The statutory ceiling
This is the maximum. Bidders compete by bidding the rate down at the sale, so the rate you actually earn is set at the auction and is often lower. There is no statutory minimum, so a competitive bid can run the rate to zero.
No minimum rate
South Dakota sets no statutory floor. A certificate bid down to a low rate, or to zero, earns only that rate, so competition can erase the yield entirely.
How interest accrues
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.
Why some certificates are bid to zero
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.
When the certificates sell
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.
The headline figure is a ceiling, not a forecast. To see what a certificate actually pays after the rate is bid down, run the numbers in the yield calculator, and compare South Dakota against other states on interest rates by state.
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.