day of the year, your trade date will be the first business day of the following year. Please note that if you select the first of the month for automated withdrawals from your designated bank account, trades designated for January 1 will receive the next business day’s trade date.

64

 

If your purchase request is not accurate and complete, it may be rejected. See Other Rules You Should Know—Good Order.

For further information about purchase transactions, consult our website at vanguard.com or see Contacting Vanguard.

Earning Dividends

You generally begin earning dividends on the business day following your trade date. When buying money market fund shares through a federal funds wire on a business day, however, you generally can begin earning dividends immediately by making a purchase request by telephone to Vanguard before 10:45 a.m., Eastern time (2 p.m., Eastern time, for Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund; 12:30 p.m., Eastern time, for Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund).

Other Purchase Rules You Should Know

Admiral Shares. Admiral Shares generally are not available for SIMPLE IRAs and Vanguard Individual 401(k) Plans.

Check purchases. All purchase checks must be written in U.S. dollars and must be drawn on a U.S. bank and be accompanied by good order instructions. Vanguard does not accept cash, traveler’s checks, starter checks, or money orders. In addition, Vanguard may refuse checks that are not made payable to Vanguard.

New accounts. We are required by law to obtain from you certain personal information that we will use to verify your identity. If you do not provide the information, we may not be able to open your account. If we are unable to verify your identity, Vanguard reserves the right, without notice, to close your account or take such other steps as we deem reasonable. Certain types of accounts may require additional documentation.

Refused or rejected purchase requests. Vanguard reserves the right to stop selling fund shares or to reject any purchase request at any time and without notice, including, but not limited to, purchases requested by exchange from another Vanguard fund. This also includes the right to reject any purchase request because the investor has a history of frequent trading or because the purchase may negatively affect a fund’s operation or performance.

Large purchases. Call Vanguard before attempting to invest a large dollar amount.

No cancellations. Vanguard will not accept your request to cancel any purchase request once processing has begun. Please be careful when placing a purchase request.

65

 

Converting Shares

When a conversion occurs, you receive shares of one class in place of shares of another class of the same fund. At the time of conversion, the dollar value of the “new” shares you receive equals the dollar value of the “old” shares that were converted. In other words, the conversion has no effect on the value of your investment in the fund at the time of the conversion. However, the number of shares you own after the conversion may be greater than or less than the number of shares you owned before the conversion, depending on the NAVs of the two share classes.

Vanguard will not accept your request to cancel any self-directed conversion request once processing has begun. Please be careful when placing a conversion request.

A conversion between share classes of the same fund is a nontaxable event.

Trade Date

The trade date for any conversion request received in good order will depend on the day and time Vanguard receives your request. Your conversion will be executed using the NAVs of the different share classes on the trade date. NAVs are calculated only on days that the NYSE is open for trading (a business day).

For a conversion request received by Vanguard on a business day before the close of regular trading on the NYSE (generally 4 p.m., Eastern time), the trade date will be the same day. For a conversion request received on a business day after the close of regular trading on the NYSE, or on a nonbusiness day, the trade date will be the next business day. See Other Rules You Should Know.

Conversions From Investor Shares to Admiral Shares

Self-directed conversions. If your account balance in a Fund is at least $50,000, you may ask Vanguard to convert your Investor Shares to Admiral Shares. You may request a conversion through our website (if you are registered for online access), by telephone, or by mail. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them regarding Admiral Shares. See Contacting Vanguard. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Automatic conversions. Vanguard conducts periodic reviews of account balances and may, if your account balance in a Fund exceeds $50,000, automatically convert your Investor Shares to Admiral Shares. You will be notified before an automatic conversion occurs and will have an opportunity to instruct Vanguard not to effect the conversion. Financial intermediaries, institutional clients, and Vanguard-advised clients should contact Vanguard for information on special eligibility rules that may apply to them

66

 

regarding Admiral Shares. If you are investing through an intermediary, please contact that firm directly for more information regarding your eligibility.

