Each step below is drawn from Illinois statute, not general advice. The exact sale dates, platform, and deposit amounts are set county by county, so confirm the specifics on your county page before you register.
New here? Most beginners start with a certificate (the lien path). The deed steps below apply once you hold a certificate long enough to force a sale, or you bid directly at a tax deed auction. Not sure which is for you? Start with tax lien vs tax deed.
Learn the timeline and lien priority
Illinois property taxes are billed in two installments. The first installment is delinquent on the later of June 1 or the day after the due date printed on the bill, and the second installment is delinquent on the later of September 1 or the day after its printed due date. Unpaid taxes then carry interest of 1.5 percent per month in counties with fewer than 3,000,000 inhabitants. In Cook County the rate is 1.5 percent per month for tax years before 2023 and 0.75 percent per month for tax year 2023 and after. Property taxes are a prior and first lien on the parcel, superior to all other liens and encumbrances, from January 1 of the levy year until the taxes are paid or the property is sold, which is what makes an Illinois certificate senior collateral. Understand this before you commit any money.
Find the advertised delinquent list
Before the certificate sale, the County Collector advertises the delinquent parcels. No single statewide month. In counties with fewer than 3,000,000 inhabitants the collector must apply for judgment and order of sale within 90 days after the second installment due date, and the sale begins on a date within 5 business days after the application date. In Cook County the application is made within 365 days of the second installment due date, and recent Cook sales have been moved by separate statutory deadlines. Check the county collector page for the current cycle. Pull that list for your target county and shortlist the parcels worth researching.
Register, deposit, and bid the penalty down
Register on the county’s certificate-sale platform and fund the required deposit. At the sale you bid the penalty down from the statutory maximum of 9 percent per redemption period, and the lowest penalty wins. That figure is charged per redemption period, not per year. There is no statutory minimum return, so what you earn is decided at the sale. Read the 9 percent figure as a penalty per redemption period, not as an annual interest rate. Section 21-215 caps the bid at 9 percent of the tax or special assessment and sets no floor, so bidding runs down to 0 percent and a 0 percent certificate returns only what was paid. Section 21-355 then charges that penalty once for the first six months after the sale and adds it again for each further six-month step, which is why a 9 percent bid costs the owner about 18 percent over a full year. Investors accept very low penalties on parcels they intend to take to a tax deed. Certificate life: a certificate is void unless the deed is taken out in the time allowed and recorded within one year after the redemption period expires, so the outside life is roughly four years from the sale on the standard track.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
The penalty does not accrue daily or monthly. Section 21-355(b) charges the certificate amount times the penalty bid if redemption happens within 6 months of the sale, times 2 in months 6 to 12, times 3 in months 12 to 18, times 4 in months 18 to 24, times 5 in months 24 to 30, and times 6 in months 30 to 36. A redemption one day into a new step pays the whole step. Subsequent taxes the certificate holder posts carry a separate 12 percent penalty for each year or portion of a year until redemption. Certificates the county holds as trustee in counties with more than 3,000,000 inhabitants accrue at 0.75 percent per month instead of in six-month steps, and a county that buys at the sale under Section 21-190 takes a 0.75 percent per month penalty bid. Property sold at an Illinois tax sale may be redeemed at any time before the redemption period expires. Public Act 104-0553 set the standard period at 3 years from the date of sale for tax certificates issued on or after July 10, 2026. Certificates issued between January 1, 2024 and July 9, 2026 run on the earlier 2.5 year (30 month) track, and on that track the certificate holder could file a written notice with the county clerk extending redemption to a date no later than 3 years from the sale. A short 1 year period applies when the parcel was, on the date of sale, vacant non-farm property, commercial or industrial property, or improved with a structure holding 7 or more residential units. Certificates the county holds or assigns as trustee run on their own schedule under Section 21-385, and an assignee must file notice within 60 days of assignment setting a redemption deadline no later than 3 years from the assignment. To redeem, the owner pays Paid to the county clerk. The total is the certificate amount (tax principal, special assessments, interest, penalties, costs, and sale fees), plus the accrued penalty computed in six-month steps at the penalty bid, plus subsequent taxes the certificate holder paid with a 12 percent penalty for each year or portion of a year, plus clerk, circuit clerk, sheriff, publication, title search, and municipal reimbursement fees allowed by Section 21-355. If they redeem, that payoff is your return; if they never do, the certificate becomes your path to the property.
