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Tax Sale Atlas

Polk County, MO tax sales

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

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

Next sale
There is no separate deed auction.
Format
In person
County office
(417) 326-4032
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 22, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Polk County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Polk County Collector
Frequency
annual
Sale list
Tax Sale Listing
When it runs
Annual. The Collector states that "The tax sale is held annually on the 4th Monday in August commencing at 10:00 A.M. at the Polk County Courthouse." The published notice offers the listed lots and lands "at or near the Polk County Courthouse, Bolivar, Missouri, on the fourth Monday in August, commencing at ten o'clock a.m. of said day thereafter until all are offered for sale," with the time of sale printed as 10:00 A.M. For 2026 the fourth Monday in August is August 24. Delinquent taxes with penalty, interest and costs may be paid to the Collector at any time before the sale, which pulls a parcel back off the list.
Registration and deposit

Every bidder must register and sign a notarized affidavit in the Collector's office stating they are not currently delinquent on any tax payments to any Missouri collector. Affidavits are available at the Collector's office or at the sale site before the sale, and failing to sign one, or signing a false one, may invalidate the purchase. Bidders must be Missouri residents, and a buyer who is not a Missouri resident must appoint an agent. Buyers must be present to bid. Bidding opens at the amount of taxes, penalties and sale costs and moves in minimum five dollar increments. The total purchase price is due at the Collector's Office immediately at the close of the sale, and the office accepts cashier's check, personal check or cash.

Sale format and venue
Polk County sells tax certificates at a live auction at the courthouse in Bolivar, and the county names no online bidding platform, so plan to attend in person or send a Missouri agent. Each parcel is identified by a brief legal description and offered individually. The Collector issues a Certificate of Purchase to the winning bidder and retains it for one year or until redemption; buyers get a receipt on sale day and all other documents by mail. Redemption runs one year from the sale date, and a redeeming owner pays the certificate amount plus 10 percent annual interest on the tax amount, plus 8 percent annual interest on any subsequent years' taxes the holder paid, plus the cost of recording the redemption certificate and any legally required costs of the purchaser. No interest is paid on the surplus bid above the tax amount. A certificate may be assigned only to a Missouri resident, by notarized assignment presented to the Collector's office for recording. To reach a Collector's Deed the holder must have a lien search run on the property and furnish verification to the Collector, give the recorded owner and every holder of a recorded deed of trust, mortgage, lease, lien or claim at least 90 days notice by certified mail with written proof of mailing supplied to the Collector, sign the mailing affidavit in the Collector's office on the day of the mailings, file an affidavit instead if the search turned up no lienholders, and surrender the certificate with recording and collection fees. Failure to obtain the deed forfeits the purchaser's lien, and Chapter 140 sets an 18 month outside limit for taking out and recording it, so work to the earlier of that date and whatever the Collector's office confirms. The Collector makes no guarantee on title, liens or encumbrances and warns that listed properties may carry liens, may have had improvements razed or been condemned, and could contain hazardous waste. In person at the Polk County Courthouse, Bolivar.
Source: Notice of Tax Certificate Sale, Polk County Collector· Verified Aug 22, 2026

Tax deed sale

Run by
County Collector
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
There is no separate deed auction.
When it runs
There is no separate deed auction. Deeds come out of the same August sale once a parcel has cycled past the third offering, and unsold post third offering parcels are re-offered at least once every 30 days. A purchaser at a post third offering sale takes an immediate collector's deed with no redemption period.
Sale format and venue
A first or second offering buyer holds a certificate and must wait out the one year redemption period, obtain a title search, serve the 90 day notice of the right to redeem on the owner and every recorded claimant by both first class and certified mail, file the affidavit with the collector, pay all subsequent taxes and the recording fee, and get the deed executed and recorded within 18 months of the sale. Miss the 18 months and the amount due the purchaser stops being a lien. A third offering buyer follows a shorter version, with a 90 day redemption period and notice to recorded claimants within 45 days of the sale. Counties that have elected the Land Tax Collection Law in Chapter 141 pull those parcels out of the collector's offering lists entirely and foreclose in court, and the sheriff sells them there, so confirm which chapter this county runs.
Source: Missouri Revised Statutes 140.405 - Purchaser of property at delinquent land tax auction, deed issued to, when, notice of right of redemptionMo. Rev. Stat. 140.405· Verified Aug 18, 2026

Polk County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Polk 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 Tax Sale Listing for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.

  3. Sale day

    There is no separate deed auction. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.

  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use County Collector as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Polk County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Tax Sale Listing. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Every bidder must register and sign a notarized affidavit in the Collector's office stating they are not currently delinquent on any tax payments to any Missouri collector. Affidavits are available at the Collector's office or at the sale site before the sale, and failing to sign one, or signing a false one, may invalidate the purchase. Bidders must be Missouri residents, and a buyer who is not a Missouri resident must appoint an agent. Buyers must be present to bid. Bidding opens at the amount of taxes, penalties and sale costs and moves in minimum five dollar increments. The total purchase price is due at the Collector's Office immediately at the close of the sale, and the office accepts cashier's check, personal check or cash.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Missouri 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

Missouri publishes no standing over the counter certificate list. The equivalent route is the post third offering sale. Parcels that draw no buyer at a third offering must be advertised or offered again once every 30 days, and where the county's appointed trustee declines to take a parcel the collector may sell it at any time and for any amount. A buyer at any of these sales gets an immediate collector's deed, no redemption period, and must first pay every tax that fell due after the taxes named in the advertisement. Parcels the trustee did take are held for the taxing funds and sold on order of the county commission. Ask the collector for the current post third offering list and its bidding terms, because the format varies by county.

