Oneida County, WI tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Oneida County, WI tax sale, one of 2,862 counties in 36 states. Wisconsin sells the deed itself, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Sep 11, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in Oneida County, seat of Rhinelander: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Wisconsin tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- No fixed annual sale month.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- There is no bidder registration and no online bidding account.
- County office
- 715-369-6179
On this page
How Oneida County sells delinquent taxes
No tax lien certificate sale
Wisconsin counties sell no tax lien certificates to investors. Under s. 74.57(1) the county treasurer issues the tax certificate to the county itself, and s. 74.57(3) states that the county may not sell, assign, or otherwise transfer it. The section carries two carve-outs, and neither admits a bidder: a county may sell its right to receive tax certificate revenues under s. 74.635, which is a payment stream rather than a lien, and the county treasurer must reissue certificates to a city acting under s. 74.87 that has paid the delinquent taxes under an agreement made under s. 74.83.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Oneida County Land Records Committee, administered by the Oneida County Land Information Office
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- No fixed annual sale month.
- Registration
- There is no bidder registration and no online bidding account.
- Sale list
- Real Property Sale Offerings
When it runs
Registration and deposit
There is no bidder registration and no online bidding account. Bid on the Oneida County Real Estate Bid Form included in the sale packet, one bid per bidder per parcel, a separate form for each parcel, delivered to or received by the Oneida County Clerk at the courthouse before the stated deadline. Late bids are not accepted and the bid must name a specific amount. A $500 bid guarantee accompanies each parcel bid, or an amount equal to the bid where the minimum bid is under $500. Any bid below the advertised minimum is rejected. You do not need to attend the bid opening. The County Treasurer deposits the bid guarantees of the top two bidders and returns the rest; the winner's guarantee applies to the purchase price and the runner up is refunded. The successful bidder has 60 days from County Board approval to pay in full, receives a quit claim deed with no title insurance, and pays the $30 deed recording fee. To receive sale notices by email, sign up on the county's Real Property Sales contact list or write to the Land Information Office.
Sale format and venue
Oneida County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Oneida 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 Real Property Sale Offerings for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
No fixed annual sale month. 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 Oneida County Land Records Committee, administered by the Oneida County Land Information Office as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Oneida County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Real Property Sale Offerings. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
There is no bidder registration and no online bidding account. Bid on the Oneida County Real Estate Bid Form included in the sale packet, one bid per bidder per parcel, a separate form for each parcel, delivered to or received by the Oneida County Clerk at the courthouse before the stated deadline. Late bids are not accepted and the bid must name a specific amount. A $500 bid guarantee accompanies each parcel bid, or an amount equal to the bid where the minimum bid is under $500. Any bid below the advertised minimum is rejected. You do not need to attend the bid opening. The County Treasurer deposits the bid guarantees of the top two bidders and returns the rest; the winner's guarantee applies to the purchase price and the runner up is refunded. The successful bidder has 60 days from County Board approval to pay in full, receives a quit claim deed with no title insurance, and pays the $30 deed recording fee. To receive sale notices by email, sign up on the county's Real Property Sales contact list or write to the Land Information Office.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin 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 properties
Wisconsin has no statewide over-the-counter program at a fixed statutory price, and no state-held certificate to assign. County inventory is what stays for sale. The county board may sell its tax-deeded lands on whatever terms it sets, may hire licensed real estate brokers on commission, and may advertise on a multiple listing service, so a county parcel can sit on the open market between sales. Once a parcel has been advertised and not sold, the county may sell it for any amount after a further class 1 notice, subject to board or committee approval below the appraised value. Ask the county treasurer or the land committee for the current list of unsold county-owned parcels and make a written offer. Approval still runs through the board or its committee, so nothing closes on the day.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what Wisconsin calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
Oneida County Land Information Office
Oneida County Courthouse, 1 S. Oneida Ave., Room C208, P.O. Box 400, Rhinelander, WI 54501
Official websiteCounty notes
- Oneida County sells tax foreclosed land by sealed bid to the County Clerk, not at a live auction and not through an online bidding platform.
- Each parcel carries a minimum bid set by the Land Records Committee after an appraisal, and any bid below that advertised minimum is rejected.
- A $500 bid guarantee must accompany each parcel bid; where the minimum bid is under $500 the guarantee equals the bid amount.
