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Tax Sale Atlas

Aurora County, SD tax sales

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

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

Next sale
There is no fixed annual date.
Format
In person
Registration
Set county by county.
County office
(605) 942-7162
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Aurora County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Aurora County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
State law fixes the date.
Registration
There is no online registration and no bidder portal.
Next expected
on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
State law fixes the date. The Treasurer offers tax certificates at public sale at the courthouse on the third Monday of December each year, between nine a.m. and four p.m., and may adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. The Department of Revenue states the same rule for treasurers as an "Annual sale on 3rd Monday in December from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm." Aurora County posts no sale announcement of its own, so call the Treasurer at (605) 942-7162 for the room and the start time before travelling to Plankinton.
Registration and deposit

There is no online registration and no bidder portal. Call the Aurora County Treasurer at (605) 942-7162 well ahead of the December sale to ask what the office wants from a bidder, in what form of funds, and by when. Bidding is on the interest rate, not the price: a bidder offers the full amount of the taxes, interest and costs due on the parcel and states the lowest annual rate of interest at which the bidder will carry it, and the lowest rate stated is the best bid. Any bid above ten percent a year is not a valid bid.

Sale format and venue
Aurora County sells tax certificates rather than deeds, and the sale happens in the courthouse at Plankinton rather than on an auction website. Two things decide whether an outside bidder can buy anything here. First, South Dakota prohibits a county from selling any tax certificate unless its board of county commissioners has adopted a resolution waiving that prohibition, and without such a resolution the county itself is the holder of every certificate the Treasurer issues. Ask the Treasurer whether Aurora County has waived it before planning a trip. Second, the county keeps no website, so the delinquent list reaches bidders through the notice the Treasurer publishes in the county's official newspaper during the week before the sale, and through the Treasurer's office by phone. That published notice carries the time and place of the sale, the certificates to be sold on parcels whose prior year taxes were unpaid as of the close of business on the first Monday of December, the names the taxes are assessed against or the current owner of record, and the amount of taxes due. Certificates that go unsold for want of bidders are sold afterward at private sale in the Treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty and costs due, which is the closest thing the state has to an over-the-counter route. Certificates the Treasurer bid off in the county's name may instead be assigned to a buyer who pays the taxes, penalty, interest and costs of sale and transfer plus every unpaid and subsequent tax on the parcel.
Source: SDCL 10-23-8, Offer of tax certificate and receipt of bids, lowest interest rate as best bid, South Dakota Codified Laws· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Tax deed sale

Run by
County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor
Frequency
as needed
Typical timing
There is no fixed annual date.
Registration
Set county by county.
When it runs
There is no fixed annual date. A tax deed sale happens parcel by parcel once a tax deed has issued. The certificate holder, which in most counties is the county itself, may begin the deed process no sooner than three years and no later than six years after the certificate sale by serving a notice of intention to take a tax deed. Sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the treasurer, redemption ends and the treasurer prepares the deed. SDCL 10-25-39.1 then requires the county to declare the property surplus and sell it within one year, with notice published at least twice and the first publication at least thirty days before the sale. Watch the county auditor and the county's legal notices for those publications.
Registration and deposit

Set county by county. SDCL chapter 6-13 lets the county take sealed bids opened at a commission meeting, sell at public auction to the highest bidder, or list the property with one or more licensed real estate brokers, and it prescribes no bidder registration. Sealed bids are filed with the county's fiscal officer and opened at the time named in the published notice. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. No deposit is required on a cash sale; a buyer taking an installment contract deposits the cash portion as soon as the bid is accepted, and gets it back if the board declines to approve the sale. Confirm the bid form, the deadline and the payment terms with the county auditor.

