To buy a tax lien in South Dakota you bid on a certificate, not on the property. The county certificate sale is run by the County Treasurer. You are buying the delinquent debt, the statutory interest it earns, and the right to force a sale if the owner never repays.
Each step below is drawn from South Dakota 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
South Dakota property taxes are due on January 1 of the year following assessment. One half of what is unpaid becomes delinquent on May 1 and the remaining half on November 1, and any bill totaling fifty dollars or less has to be paid in full on or before April 30. From the delinquency date, interest is added on the first of each month at the Category G rate, which SDCL 54-3-16 sets at five-sixths of one percent per month or fraction of a month, so a partial month counts as a whole one. Taxes on real property, with any penalty and interest, are a perpetual lien against all persons and bodies corporate except the United States and the State of South Dakota, which is what makes a South Dakota certificate senior collateral. Understand this before you commit any money.
Find the advertised delinquent list
Before the certificate sale, the County Treasurer advertises the delinquent parcels. One sale a year. On the third Monday of December, between nine a.m. and four p.m., the treasurer offers a tax certificate at the courthouse on each parcel liable for taxes of the preceding year or years that remain unpaid, and may adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. The published list covers taxes unpaid as of the close of business on the first Monday of December. Notice is published once during the week before the sale in the county's official newspapers, and the treasurer also mails or electronically sends notice to each owner at least fourteen days before the sale. The date is set by statute and is the same in every county, so there is no county sale calendar to chase. Pull that list for your target county and shortlist the parcels worth researching.
Register, deposit, and bid the rate down
Register on the county’s certificate-sale platform and fund the required deposit. At the sale you bid the interest rate down: it opens at the statutory maximum of 10 percent, and the lowest rate wins. There is no statutory minimum return, so what you earn is decided at the sale. SDCL 10-23-8 caps a valid bid at ten percent per year and states no lower limit, so nothing in the statute stops a bid of zero percent and no minimum return is guaranteed. The price never moves: every bidder pays the same full amount of taxes, interest and costs due, and the only variable is the rate, so a premium cannot exist here. Read the December sale carefully before treating it as an investor auction. SDCL 10-23-28.1 forbids a county to sell any tax certificate unless the board of county commissioners has adopted a resolution waiving that prohibition, and provides that the county shall be the holder of any certificate the county issues where no such resolution exists. In that posture the treasurer still publishes the notice, still holds the sale on the third Monday of December, and then bids the certificate off in the county's name under SDCL 10-23-24, which produces no investor purchase at all. Because the date is fixed by statute it is the recurring tax-sale event a South Dakota county calendar is most likely to carry, which is why it gets mistaken for an open auction. Confirm with the county treasurer whether a waiver resolution is in force before planning around it.
Collect interest or wait out redemption
The certificate earns the annual rate named in the winning bid, running from the date of purchase on the whole sum shown on the certificate, which is the taxes, interest and costs the buyer paid. Taxes for other years that the holder pays are added to the certificate and carry the same lien, though SDCL 10-23-22 provides that a subsequent tax payment does not bear interest until the date that tax itself became delinquent. A certificate the treasurer bids off in the county's name earns the Category G rate instead, five-sixths of one percent per month or fraction of a month. On redemption of a certificate held by anyone other than the county, a fee set by county commission resolution and capped at fifty dollars is deducted from the proceeds paid to the holder; the statute bars charging that fee to the property owner. The treasurer also collects ten dollars for each certificate. 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. To redeem, the owner pays The sum listed in the tax certificate, plus interest on that sum at the rate the certificate sold for, running from the date of purchase, plus other taxes the holder paid later with interest at the same rate. Where the deed process has begun and the treasurer received written notice and a verified statement of costs before the redemption, the costs of serving the notice of intention are added, including publication, the affidavit, the records search, locating owners and attorney fees, all capped together at four hundred dollars. No fee may be charged for the redemption itself. A certificate the county bid off is redeemed by paying all delinquent taxes with penalty and interest to the date of redemption plus the costs of advertising and selling the certificate. If they redeem, that payoff is your return; if they never do, the certificate becomes your path to the property.
