Each step below is drawn from Kentucky 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
Kentucky property taxes are due on or before December 31 of the assessment year. Paying in full by November 1 earns a 2 percent discount, payment between November 2 and December 31 is at face, payment during January carries a 5 percent penalty, and payment after January 31 carries a 10 percent penalty. Any real property tax claim still unpaid on April 15, or three months and fifteen days from the due date under an alternative collection schedule, is filed by the sheriff with the county clerk and becomes a certificate of delinquency. The state and every county, city, and taxing district hold a lien on the assessed property for eleven years following the date the taxes became delinquent, and that lien takes priority over any other obligation the property is liable for. Understand this before you commit any money.
Find the advertised delinquent list
Before the certificate sale, the County Clerk advertises the delinquent parcels. One sale a year in each county, on a date the Department of Revenue assigns. The department sends each county clerk a proposed date by May 1, settles changes by May 15, and publishes the final statewide schedule after that. Each county's sale must fall at least 90 and not more than 135 days after the sheriff files the unpaid tax claims with the clerk on April 15, which puts the ordinary window between roughly mid July and late August. A clerk who expects certificates on unmined coal, oil, gas, or other separately assessed mineral reserves to arrive too late may ask the department to hold that county's sale up to 195 days after the filing date, which is why the tail of the statewide schedule runs into October. Pull that list for your target county and shortlist the parcels worth researching.
Register, then buy at the amount due
Register with the state and the county ahead of the sale, and be ready to pay the full amount due rather than a deposit. There is no auction in the ordinary sense. A certificate sells for the amount due on it and every one of them earns the statutory 12 percent, so the sale allocates access rather than price. Ask the county who holds priority ahead of you and what you must file, and by when, to be eligible at all. There is no statutory minimum return, so what you earn is decided at the sale. Kentucky runs no auction in the ordinary sense. There is no rate to bid down and no price to bid up, because a certificate of delinquency sells for the amount due on it. What the sale allocates is access. A third-party purchaser who already holds a prior year certificate on a parcel files a priority list with the county clerk as part of registration, fifteen days before the sale, and takes that parcel's current certificate off the table before the sale opens, with the holder of the most recent tax year ranking first. Everything left is sold in lots whose size is set by how many certificates the county has, from lots of five in counties with 500 or fewer certificates up to lots of fifty in the largest counties, and the order in which registered purchasers pick lots is decided by a random drawing on the day of the sale. The clerk may not structure the sale so that one third party can take every certificate while other registered purchasers want them, and related entities and related interests may not register separately to game the draw.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
Simple interest at 12 percent per year, never compounded. For a third-party purchaser the base is the amount actually paid to the county clerk, and interest runs on the outstanding balance of that base from the purchase date until the certificate is paid. A fraction of a month counts as an entire month, so the shortest possible hold still earns one month of interest, about 1 percent. There is no statutory floor beyond that and no premium tier. Interest can also stop: if the purchaser fails to send the notices KRS 134.490 requires, accrual of all interest and fees is suspended from that point until proper notice is given. Kentucky's redemption window is a property of where the parcel is in the process, not a single statewide clock, and it runs in four tracks. Track one, and by far the most common, is an outstanding certificate of delinquency: the delinquent taxpayer or anyone holding a legal or equitable estate in the property may pay the third-party purchaser the total amount due at any time, and the purchaser may accept payment from anyone at any time. No statute closes that window, so it stays open until a court forecloses. Track two is a foreclosure sale that brought less than two thirds of the property's appraised value, where the defendant and the defendant's representatives may redeem within six months of the day of sale. Track three is a foreclosure sale that brought two thirds or more of the appraised value, where no right of redemption exists at all; the purchaser takes the property outright. Track four is land the state, county, and taxing districts acquired through a KRS 134.546 action, which the taxpayer may redeem at any time before the commissioner delivers a deed to a purchaser. A third-party purchaser must also offer a monthly installment plan on written request for certificates bought after June 1, 2012, if the purchaser is one who has to register with the department. To redeem, the owner pays On an outstanding certificate a third-party purchaser may collect only the amount actually paid for the certificate, 12 percent simple interest on that amount from the purchase date, and capped prelitigation attorney fees. Those fees are tiered by the size of the certificate: up to 100 percent of a certificate between 5 and 350 dollars capped at 350 dollars, up to 80 percent of a certificate between 351 and 700 dollars capped at 560 dollars, and up to 70 percent of a certificate above 701 dollars capped at 700 dollars. Fees across several certificates against the same taxpayer are capped at one and one half times the cap for the largest bill, no more than 175 dollars may accrue per notice, and fees may accrue no more often than every 90 days. The purchaser may add up to 115 dollars in administrative fees for preparing, recording, and releasing the assignment, an installment plan processing fee of up to 8 dollars a month, and, once suit is filed, actual reasonable litigation fees, presumptively reasonable up to 2,000 dollars and above that only if the court allows them. The county clerk's own compensation of 10 percent of the amount due each taxing unit is added to the claim and paid by whoever pays it off. After a judicial sale that fell short of two thirds of appraised value, the redeemer instead pays the original purchase money, 10 percent per annum on it, and the purchaser's reasonable post-sale costs for maintenance or repair, including utilities, insurance, association fees, taxes, and nuisance code compliance. If they redeem, that payoff is your return; if they never do, the certificate becomes your path to the property.
Or buy over the counter
You do not have to wait for an auction. Any certificate of delinquency that goes unpaid at the annual sale may be paid to the county clerk at any time afterward by any person, provided it is not under a payment plan with the department or the county attorney and is not known to be in litigation. The buyer must hold a current Department of Revenue certificate of registration if KRS 134.129 requires one, and must register with the county clerk and pay that county's registration fee, up to the 250 dollar annual maximum, if not already registered there for the calendar year. There is a separate and earlier route into certificates the taxing jurisdictions still own: ninety days after the sheriff files the tax claims with the clerk, any person may pay the total amount due on such a certificate. Certificates that reach the clerk too late to make the annual sale are held until the next year's sale, and in the meantime only the KRS 134.127(1)(a) insiders may pay them. Kentucky maintains no lands available list. Where an action on a certificate of delinquency leaves the state, county, and taxing districts owning the land, the commissioner's designated agent may advertise and sell it at public sale, with notice posted at the courthouse door for fifteen days and published under KRS Chapter 424, and the taxpayer may redeem right up until the deed is delivered.
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 Kentucky walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Aug 23, 2026 against Kentucky 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.