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Tax Sale Atlas

Baltimore County, MD tax sales

How tax lien sales work in Baltimore County, seat of Towson: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how Maryland tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
The Collector's tax sale will be conducted via an online auction on August 27, 2026.Thursday · 2026
Format
County site
Registration
Online only, through baltimorecountymd.gov.
County office
410-887-2404
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 9, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Baltimore County sells delinquent taxes

From lien to deed

Maryland holds no county tax deed auction. Title passes only through a judicial foreclosure of the right of redemption brought by the holder of the certificate of sale. The holder may file the complaint at any time after 6 months from the date of sale, or after 9 months for owner-occupied residential property, and only after serving two statutory notices on the owner and the mortgagee. The first of those notices cannot be sent until 4 months after the sale, or 7 months for owner-occupied residential property, the second follows at least a week later, and the complaint cannot be filed until at least 2 months after the first notice and 30 days after the second. Where a government agency certifies that a building needs substantial repairs, the holder may file after 60 days, and abandoned property sold below the lien amount may be filed on immediately.

Tax certificate sale (lien)

Online auction
Run by
Collector of State and County Taxes for Baltimore County, Office of Budget and Finance (Tax Sale Section). The public notice is signed by Kevin D. Reed, Director, Office of Budget and Finance and Collector of State and County Taxes.
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
The Collector's tax sale will be conducted via an online auction on August 27, 2026.
Registration
Online only, through baltimorecountymd.gov.
Sale list
Final 2026 Tax Sale List (Excel)
When it runs
One annual sale. For 2026 the county states: "The Collector's tax sale will be conducted via an online auction on August 27, 2026." Bids are accepted only on that day between 9 a.m. and noon Eastern; the county says bids time-stamped before 9 a.m. or after noon are invalid. Taxes had to be paid by Wednesday, July 31, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. to avoid the sale. If the sale cannot be completed on August 27, the Collector continues it on dates announced to bidders until all listed property is sold. The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation tax sale schedule also lists Baltimore County as "August 27th" for 2026.
Registration and deposit

Online only, through baltimorecountymd.gov. For 2026, registration opened on or about July 27, 2026 and closed August 7, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.; the county states that bidders who miss that deadline cannot participate in the sale or any subsequent 2026 sale. Registration requires agreement to the Collector's Terms and the Tax Sale Internet Procedures, completion of the Bidder Registration Form, and a $100 registration fee charged by ACH debit. The fee is nonrefundable unless the county denies the registration, and it is not applied toward any bids. Bidders must supply a Social Security or tax identification number, complete a substitute IRS Form W-9, and enter a bank account that purchases will be debited from. Entity bidders must register under the legal name on file with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation and be in good standing and qualified to do business in Maryland. The county reviews each registration for up to 72 hours. Registration by mail, email, or telephone is not accepted.