Apply for a tax deed
The redemption period expires without redemption and the circuit court finds the certificate holder complied with the notice and payment requirements. The court then enters an order authorizing a judicial tax deed auction, and the property must be offered at public auction within 120 days of that order. This auction route came in with Public Act 104-0553 and applies to tax certificates issued on or after July 10, 2026, so the first judicial tax deed auctions are not expected before 2027. Certificates issued earlier still run under the older process, where the court directs the county clerk to issue the deed to the petitioner without an auction. The selling officer opens at a minimum bid equal to the tax deed judgment amount plus 0.75 percent per month or portion of a month since the judgment, plus the cost of publishing the auction and the selling officer's costs. The tax deed judgment amount is the statutory redemption total plus the petitioner's subsequent taxes and redemptions, court reporter and clerk costs, municipal advancements, and a fee capped at 50 percent of the Fannie Mae allowable Illinois foreclosure attorney fee. The petitioner is entered as a credit bidder at the minimum bid, and if nobody is willing to pay the minimum the petitioner takes the deed and the property is conclusively presumed to hold no surplus equity.
Bid at the tax deed auction
The Sheriff or a court-appointed private selling officer, under an order of the circuit court. A county acting as trustee runs its own tax deed auctions. sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder. Illinois does not fix a statutory deposit percentage. Deposit and payment terms are set in the court's order authorizing the auction and by the selling officer, so read the notice of tax deed auction for each sale. A purchaser who fails to complete the sale forfeits any deposit already made to the county surplus equity fund, and the court orders a new auction of the property. Set by the court's order and the published terms of the auction rather than by statute. The selling officer issues a receipt showing the amount bid, the amount paid, and the amount still owed, and issues a certificate of judicial tax deed auction only on payment in full. The sale is then subject to confirmation by the court before the county clerk issues the deed.
Or buy over the counter
You do not have to wait for an auction. Illinois has no statewide over-the-counter counter. Every tax lien or certificate offered at the annual sale and not sold for want of bidders is forfeited to the county as trustee for the taxing districts. The county may then sell any property it acquired, or assign any tax certificate to any party, including taxing districts, municipalities, land banks, and non-profit affordable-housing developers. Many counties run that assignment program through a delinquent tax agent, so terms, pricing, and whether private investors are served at all are county decisions rather than statutory rights. An assignee must file notice with the county clerk within 60 days setting a redemption deadline no later than 3 years from the assignment. The older route that let anyone apply to the county clerk to buy forfeited taxes no longer applies to forfeitures occurring on or after January 1, 2024. Counties may also offer county-held certificates at a scavenger sale, advertised alongside the annual sale when the county board orders one by resolution. Scavenger bidding is for cash to the highest bidder with a minimum bid of $250, or half the tax when the total liability is under $500, and the winning bidder takes an assignment of the county's certificate. Separately, a county that takes a tax deed as trustee must offer the parcel at a public tax deed auction within 120 days of recording the deed.
One more step: clear the title
Winning a tax deed does not hand you marketable title. Before you can resell to a normal buyer or insure the parcel, you will usually need a quiet title action, which takes months and costs money. Fold that cost into your maximum bid and read what you actually own after a tax deed before you bid. A tax deed also does not wipe out everything: select governmental and municipal liens can survive, and a federal tax lien carries a 120-day IRS redemption right, so check what survives a tax deed too.
New to this? Start with tax lien vs tax deed and the full Illinois walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Jul 29, 2026 against Illinois statutes.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.