Mandatory Conversions to Investor Shares

If an account no longer meets the balance requirements for Admiral Shares, Vanguard may automatically convert the shares in the account to Investor Shares. A decline in the account balance because of market movement may result in such a conversion. Vanguard will notify the investor in writing before any mandatory conversion occurs.

Redeeming Shares

How to Initiate a Redemption Request

Be sure to check Exchanging Shares, Frequent-Trading Limitations, and Other Rules You Should Know before placing your redemption request.

Online. You may request a redemption of shares or request an exchange through our website or our mobile application if you are registered for online access.

By telephone. You may call Vanguard to request a redemption of shares or an exchange. See Contacting Vanguard.

By mail. You may send a form (available online) to Vanguard to redeem from a fund account or to make an exchange. See Contacting Vanguard.

By writing a check. If you have established the checkwriting service on your account, you can redeem shares by writing a check for $250 or more.

How to Receive Redemption Proceeds

By electronic bank transfer. You may have the proceeds of a fund redemption sent directly to a designated bank account. To establish the electronic bank transfer service on an account, you must designate a bank account online, complete a form, or fill out the appropriate section of your account registration form. After the service is set up on your account, you can redeem shares by electronic bank transfer on a regular schedule (Automatic Withdrawal Plan) or upon request. Your redemption request can be initiated online (if you are registered for online access), by telephone, or by mail.

By wire. To receive your proceeds by wire, you may instruct Vanguard to wire your redemption proceeds ($100 minimum) to a previously designated bank account. To establish the wire redemption service, you generally must designate a bank account online, complete a form, or fill out the appropriate section of your account registration form.

Please note that Vanguard charges a $10 wire fee for outgoing wire redemptions. The fee is assessed in addition to, rather than being withheld from, redemption proceeds

67

 

and is paid directly to the fund in which you invest. For example, if you redeem $100 via a wire, you will receive the full $100, and the $10 fee will be assessed to your fund account with an additional redemption of fund shares. If you redeem your entire fund account, your redemption proceeds will be reduced by the amount of the fee. The wire fee does not apply to accounts held by Flagship and Flagship Select clients; accounts held through intermediaries, including Vanguard Brokerage Services; or accounts held by institutional clients.

By exchange. You may have the proceeds of a Vanguard fund redemption invested directly in shares of another Vanguard fund. You may initiate an exchange online (if you are registered for online access), by telephone, or by mail. See Exchanging Shares.

By check. If you have not chosen another redemption method, Vanguard will mail you a redemption check, generally payable to all registered account owners, normally within two business days of your trade date, and generally to the address of record.

Trade Date

The trade date for any redemption request received in good order will depend on the day and time Vanguard receives your request and the manner in which you are redeeming. Your redemption will be executed using the NAV as calculated on the trade date. NAVs are calculated only on days that the NYSE is open for trading (a business day).

For redemptions by check, exchange, or wire: If the redemption request is received by Vanguard on a business day before the close of regular trading on the NYSE (generally 4 p.m., Eastern time), the trade date will be the same day. If the redemption request is received on a business day after the close of regular trading on the NYSE, or on a nonbusiness day, the trade date will be the next business day.

• Note on timing of wire redemptions from money market funds: For telephone requests received by Vanguard on a business day before 10:45 a.m., Eastern time (2 p.m., Eastern time, for Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund; 12:30 p.m., Eastern time, for Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund), the redemption proceeds generally will leave Vanguard by the close of business the same day. For telephone requests received by Vanguard on a business day after those cut-off times, or on a nonbusiness day, and for all requests other than by telephone, the redemption proceeds generally will leave Vanguard by the close of business on the next business day.

• Note on timing of wire redemptions from all other funds: For requests received by Vanguard on a business day before the close of regular trading on the NYSE (generally 4 p.m., Eastern time), the redemption proceeds generally will leave Vanguard by the close of business on the next business day. For requests received by Vanguard on a business day after the close of regular trading on the NYSE, or on

68

 

a nonbusiness day, the redemption proceeds generally will leave Vanguard by the close of business on the second business day after Vanguard receives the request.

