Bass Tax season “officially” ended on April 15.

Yet, you can explore taxsmart investment opportunities all year round. And when you’re looking at the fixed-income side of your portfolio, you may want to consider two possibilities: municipal bonds and Build America Bonds.

You’ve probably heard of municipal bonds, but you may not be familiar with how they work. You can find two key types of municipal bonds: general obligation bonds finance the daily operations of a municipality or school district, while revenue bonds finance hospitals, utilities, airports, affordable housing and other public works.

So when you purchase a “muni,” you are helping support a community.

Of course, your investment will bring you some tangible benefits, too.

First, you’ll receive regular interest

payments. Furthermore, these payments typically are exempt from federal income taxes — and pos- sibly state and local income taxes, too.

If you’re in an upper income bracket, you may find munis to be especially valuable.

Build America Bonds (BABs) share some similarities with tax-free municipal bonds, although BABs are taxable investments.

BABs provide capital to municipalities so they can build or improve infrastructure, including schools, roads, public buildings and so on. The U.S. Treasury pays state or local government issuers a subsidy equal to 35 percent of the interest they pay investors for buying the bonds.

BABs have proved popular among institutional investors, such as pension funds, that typically don’t benefit from tax-free municipal bonds. But are they right for you?

It all depends on your individual situation. If you owned a BAB, your interest payments would be federally taxable, but you might get some state tax breaks if you live in the state where the bond is issued.

Many BABs have longterm maturities, which may not be a problem if you’re buying the bond for its steady interest payments and plan to hold it for its entire life.

But if you think you might sell your bond before it matures, be aware that longer-term bonds are subject to greater interest rate risk.

You’ll also have to consider credit risk — the possibility the issuer of your bond will default.