- The Land Records Committee and County Board reserve the right to reject any or all bids or to select the bid most advantageous to the county.
- If a municipality, county department or other public entity asks to acquire a parcel, the county weighs that request before conveying to a private bidder.
- Title passes by quit claim deed with no title insurance, so confirm access, boundaries, easements, zoning and permits yourself before bidding. Permit history is searchable at https://ascent.co.oneida.wi.us/PermitManagement/.
- Zoning and building questions go to Oneida County Planning and Zoning at 715-369-6130, or to the City of Rhinelander Inspection Department at 715-365-8600 option 8 for parcels inside the city.
- Join the Land Information Office email list to receive sale notices; the county asks you to resubmit the request each year to stay on it.
- Delinquent taxes on parcels already in foreclosure cannot be paid through the county's online payment system; the Treasurer accepts certified funds only.
Wisconsin rules
- Redemption
- The redemption right in Wisconsin runs against the county, and it is over before an investor sees the parcel. Issuance of the tax certificate on September 1 starts the clock. Two years later the county may take its deed or start a foreclosure, but the right to redeem does not end on that anniversary: under s. 75.01(1)(b) any person may redeem at any time before the tax deed is presented to the register of deeds and accepted for record, and a redemption before recording makes the deed void as to the land redeemed. On the in rem route under s. 75.521 the county publishes a notice fixing the last day for redemption at least 8 weeks after first publication, and an interested party may instead serve a verified answer within 30 days after that date on the three grounds the section allows. Once the deed is recorded or judgment is entered, redemption is finished. Between the two, at least 6 and not more than 10 months before the redemption period expires, the county treasurer must publish a class 2 notice listing every unredeemed parcel with its amount due and the last day of redemption, which is the public list an investor can watch. Two things can still pull a parcel off a sale list afterward: the minor and incompetency extension in s. 75.03, and the former owner repurchase right in s. 75.35(3).
- Deed deposit
- Wisconsin fixes no statutory deposit. Section 75.35(2)(am) lets the county board sell its tax-deeded lands in whatever manner and on whatever terms it sets by ordinance or resolution, and s. 75.35(2)(d) lets the board delegate that power to a committee, an officer or a department, or hire licensed real estate brokers on commission. Deposits are county rules, not state law. St. Croix County requires a 10 percent deposit by cashier's check or money order with each sealed bid and rejects personal checks. Counties selling through the statewide online auctioneer instead take payment by certified check or wire transfer under the platform's terms. Read the county's own bid packet before you bid.
- Homestead deeds
- Owner-occupied homes are treated differently, and the difference can pull a parcel off the list. For single-family, owner-occupied properties the county board must by ordinance give the former owner who lost title, or that person's heirs or beneficiaries, the right to buy the land back before it is sold, on paying the costs and expenses under s. 75.36(3)(a), the property taxes that would have been owed for the year of the purchase, and enough to satisfy any other liens at the time of foreclosure plus the county's repurchase costs. The board may extend the same right to other property types at its option. A sale under that ordinance is exempt from s. 75.69 altogether, so it never reaches a public bid. Counties set their own window. Dane County gives the former owner 60 days from delivery of the treasurer's certified-mail notice. Treat an owner-occupied house on a Wisconsin land sale list as provisional until the repurchase window has closed.
- Surplus proceeds
- Wisconsin returns the surplus to the former owner, and the county treasurer has to go find them. On taking the tax deed the treasurer must notify the former owner by registered or certified mail, at the mailing address on the tax bill, that the former owner may be entitled to a share of the proceeds of a future sale. When the county sells, the treasurer computes net proceeds by subtracting foreclosure, record-keeping, legal, advertising and title insurance costs, the actual maintenance, board-up, clean-up and demolition costs reasonably needed to sell, real estate agent or broker fees, and all unpaid general property taxes, interest, penalties, special assessments, special charges and special taxes. From the net proceeds the treasurer pays any managed forest withdrawal tax and fee, then the taxing jurisdictions' special assessments and special charges, prorated if the money runs short. Anything still remaining goes to the former owner, less any delinquent taxes, interest and penalties that person owes the county on other property. A payment unclaimed one year after mailing becomes unclaimed funds under s. 59.66(2), and no interest is paid on any of it.
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 Oneida County, Wisconsin sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Oneida County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Oneida County tax sale list?
Verified Sep 11, 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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