For redemptions by electronic bank transfer using an Automatic Withdrawal Plan: Your trade date generally will be the date you selected for withdrawal of funds (redemption of shares) from your Vanguard account. Proceeds of redeemed shares generally will be credited to your designated bank account two business days after your trade date. If the date you selected for withdrawal of funds from your Vanguard account falls on a weekend, holiday, or other nonbusiness day, your trade date generally will be the previous business day. For retirement accounts, if the date you selected for withdrawal of funds from your Vanguard account falls on the last day of the year and if that date is a holiday, your trade date will be the first business day of the following year. Please note that if you designate the first of the month for automated withdrawals, trades designated for January 1 will receive the next business day’s trade date.

For redemptions by electronic bank transfer not using an Automatic Withdrawal Plan: If the redemption request is received by Vanguard on a business day before the close of regular trading on the NYSE (generally 4 p.m., Eastern time), the trade date will be the same day. If the redemption request is received on a business day after the close of regular trading on the NYSE, or on a nonbusiness day, the trade date will be the next business day.

If your redemption request is not accurate and complete, it may be rejected. If we are unable to send your redemption proceeds by wire or electronic bank transfer because the receiving institution rejects the transfer, Vanguard will make additional efforts to complete your transaction. If Vanguard is still unable to complete the transaction, we may send the proceeds of the redemption to you by check, generally payable to all registered account owners, or use your proceeds to purchase new shares of the fund from which you sold shares for the purpose of the wire or electronic bank transfer transaction. See Other Rules You Should Know—Good Order.

If your redemption request is received in good order, we typically expect that redemption proceeds will be paid by a Fund within one business day of the trade date; however, in certain circumstances, investors may experience a longer settlement period at the time of the transaction. For further information, see “Potentially disruptive redemptions” and “Emergency circumstances.”

For further information about redemption transactions, consult our website at vanguard.com or see Contacting Vanguard.

Earning Dividends

You generally will continue earning dividends until the first business day following your trade date. Generally, there are two exceptions to this rule: (1) If you redeem shares by

69

 

writing a check against your account, the shares will stop earning dividends on the day that your check posts to your account; and (2) For money market funds, if you redeem shares with a same-day wire request before 10:45 a.m., Eastern time, on a business day (2 p.m., Eastern time, for Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund; 12:30 p.m., Eastern time, for Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund), the shares will stop earning dividends that same day.

Other Redemption Rules You Should Know

Documentation for certain accounts. Special documentation may be required to redeem from certain types of accounts, such as trust, corporate, nonprofit, or retirement accounts. Please call us before attempting to redeem from these types of accounts.

Potentially disruptive redemptions. Vanguard reserves the right to pay all or part of a redemption in kind—that is, in the form of securities—if we reasonably believe that a cash redemption would negatively affect the fund’s operation or performance or that the shareholder may be engaged in market-timing or frequent trading. Under these circumstances, Vanguard also reserves the right to delay payment of the redemption proceeds for up to seven calendar days. By calling us before you attempt to redeem a large dollar amount, you may avoid in-kind or delayed payment of your redemption. Please see Frequent-Trading Limitations for information about Vanguard’s policies to limit frequent trading.

Recently purchased shares. Although you can redeem shares at any time, proceeds may not be made available to you until the fund collects payment for your purchase. This may take up to seven calendar days for shares purchased by check or by electronic bank transfer. If you have written a check on a fund with checkwriting privileges, that check may be rejected if your fund account does not have a sufficient available balance.

Share certificates. Share certificates are no longer issued for Vanguard funds. Shares currently held in certificates cannot be redeemed, exchanged, converted, or transferred (reregistered) until you return the certificates (unsigned) to Vanguard by registered mail. For the correct address, see Contacting Vanguard.

