Perkins County, SD tax sales
How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Perkins County, seat of Bison: 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
- Set by the commission rather than by a fixed annual date.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- No pre-registration is published.
- County office
- 605-244-5624
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page
How Perkins County sells delinquent taxes
Tax certificate sale (lien)
- Run by
- Perkins County Finance Office (Auditor/Treasurer)
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Third Monday in December at the Perkins County Courthouse, 100 East Main Street in Bison.
- Registration
- There is no bidder portal and no online bidding.
- Next expected
- on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
- Sale list
- Delinquent Tax Listing
When it runs
Third Monday in December at the Perkins County Courthouse, 100 East Main Street in Bison. The county's delinquent tax listing for 2024 taxes states that a "Certificate fee of $10.00 will be added to each description after Monday, December 15, 2025", which is the third Monday of that December.
Registration and deposit
Sale format and venue
Bidding is on the interest rate, not on price. A bidder pays the full delinquent tax, interest and costs and names the lowest annual rate at which the bidder will carry the taxes, and the lowest rate wins. No bid above ten percent per year is valid under SDCL 10-23-8, and the statute sets no minimum rate. Before counting on a December purchase, note that South Dakota bars a county from selling any tax certificate unless its commission adopts a resolution waiving SDCL 10-23-28.1, and Perkins County publishes no such resolution, so certificates here stay with the county and the property later reaches investors at the county's tax deed auction. In person at the Perkins County Courthouse in Bison
Source: 2024 Delinquent Tax Listing, Perkins County Finance Office· Verified Aug 31, 2026
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Perkins County Commission
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Set by the commission rather than by a fixed annual date.
- Registration
- No pre-registration is published.
- Sale list
- Tax Deed Auction Policy
When it runs
Set by the commission rather than by a fixed annual date. The County Surplus Property Tax Deed Sale is placed on a regular monthly meeting agenda once the Finance Office completes the deed process. The 2026 sale ran Thursday, June 4 at 11:30 a.m., moved from the May 12 meeting after a publication deadline was missed.
Registration and deposit
Sale format and venue
Parcels are listed by legal description on the meeting agenda posted ahead of the sale. The county conveys by quit claim deed and makes no guarantee of fee simple marketable title, and its policy recommends a quiet title action under SDCL chapter 43-30. Delinquent taxes, penalties and interest are abated, and most special assessments fall away, but delinquent, current and future municipal special assessments stay with the property and existing federal liens are presumed to survive. In person, oral bidding in the Commissioner Room at the Perkins County Courthouse
Source: Tax Deed Auction Policy, Perkins County· Verified Aug 31, 2026
Perkins County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Perkins 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.
Get the advertised list
Use Tax Deed Auction Policy for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
Set by the commission rather than by a 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.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Perkins County Commission as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Perkins County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Tax Deed Auction Policy. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
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.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
unsold liens and deeds
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)
County notes
- Perkins County runs the treasurer's duties through a combined Finance Office (Auditor/Treasurer) at the courthouse in Bison. Finance Officer Sara Stadler certifies the delinquent tax list, handles tax lien collection, and runs the tax deed process. The auditor line is 605-244-5624, the license and tax window is 605-244-5613, and the fax is 605-231-5560.
- South Dakota bars a county from selling tax certificates unless the county commission adopts a resolution waiving SDCL 10-23-28.1, and the county holds the certificate otherwise. Perkins County publishes no such resolution, so treat the third Monday in December as the date a $10 certificate fee attaches to each delinquent description rather than as an investor auction, and ask the Finance Office directly whether any certificate will be offered.
- The realistic entry point here is the County Surplus Property Tax Deed Sale, an oral auction in the Commissioner Room at 100 East Main Street in Bison during a regular commission meeting. Seven parcels sold on June 4, 2026, from City of Lemmon town lots at $2,000 to $6,000 up to a 160 acre quarter section in Wyandotte Township at $47,000 and a quarter in Martin Township at $20,000.
- Sale dates ride on the commission's meeting calendar. The 2026 tax deed sale moved from the May 12 meeting to June 4 after a publication deadline was missed, so read the current agenda rather than assuming last year's month.
- Notices publish in the Bison Courier and the Dakota Herald, appointed the official newspapers of Perkins County at the January 2026 organizational meeting, and the delinquent tax listing is posted on the county's Legal Notices page.
- The delinquent roll is dominated by City of Lemmon lots and by agricultural quarter sections in the rural townships, with individual amounts ranging from under $50 to several thousand dollars. Rural quarters carry the larger acreage but also the wider valuation spread, so price the land before the meeting.
- A South Dakota certificate cannot be pushed to deed until three years after the certificate sale, and the deed proceeding is barred if it is not completed within six years of that sale. A Perkins County parcel reaching the surplus auction has usually been delinquent for several years.
- The Register of Deeds records the deed after the sale, in the same courthouse at 100 East Main Street in Bison.
South Dakota rules
- 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.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Does Perkins County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?
Perkins County follows South Dakota's tax lien state system.
When is the Perkins County tax certificate sale?
Third Monday in December at the Perkins County Courthouse, 100 East Main Street in Bison. The county's delinquent tax listing for 2024 taxes states that a "Certificate fee of $10.00 will be added to each description after Monday, December 15, 2025", which is the third Monday of that December. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.
How often does Perkins County hold tax deed sales?
Perkins County holds its tax deed sale once a year. Set by the commission rather than by a 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 Perkins County Commission 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 Perkins County tax sale list?
Perkins County posts its tax sale list at perkinscounty.org. 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 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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