Sale format and venue
Baltimore County runs this sale itself. No third-party auction company such as RealAuction, GovEase, or Bid4Assets is named anywhere in the county's tax sale pages, so treat any third-party site advertising this sale as unofficial and confirm with the Tax Sale Section. Bidding is a sealed-bid process rather than a live open outcry auction: registered bidders receive individual property listings as formatted spreadsheets on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, then submit one completed sheet on August 27 between 9 a.m. and noon Eastern. Two sheet formats are offered and a bidder may use only one: bids as a dollar value, or bids as a bid factor expressed as a percentage of assessed value. Certificates go to the highest good faith bid, and the Collector may refuse bids not made in good faith; identical bids on the same property go to whichever was submitted first. The county describes the submission channel two ways on two pages, as "the Baltimore County's 2026 Tax Sale bid portal" in the Collector's Terms and as "a dedicated email address provided to registered bidders by Baltimore County" in the Internet Procedures, so confirm the exact mechanism with the office after registering. Winning bidders receive itemized invoices at the close of the sale and must pay by ACH debit no later than 4:30 p.m. that same day, covering all taxes, interest, penalties, sale expenses, and any high-bid premium. A high-bid premium applies to any bid above 40 percent of the property's assessed value, set at 20 percent of the excess over that 40 percent threshold; the county's worked example shows a $50,000 bid on a $100,000 assessment producing a $2,000 premium. The premium is refunded without interest on timely redemption, on delivery of a tax sale deed, or if the county voids the sale. The balance of the purchase price stays on credit until judgment and is due within ten days of the order foreclosing the right of redemption. Bidders should note that the county's own pages disagree on the redemption interest rate: the Public Notice and Legal Authority page cites Baltimore County Code Section 11-2-402 at 12 percent per annum, with owner-occupied residential capped at 10 percent per annum under Tax-Property 14-820, while the Collector's Terms cite the same county code section at 10 percent per annum. The Maryland State Tax Sale Ombudsman page also lists Baltimore County at 12 percent. Verify the applicable rate with the Tax Sale Section before bidding. Certificates of tax sale are mailed roughly six months after the sale for properties that are not owner occupied and nine months for owner occupied properties, and only after all money due the Collector is paid. The county gives May 27, 2027 as the first day to file a Circuit Court action to foreclose the right of redemption on owner-occupied properties sold at the August 27, 2026 sale, and a complaint must be filed within two years of the certificate date. Purchasers must give the county proof of the notice required by Tax-Property 14-833(a-1), including a copy of the notice and a verifiable postmark. Property is sold as is with no warranty of marketable title, acreage, or value. Liens that draw no bid become the property of Baltimore County, and the county's pages describe no over-the-counter or assignment purchase route for unsold liens.
Register on Online auction
Source: Baltimore County, Collector's Terms for the 2026 Tax Sale· Verified Aug 9, 2026

Baltimore County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Baltimore County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Final 2026 Tax Sale List (Excel) for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Online only, through baltimorecountymd.gov. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    The Collector's tax sale will be conducted via an online auction on August 27, 2026. Bidding runs on County site; check posted sale dates, registration status, and bidding windows there.

  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Collector of State and County Taxes for Baltimore County, Office of Budget and Finance (Tax Sale Section). The public notice is signed by Kevin D. Reed, Director, Office of Budget and Finance and Collector of State and County Taxes. as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Baltimore County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Final 2026 Tax Sale List (Excel). Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Online only, through baltimorecountymd.gov. For 2026, registration opened on or about July 27, 2026 and closed August 7, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.; the county states that bidders who miss that deadline cannot participate in the sale or any subsequent 2026 sale. Registration requires agreement to the Collector's Terms and the Tax Sale Internet Procedures, completion of the Bidder Registration Form, and a $100 registration fee charged by ACH debit. The fee is nonrefundable unless the county denies the registration, and it is not applied toward any bids. Bidders must supply a Social Security or tax identification number, complete a substitute IRS Form W-9, and enter a bank account that purchases will be debited from. Entity bidders must register under the legal name on file with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation and be in good standing and qualified to do business in Maryland. The county reviews each registration for up to 72 hours. Registration by mail, email, or telephone is not accepted.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Maryland due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.

  4. Set a walk-away number

    Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.

Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases

A county or other taxing agency must buy in any property offered at the sale for which there is no private purchaser, and the governing body may then sell and assign that certificate of sale, or after foreclosure sell the property. Several counties run this as a post-sale assignment sale of the unsold liens at lien value, usually open only to bidders who registered for the auction. Availability, pricing and whether a list is published are local decisions, so ask the collector of taxes.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Baltimore County Office of Budget and Finance, Tax Sale Section (Collector of State and County Taxes)