Address change. If you change your address online or by telephone, there may be up to a 15-day restriction on your ability to request check redemptions online and by telephone. You can request a redemption in writing (using a form available online) at any time. Confirmations of address changes are sent to both the old and new addresses.

Payment to a different person or address. At your request, we can make your redemption check payable, or wire your redemption proceeds, to a different person or send it to a different address. However, this generally requires the written consent of all registered account owners and may require additional documentation, such as a

70

 

signature guarantee or a notarized signature. You may obtain a signature guarantee from some commercial or savings banks, credit unions, trust companies, or member firms of a U.S. stock exchange.

No cancellations. Vanguard will not accept your request to cancel any redemption request once processing has begun. Please be careful when placing a redemption request.

Emergency circumstances. Vanguard funds can postpone payment of redemption proceeds for up to seven calendar days. In addition, Vanguard funds can suspend redemptions and/or postpone payments of redemption proceeds beyond seven calendar days at times when the NYSE is closed or during emergency circumstances, as determined by the SEC. In connection with a determination by the board of trustees, in accordance with Rule 22e-3 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, a money market fund may suspend redemptions and postpone payment of redemption proceeds in order to facilitate an orderly liquidation of the fund. In addition, in accordance with Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, the board of trustees of a retail or institutional money market fund may implement liquidity fees and redemption gates if a retail or institutional money market fund‘s weekly liquid assets fall below established thresholds.

Exchanging Shares

An exchange occurs when you use the proceeds from the redemption of shares of one Vanguard fund to simultaneously purchase shares of a different Vanguard fund. You can make exchange requests online (if you are registered for online access), by telephone, or by mail. See Purchasing Shares and Redeeming Shares.

If the NYSE is open for regular trading (generally until 4 p.m., Eastern time, on a business day) at the time an exchange request is received in good order, the trade date generally will be the same day. See Other Rules You Should Know—Good Order for additional information on all transaction requests.

Vanguard will not accept your request to cancel any exchange request once processing has begun. Please be careful when placing an exchange request.

Call Vanguard before attempting to exchange a large dollar amount. By calling us before you attempt to exchange a large dollar amount, you may avoid delayed or rejected transactions.

Please note that Vanguard reserves the right, without notice, to revise or terminate the exchange privilege, limit the amount of any exchange, or reject an exchange, at any time, for any reason. See Frequent-Trading Limitations for additional restrictions on exchanges.

71

 

Frequent-Trading Limitations

Because excessive transactions can disrupt management of a fund and increase the fund’s costs for all shareholders, the board of trustees of each Vanguard fund places certain limits on frequent trading in the funds. Each Vanguard fund (other than money market funds and short-term bond funds, but including Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund) limits an investor’s purchases or exchanges into a fund account for 30 calendar days after the investor has redeemed or exchanged out of that fund account. ETF Shares are not subject to these frequent-trading limits.

For Vanguard Retirement Investment Program pooled plans, the limitations apply to exchanges made online or by telephone.

These frequent-trading limitations do not apply to the following:

• Purchases of shares with reinvested dividend or capital gains distributions.

• Transactions through Vanguard’s Automatic Investment Plan, Automatic Exchange Service, Direct Deposit Service, Automatic Withdrawal Plan, Required Minimum Distribution Service, and Vanguard Small Business Online^®.

• Discretionary transactions through Vanguard Personal Advisor Services^® and Vanguard Institutional Advisory Services^®.

• Redemptions of shares to pay fund or account fees.

• Redemptions of shares to remove excess shareholder contributions to certain types of retirement accounts (including, but not limited to, IRAs, certain Individual 403(b)(7) Custodial Accounts, and Vanguard Individual 401(k) Plans).

• Transfers and reregistrations of shares within the same fund.

• Purchases of shares by asset transfer or direct rollover.

• Conversions of shares from one share class to another in the same fund.