Apply for a tax deed
South Dakota holds no annual tax deed auction. The deed step begins with a tax certificate. No sooner than three years and no later than six years after the certificate sale, the holder serves a notice of intention to take a tax deed on the owner of record, the person in possession, the person in whose name the property is taxed, any mortgagee, and any lienholder, creditor of record or other interested person shown in the register of deeds, treasurer or clerk of courts records. Sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the treasurer, the right to redeem ends and the treasurer prepares the deed. Because SDCL 10-23-28.1 leaves the county holding the certificate in any county that has not passed a waiver resolution, the county is usually the party that takes the deed. Since February 12, 2024, SDCL 10-25-39.1 has required a county that acquires property by tax deed to declare it surplus and sell it within one year, and that sale is the event an outside bidder can actually bid at. It is scheduled parcel by parcel rather than on a fixed annual date. SDCL chapter 6-13 prescribes no statutory opening bid. Before a sale the governing board appoints three real property owners of the political subdivision, or engages a licensed fee appraiser, to appraise the property, except that property to be sold at public auction need not be appraised. Property appraised at two thousand five hundred dollars or less may be sold at private or public sale without notice; everything else must be advertised at least twice, and for a tax deed sale SDCL 10-25-39.1 requires the first publication at least thirty days before the sale date rather than the ten days chapter 6-13 otherwise allows. Sealed bids are opened at a board meeting. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may also sell tax deed property at public auction to the highest bidder, or list it with one or more licensed real estate brokers. If no bids arrive, the board may order a reappraisal or, within twelve months, sell privately for not less than ninety percent of the appraised value.
Bid at the tax deed auction
The County Treasurer issues the tax deed; the board of county commissioners then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13 sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder. 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. If the full purchase price is paid in cash and the board approves the sale, the board directs delivery of a deed executed by the chair of the governing board and attested by the fiscal officer. If less than the full price is paid in cash, the buyer receives a contract for deed instead, and real property sold on an installment contract may not go for less than ninety percent of the appraised value. The board fixes the number of installments, the payment dates and the interest rate, and the buyer may prepay the balance on any interest paying date. Default on an installment, on interest or on the property taxes lets the board end the contract and keep every payment already made as liquidated damages.
Or buy over the counter
You do not have to wait for an auction. Three routes reach parcels outside the December sale, and each runs through the county. First, once the sale has closed and the treasurer has filed the return with the county auditor, a certificate that remained 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. Second, a person may buy the county's interest in a certificate the treasurer bid off for the county by paying the taxes, penalty, interest and costs of sale and transfer plus every unpaid or subsequent tax, after which the treasurer assigns the certificate and the buyer holds all the rights of an original purchaser. Both of those routes are closed in a county whose board of commissioners has not adopted a resolution waiving SDCL 10-23-28.1, because that section bars the county from selling any tax certificate at all. Third, tax deed property the county offered under chapter 6-13 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 which certificates are available for assignment and the county auditor which deeded parcels went unsold. South Dakota keeps no statewide lands-available list and nothing escheats to the state through this process. A county that takes a tax deed must declare the property surplus and sell it within one year under SDCL 10-25-39.1, so deeded parcels are meant to move rather than to sit on a list. The county commissioners may instead reconvey the property to the record owner or the owner's assignees or successors by quitclaim deed, for consideration not less than the total principal, interest and costs of all taxes represented in the tax deed plus any other unpaid taxes.
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.
Buying tax liens in South Dakota: common questions
How do you buy a tax lien in South Dakota?
Can you buy South Dakota tax liens online?
More South Dakota answers, including redemption and statute detail, are on the South Dakota tax sale FAQ.
New to this? Start with tax lien vs tax deed and the full South Dakota walkthrough, then value a parcel with the due diligence guide.
Steps verified Aug 27, 2026 against South Dakota 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.