410-887-2404

400 Washington Avenue, Room 150, Towson, Maryland 21204

Official website

County notes

  • Baltimore County is a separate jurisdiction from Baltimore City, which runs its own tax sale on a different date and through a different office. Do not use Baltimore City registration, dates, or lists for Baltimore County property.
  • The county publishes several phone numbers. 410-887-2404 reaches the Office of Budget and Finance Tax Sale Section and appears on the Collector's Terms, Internet Procedures, and Legal Authority pages. 410-887-5616 is given on the main Tax Sale page for questions about the sale list. 410-887-3313 is the general Office of Budget and Finance line. For the 2026 cycle the county also opened [email protected] from July 27, 2026, staffed 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time.
  • Maryland sells tax lien certificates, not deeds, so there is no separate county tax deed auction. A purchaser takes title only by filing an action in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County to foreclose the right of redemption after the statutory waiting period.
  • The sale list is advertised once a week for four successive weeks before the sale in the Sunpapers, and the county updates the online advertising file weekly, so the list URL points to the current year's file and will be replaced each cycle. The current list is always linked from the Tax Sale page.
  • The county posts final auction results by year, including winning detail reports and winning bidder summaries going back to 2020, plus tax sale surplus and excess funds files for 2017 through 2023. These are useful for gauging competition and clearing prices before bidding.
  • Delinquency timeline for context: real property tax bills are issued July 1, an account is delinquent after failure to pay in full or to make the first semiannual payment by September 30, and balances unpaid past December 31 become subject to interest, penalties, and tax sale. Per-account tax sale fees are a $25 postage and handling fee, a $50 advertising fee, and a $15 legal fee.
  • The main Baltimore County website blocks some automated fetch tools with a 403 response and intermittently returns a gateway timeout. A retry with a standard browser user agent succeeds. The path /departments/budget-and-finance/bidder-registration serves the same content as the main Tax Sale page rather than a distinct registration form, so it should not be cited as a separate registration URL.

Maryland rules

Max interest rate
6% per year, set by statute (bidding is on price)
Minimum return
No statutory minimum return; what you earn is set by the price at the sale
Redemption
Maryland sets no fixed redemption deadline. The right to redeem continues until it is finally barred by decree of the circuit court in which the foreclosure proceeding is filed. What the statute fixes is the earliest date the certificate holder may start that case, and the outside date by which the holder must start it. A certificate is void unless a proceeding to foreclose the right of redemption is filed within 2 years of the date of the certificate of sale, and if the certificate goes void the holder's rights end and the money paid at the sale is forfeited and applied to the taxes in arrears. A Baltimore City certificate on abandoned property sold below the lien amount must be filed on within 3 months and reverts to the city otherwise.
Surplus proceeds
Any balance over the amount needed for taxes, interest, penalties and the costs of sale belongs to the person entitled to it, which is normally the former owner. Each county must establish a process for claiming that balance, the process must apply uniformly to all claims in the county, and it may not require a court order unless payment of the balance is disputed. Within 90 days after delivering a deed to a purchaser, the collector must notify the prior owner of record of the amount of the balance and of how to claim it. Where the balance is disputed, the collector pays it into a court of competent jurisdiction pending an order on distribution.
Governing statute
Md. Code Ann., Tax-Prop. Title 14, Subtitle 8, Part III

A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.

See the full Marylandrules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Baltimore County, Maryland sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax lien certificates. In Maryland investors buy the lien, not the property; the County Collector of Taxes runs the sale.

When is the Baltimore County tax certificate sale?

One annual sale. For 2026 the county states: "The Collector's tax sale will be conducted via an online auction on August 27, 2026." Bids are accepted only on that day between 9 a.m. and noon Eastern; the county says bids time-stamped before 9 a.m. or after noon are invalid. Taxes had to be paid by Wednesday, July 31, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. to avoid the sale. If the sale cannot be completed on August 27, the Collector continues it on dates announced to bidders until all listed property is sold. The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation tax sale schedule also lists Baltimore County as "August 27th" for 2026. Registration and bidding happen on the county's online platform. Always confirm the exact date with the County Collector of Taxes before the sale.

I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?

Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. Maryland's redemption rule: Open until the circuit court forecloses the right of redemption; the holder may file that case 6 months after the sale, or 9 months for owner-occupied residential property. Call the Collector of State and County Taxes for Baltimore County, Office of Budget and Finance (Tax Sale Section). The public notice is signed by Kevin D. Reed, Director, Office of Budget and Finance and Collector of State and County Taxes. as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.

Where can I find the Baltimore County tax sale list?

Baltimore County posts its tax sale list at bcg-prod.baltimorecountymd.gov. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.

Verified Aug 9, 2026 against official county and state sources.

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.

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Compare sale calendars, platforms, and rules across the state, or read the guides before you bid.

Maryland tax salesDue diligence guide
Call Baltimore County Office of Budget and FinanceOpen auction