• Checkwriting redemptions.

• Section 529 college savings plans.

• Certain approved institutional portfolios and asset allocation programs, as well as trades made by funds or trusts managed by Vanguard or its affiliates that invest in other Vanguard funds. (Please note that shareholders of Vanguard’s funds of funds are subject to the limitations.)

For participants in employer-sponsored defined contribution plans,* the frequent-trading limitations do not apply to:

• Purchases of shares with participant payroll or employer contributions or loan repayments.

• Purchases of shares with reinvested dividend or capital gains distributions.

• Distributions, loans, and in-service withdrawals from a plan.

72

 

• Redemptions of shares as part of a plan termination or at the direction of the plan.

• Transactions executed through the Vanguard Managed Account Program.

• Redemptions of shares to pay fund or account fees.

• Share or asset transfers or rollovers.

• Reregistrations of shares.

• Conversions of shares from one share class to another in the same fund.

• Exchange requests submitted by written request to Vanguard. (Exchange requests

submitted by fax, if otherwise permitted, are subject to the limitations.)

* The following Vanguard fund accounts are subject to the frequent-trading limitations: SEP-IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, certain Individual 403(b)(7) Custodial Accounts, and Vanguard Individual 401(k) Plans.

Accounts Held by Institutions (Other Than Defined Contribution Plans)

Vanguard will systematically monitor for frequent trading in institutional clients’ accounts. If we detect suspicious trading activity, we will investigate and take appropriate action, which may include applying to a client’s accounts the 30-day policy previously described, prohibiting a client’s purchases of fund shares, and/or revoking the client’s exchange privilege.

Accounts Held by Intermediaries

When intermediaries establish accounts in Vanguard funds for the benefit of their clients, we cannot always monitor the trading activity of the individual clients. However, we review trading activity at the intermediary (omnibus) level, and if we detect suspicious activity, we will investigate and take appropriate action. If necessary, Vanguard may prohibit additional purchases of fund shares by an intermediary, including for the benefit of certain of the intermediary’s clients. Intermediaries also may monitor their clients’ trading activities with respect to Vanguard funds.

For those Vanguard funds that charge purchase and/or redemption fees, intermediaries will be asked to assess these fees on client accounts and remit these fees to the funds. The application of purchase and redemption fees and frequent-trading limitations may vary among intermediaries. There are no assurances that Vanguard will successfully identify all intermediaries or that intermediaries will properly assess purchase and redemption fees or administer frequent-trading limitations. If you invest with Vanguard through an intermediary, please read that firm’s materials carefully to learn of any other rules or fees that may apply.

73

 

Other Rules You Should Know

Prospectus and Shareholder Report Mailings

When two or more shareholders have the same last name and address, just one summary prospectus (or prospectus) and/or shareholder report may be sent in an attempt to eliminate the unnecessary expense of duplicate mailings. You may request individual prospectuses and reports by contacting our Client Services Department in writing, by telephone, or online. See Contacting Vanguard.

Vanguard.com

Registration. If you are a registered user of vanguard.com, you can review your account holdings; buy, sell, or exchange shares of most Vanguard funds; and perform most other transactions through our website. You must register for this service online.

Electronic delivery. Vanguard can deliver your account statements, transaction confirmations, prospectuses, certain tax forms, and shareholder reports electronically. If you are a registered user of vanguard.com, you can consent to the electronic delivery of these documents by logging on and changing your mailing preferences under “Account Maintenance.” You can revoke your electronic consent at any time through our website, and we will begin to send paper copies of these documents within 30 days of receiving your revocation.

Telephone Transactions

Automatic. When we set up your account, we will automatically enable you to do business with us by telephone, unless you instruct us otherwise in writing.

Tele-Account^®. To obtain fund and account information through Vanguard’s automated telephone service, you must first establish a Personal Identification Number (PIN) by calling Tele-Account at 800-662-6273.

