ACCRUED INTEREST, the amount of interest on a bond which has been earned over the period from the date of the last interest payment to some specified date, but which will not be paid by the issuer of the bond until the next regular interest date. Bonds are almost invariably sold at a certain price plus accrued interest. Thus if the interest dates on a certain bond are Feb. 1 and Aug. 1, and the bond is sold on May r, the buyer will pay the seller the stipulated price plus the interest for the three months during which the seller's money has been invested in the bond, and on Aug. 1 he will receive from the issuing corporation the full six months' interest for the period from Feb. i to Aug. I. Half of this interest will repay the buyer for the accrued interest which he paid to the seller, and the other half will be the interest for the three months during which his own money was invested in the bond. By specific agreement or notification bonds may be sold "flat," i. e., without considering any accrued interest. Defaulted bonds and income bonds are usually sold flat since the interest to be received from them, if any, is always problematical.