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)

Polk County Collector

(417) 326-4032

102 E Broadway #6, Bolivar, MO 65613

Official website

County notes

  • Polk County runs the Chapter 140 Jones-Munger certificate sale through the County Collector, and the Collector's page states that all laws and requirements must be followed according to RSMo Chapter 140. The Chapter 141 Land Tax Collection Law process used in St. Louis city and Jackson County does not apply here.
  • Bidding is live at the Polk County Courthouse in Bolivar and there is no online auction platform, so a buyer has to be in the room. A bidder who is not a Missouri resident may participate only through an appointed agent.
  • This is a very small sale. The current listing carries three parcels, all platted town lots in Bolivar and Humansville, each three years delinquent for 2023 through 2025, with totals of roughly $505, $511 and $1,115 in taxes and fees. Acreage shows as zero or two tenths of an acre, so treat this as a town-lot sale rather than a rural land auction.
  • Lots and lands with an assessed value of one thousand dollars or less are not printed in the published notice. The Collector's notice says those parcels are posted in the courthouse instead, so the online list understates what will actually be offered. Ask the office or read the courthouse posting before sale day.
  • The list of properties subject to sale is published in the Bolivar newspaper for three consecutive weeks before the sale, and owners can pay right up to the sale, so confirm what is still standing before making the trip.
  • The Collector accepts a personal check as well as cash and a cashier's check for the winning bid, which is more flexible than most Missouri collectors, but the full purchase price is still due at the Collector's Office immediately at the close of the sale.
  • Rachel Boyce is the Polk County Collector. The office sits on the second floor of the courthouse at 102 E Broadway #6 in Bolivar, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, phone (417) 326-4032, fax (417) 777-8693, email [email protected]. The office observes county holidays and states that it cannot offer legal advice.
  • Screen parcels on the county GIS viewer at polkgis.integritygis.com before bidding, and pair it with the Recorder of Deeds for the lien picture, since the Collector guarantees nothing about title.
  • A redeeming owner is asked to notify the Collector at least three business days ahead, and the certificate holder is reimbursed only after surrendering the original certificate, at which point the Collector delivers a county check. Keep the certificate somewhere safe.
  • If the county commission appoints no trustee, or a trustee will not accept property after a third offering that drew no sale, the Collector may sell that land at any time and for any amount. Ask the office about parcels left over from prior sales.

Missouri rules

Max interest rate
10% 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
After a first or second offering sale, the owner and other interested parties hold an absolute right to redeem for one year, then a defeasible right that lasts until the purchaser actually acquires the deed. A purchaser must serve the 90 day notice of the right to redeem before the date on which the deed can be acquired, so the practical window usually runs past the one year mark. After a third offering sale, redemption runs 90 days, and the purchaser must give notice to recorded claimants within 45 days of the sale. After a post third offering sale, there is no redemption period and the deed issues immediately. Minors and incapacitated or disabled persons have a longer right, running five years from the last payment of taxes by that person or a predecessor. The right also ends if the certificate lapses because the purchaser failed to record the deed within 18 months.
Deed deposit
The winning bidder must pay the full amount of the bid to the collector immediately at the sale. Chapter 140 sets no advance bidder deposit and no balance due window. A bidder who fails to pay forfeits a penalty of 25 percent of the bid to the county school fund and the parcel is offered again at once as though no sale had been made. Counties running an online or registered sale may impose their own deposit and registration terms on top of the statute, so confirm them with the collector.
Surplus proceeds
Any amount above the taxes and costs is surplus. The collector pays it into the county treasury, where the treasurer holds it in trust for the lesser of three years or 90 days after the redemption period expires. It is distributed first to the former lienholders of record in the priority their liens held on the date of the sale, then to the former owner. No distribution other than through the redemption process may occur until 90 days after the redemption period ends, and a claimant must file a written claim with the county commission within those 90 days, referencing the recorded lien it rests on. The county pays no interest on the fund. Anything still unclaimed at three years becomes the permanent school fund of the county.
Governing statute
Mo. Rev. Stat. Chapter 140

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 Missourirules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Polk County, Missouri sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Polk County follows Missouri's tax lien state system.

When is the Polk County tax certificate sale?

Annual. The Collector states that "The tax sale is held annually on the 4th Monday in August commencing at 10:00 A.M. at the Polk County Courthouse." The published notice offers the listed lots and lands "at or near the Polk County Courthouse, Bolivar, Missouri, on the fourth Monday in August, commencing at ten o'clock a.m. of said day thereafter until all are offered for sale," with the time of sale printed as 10:00 A.M. For 2026 the fourth Monday in August is August 24. Delinquent taxes with penalty, interest and costs may be paid to the Collector at any time before the sale, which pulls a parcel back off the list. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Collector before the sale.

How often does Polk County hold tax deed sales?

Polk County holds its tax deed sale once a year. There is no separate deed auction. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.

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

Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. Missouri's redemption rule: 1 year from a first or second offering sale, 90 days from a third offering sale, and none after a post third offering sale. Call the County Collector 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 Polk County tax sale list?

Polk County posts its tax sale list at polkcountycollector.com. 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 22, 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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