Sale format and venue
This is the sale most South Dakota bidders can actually take part in, and it is a sale of the property itself rather than of a lien. Costs of taking the deed and of the sale come out of the proceeds first, the remainder is prorated to the taxing districts until all tax and interest is paid, and any surplus goes back to the prior owner of record, or to the Unclaimed Property Division if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days. A private certificate holder who takes a tax deed is under the same duty: SDCL 10-25-39.2 requires that holder to offer the property at public auction within one year and entitles the holder only to what a redemption would have paid. Title vests in fee simple but remains subject to any claim the state or county has for taxes, liens or encumbrances and to past-due installments of municipal special assessments, and counties commonly convey by quitclaim deed and expect the buyer to bring a quiet title action. The former owner has one hundred eighty days after the deed is recorded to sue to recover possession or to avoid the deed.
Source: S.D. Codified Laws 10-25-39.1 - County acquisition of real property; sale of property; notice of sale requiredSDCL 10-25-39.1· Verified Aug 27, 2026

Aurora County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Aurora 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. If the parcels on this list are vacant land rather than houses, what buying land at a tax sale hands you is the place to start.

  1. Get the advertised list

    A county sale-list URL is still being verified. Use the office and platform details on this page before relying on a copied list.

  2. Register to bid

    Set county by county. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    There is no fixed annual date. 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 Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Aurora County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    The county sale-list URL is still being verified. Use the county office contacts below and confirm the advertised parcels directly before you price a bid.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Set county by county. SDCL chapter 6-13 lets the county take sealed bids opened at a commission meeting, sell at public auction to the highest bidder, or list the property with one or more licensed real estate brokers, and it prescribes no bidder registration. Sealed bids are filed with the county's fiscal officer and opened at the time named in the published notice. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. No deposit is required on a cash sale; a buyer taking an installment contract deposits the cash portion as soon as the bid is accepted, and gets it back if the board declines to approve the sale. Confirm the bid form, the deadline and the payment terms with the county auditor.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the South Dakota due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth. Which liens survive is state law, so read what survives a tax deed in South Dakota before you price the title work.

  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

Three routes exist and each runs through a county office. A certificate that stayed unsold for want of bidders must be sold at private sale at the treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty and costs due. A person may also buy the county's interest in a certificate the treasurer bid off, by paying the taxes, penalty, interest and costs of sale and transfer plus every unpaid and subsequent tax, after which the treasurer assigns the certificate and the buyer holds the rights of an original purchaser. Both routes are closed in a county whose commissioners have not waived SDCL 10-23-28.1. Separately, tax deed property the county offered that drew no bid may be sold at private sale within twelve months for not less than ninety percent of the appraised value, without further publication or appraisal. Ask the county treasurer about certificates and the county auditor about unsold deeded parcels.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what South Dakota calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Aurora County Treasurer

(605) 942-7162

401 N. Main St., PO Box 397, Plankinton, SD 57368

County notes

  • Bidding drives the interest rate down, not the price up. What a winner pays is fixed at the delinquent taxes, interest and costs on the parcel, so there is no premium to bid and no surplus to leave on the table. Competition shows up only in the annual rate a bidder is willing to accept. State law makes any bid above ten percent a year invalid and names no minimum rate, so a parcel two bidders want can be carried well below ten percent and, in principle, all the way to zero. Where nobody bids the amount due, the Treasurer bids the certificate off in the county's name.
  • Redemption stays open until a tax deed issues. The redeeming party pays the sum listed in the certificate, interest on that sum at the rate the parcel sold at running from the date of purchase, any later taxes the holder paid, and interest on those at the same rate. On redemption the county deducts a fee from the proceeds paid to the certificate holder, set by county commission resolution and capped at fifty dollars. That fee comes out of the holder's return and cannot be charged to the property owner.
  • A certificate holder cannot start a tax deed proceeding until three years after the sale and must start it within six years of the sale. Notice of intention to take a tax deed is personally served on the owner of record, the person in possession and the person the property is taxed to in the manner of a summons. Other interested parties may be served by publishing the notice once a week for two successive weeks in the county's legal newspapers, and notices to a mortgagee, a lienholder or any other interested person of record go by registered or certified mail with return receipt requested. Service is complete when the affidavit of service is filed with the Treasurer, and the right of redemption does not expire until sixty days after that filing.
  • The certificate expires. If the deed proceeding is not completed within six years of the sale date, the sale, the tax lien, the lien for any subsequent taxes the holder paid and all rights under them cease and are forever barred, and the Treasurer cancels the certificate on the county record. Run that six year clock from the sale date rather than from the day you bought in: an assignee takes the certificate subject to the time limit of its first owner.
  • The Treasurer's office is at 401 N. Main St. in Plankinton, mail goes to PO Box 397, Plankinton, SD 57368, and the office line is (605) 942-7162. Aurora County maintains no website, so the phone and the county's official newspaper are the working sources for the sale date, the delinquent list and bidder instructions. The Treasurer runs the December sale, issues the certificate and later issues the tax deed.