Proof of a caller’s authority. We reserve the right to refuse a telephone request if the caller is unable to provide the requested information or if we reasonably believe that the caller is not an individual authorized to act on the account. Before we allow a caller to act on an account, we may request the following information:

• Authorization to act on the account (as the account owner or by legal documentation or other means).

• Account registration and address.

• Fund name and account number, if applicable.

• Other information relating to the caller, the account owner, or the account.

74

 

Good Order

We reserve the right to reject any transaction instructions that are not in “good order.” Good order generally means that your instructions:

• Are provided by the person(s) authorized in accordance with Vanguard’s policies and procedures to access the account and request transactions.

• Include the fund name and account number.

• Include the amount of the transaction (stated in dollars, shares, or percentage).

Written instructions also must generally be provided on a Vanguard form and include:

• Signature(s) and date from the authorized person(s).*

• Signature guarantees or notarized signatures, if required for the type of transaction.

(Call Vanguard for specific requirements.)

• Any supporting documentation that may be required.*

* For Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund, documentation may be required to confirm beneficial owner is a natural person.

Good order requirements may vary among types of accounts and transactions. For more information, consult our website at vanguard.com or see Contacting Vanguard.

Vanguard reserves the right, without notice, to revise the requirements for good order.

Future Trade-Date Requests

Vanguard does not accept requests to hold a purchase, conversion, redemption, or exchange transaction for a future date. All such requests will receive trade dates as previously described in Purchasing Shares, Converting Shares, Redeeming Shares, and

Exchanging Shares. Vanguard reserves the right to return future-dated purchase checks.

Accounts With More Than One Owner

If an account has more than one owner or authorized person, Vanguard generally will accept instructions from any one owner or authorized person.

Responsibility for Fraud

Vanguard will not be responsible for any account losses because of fraud if we reasonably believe that the person transacting business on an account is authorized to do so. Please take precautions to protect yourself from fraud. Keep your account information private, and immediately review any account statements or other information that we provide to you. It is important that you contact Vanguard immediately about any transactions or changes to your account that you believe to be unauthorized.

75

 

Uncashed Checks

Please cash your distribution or redemption checks promptly. Vanguard will not pay interest on uncashed checks. Vanguard may be required to transfer assets related to uncashed checks to a state under the state’s abandoned property law.

Dormant Accounts

If your account has no activity in it for a period of time, Vanguard may be required to transfer it to a state under the state’s abandoned property law, subject to potential federal or state withholding taxes.

Unusual Circumstances

If you experience difficulty contacting Vanguard online or by telephone, you can send us your transaction request on a Vanguard form by regular or express mail. See Contacting Vanguard for addresses.

Investing With Vanguard Through Other Firms

You may purchase or sell shares of most Vanguard funds through a financial intermediary, such as a bank, a broker, or an investment advisor. Please consult your financial intermediary to determine which, if any, shares are available through that firm and to learn about other rules that may apply. Your financial intermediary can provide you with account information and any required tax forms. You may be required to pay a commission on purchases of mutual fund shares made through a financial intermediary. Your financial intermediary will be responsible for taking reasonable actions to assist the retail or institutional money market fund to impose, lift, or modify liquidity fees or redemption gates.

Please see Frequent-Trading Limitations—Accounts Held by Intermediaries for information about the assessment of any purchase or redemption fees and the monitoring of frequent trading for accounts held by intermediaries.

Account Service Fee

Vanguard charges a $20 account service fee on fund accounts that have a balance below $10,000 for any reason, including market fluctuation. The account service fee applies to both retirement and nonretirement fund accounts and will be assessed on fund accounts in all Vanguard funds, regardless of the account minimum. The fee, which will be collected by redeeming fund shares in the amount of $20, will be deducted from a fund account only once per calendar year.

If you register on vanguard.com and elect to receive electronic delivery of statements, reports, and other materials for all of your fund accounts, the account service fee for balances below $10,000 will not be charged, so long as that election remains in effect.

76