Each step below is drawn from Mississippi 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
Mississippi ad valorem taxes are due and payable on or before February 1 following the year of assessment, and the tax collector begins accepting payment no later than December 26 of the prior year. Unpaid taxes carry interest at one-half of one percent per month, or any fractional part of a month, from February 1 until paid, on top of the other fees, penalties and costs the law imposes for late payment. If any balance is still unpaid on August 1, the land is sold at the land sale on the last Monday in August. A property-tax lien attaches to land on January 1 each year and takes preference over judgments, executions, encumbrances and liens whenever created, with municipal tax liens ranking behind state and county tax liens, which is what makes a Mississippi tax purchase senior collateral. Understand this before you commit any money.
Find the advertised delinquent list
Before the certificate sale, the County Tax Collector advertises the delinquent parcels. The county tax collector holds the land sale on the last Monday of August each year, advertised for two weeks in a county newspaper after August 5. A tax collector may also elect a second sale on the first Monday of April, advertised after February 15, under the same rules. Pull that list for your target county and shortlist the parcels worth researching.
Register, deposit, and bid
Register on the county’s certificate-sale platform and fund the required deposit. Bidding runs upward from a statutory minimum bid, and the highest bid wins. Anything you pay above that minimum is a premium, so check how your state treats it before you bid: a premium can earn a different return than the base amount, or none at all. A redeemed certificate pays at least a 1.5 percent floor. Mississippi does not bid the interest rate down. The tax collector offers each delinquent tract to the highest and best bidder for cash, starting with 160 acres or the smaller separately described subdivision, and strikes a tract off to the state if no one will bid the whole amount of taxes and costs. Bidding above the taxes and costs is allowed, but the overbid does not earn anything and is not refunded to the investor. The tax collector reports the excess to the chancery clerk and it is paid into the county treasury, and on redemption the county keeps it.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
Redemption interest runs at one and one-half percent per month, or any fractional part of a month, on the taxes and costs from the date of sale, which is 18 percent per year simple. Because a fractional month counts as a whole month, a redemption on day one still owes one month of interest, so 1.5 percent is the practical floor. The redeemer also pays 5 percent damages on the taxes, but Miss. Code Ann. 27-45-1 directs the chancery clerk to pay those damages to the county and only the balance to the purchaser, so the damages are not part of the investor's return. Miss. Code Ann. 27-43-1 requires the chancery clerk to issue notice to the record owner within 180 days and not less than 60 days before the redemption period expires. Miss. Code Ann. 27-43-3 then requires the sheriff or a constable to serve a resident owner, the clerk to mail the notice by registered or certified mail, and the owner's name and the legal description to be published in a county newspaper at least 45 days before the period ends. Recorded lienors get their own notice. If the clerk inadvertently fails to send the notice, the sale is void. The clerk's fees for that work are taxed against the owner on redemption and against the purchaser if the land is not redeemed. To redeem, the owner pays All taxes for which the land was sold, all costs incident to the sale, 5 percent damages on those taxes, and interest at one and one-half percent per month or any fractional part from the date of sale, plus any costs accrued on the land since the sale with the same interest. The statute fixes this amount regardless of the purchaser's winning bid, so an overbid is never repaid by the redeemer. 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. A tract that draws no bid at the annual land sale is struck off to the state. If it is still unredeemed when the two-year period ends, the chancery clerk certifies it to the Secretary of State within 30 days, and that filing vests title in the State of Mississippi. Any person may then apply in writing to the Secretary of State to buy the parcel, describing the land, the former owner, whether it is occupied, the improvements and the merchantable timber. The Secretary of State may instead dispose of state-forfeited tax land by sealed bid after three weeks of advertisement in a county newspaper, or by online auction. Mississippi counties do not run their own over-the-counter certificate counter; the state holds the unsold inventory. The Public Lands Division publishes the tax-forfeited inventory and takes purchase applications online, and it states that the process normally takes about 60 to 90 days from receipt of the application to the issuance of the patent. Miss. Code Ann. 29-1-33 sets a floor of two dollars per acre and directs the office to investigate actual value where the land is worth more. The office prices a parcel at the higher of a percentage of market value, the total of back taxes and fees, or the applicant's own offer, applying 25 percent of market value for a prior owner or a blighted parcel and 50 percent of market value for other parcels.
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 Mississippi walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Aug 6, 2026 against Mississippi 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.