South Dakota rules

Max interest rate
10% per year, bid down at auction
Minimum return
No statutory minimum; interest accrues at your bid rate
Redemption
There is no fixed redemption deadline that starts at the sale. SDCL 10-24-1 lets any person redeem at any time before a tax deed is issued. What sets the outer limit is the deed process: SDCL 10-25-1 bars the certificate holder from starting that process until three years after the certificate sale, and SDCL 10-25-8 keeps the right to redeem alive until sixty days after the affidavit of completed service of the notice of intention is filed with the treasurer. Missing that sixty-day window passes the owner's, mortgagee's and lienholder's interests to the certificate holder. After the deed is recorded, the former owner has one hundred eighty days to bring an action to recover possession or to avoid the deed, which is a limitation period rather than a further right to redeem.
Deed deposit
Chapter 6-13 sets no deposit for a cash sale. A buyer taking an installment contract must deposit the cash portion with the fiscal officer as soon as the bid is accepted, and the board can still decline to approve the sale, in which case the deposit is returned. A separate rule bars a bidder from the sale entirely: under SDCL 10-25-45 a county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. Payment methods and any county-set deposit are county practice rather than statute, so confirm them with the county before bidding.
Surplus proceeds
The county first deducts the expenses of taking the tax deed and of the sale. What remains is prorated to the taxing districts on the levies for the most recent year included in the proceeds until all tax and interest is paid. Any surplus left after taxes, penalty, interest, county liens and other costs must be returned to the prior owner of record, and if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days the surplus is transferred to the Unclaimed Property Division under SDCL chapter 43-41B. The same distribution binds a private buyer. SDCL 10-25-39.2, effective February 12, 2024, requires any person other than a county who acquires property by tax deed after being issued a tax certificate to offer that property at public auction under chapter 6-13 within one year of the deed, and entitles that seller only to compensation in the same manner as a redemption under SDCL 10-24-1. A South Dakota certificate is therefore a route to being paid what the certificate is worth, not a route to keeping the land.
Governing statute
SDCL Title 10, Chapter 10-23

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 South Dakotarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Aurora County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Aurora County follows South Dakota's tax lien state system.

When is the Aurora County tax certificate sale?

State law fixes the date. The Treasurer offers tax certificates at public sale at the courthouse on the third Monday of December each year, between nine a.m. and four p.m., and may adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. The Department of Revenue states the same rule for treasurers as an "Annual sale on 3rd Monday in December from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm." Aurora County posts no sale announcement of its own, so call the Treasurer at (605) 942-7162 for the room and the start time before travelling to Plankinton. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Aurora County hold tax deed sales?

Aurora County holds its tax deed sale as needed. There is no fixed annual date. 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. South Dakota's redemption rule: Open until a tax deed issues; a deed cannot be sought until 3 years after the certificate sale, and redemption then runs until 60 days after completed service of the notice of intention. Call the County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor 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.

Verified Aug 31, 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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