Delinquent Property Taxes in Missouri: Three Offerings, and the Right to Redeem Shrinks at Each One
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Missouri · Last updated October 21, 2026
Missouri gives a delinquent parcel three chances to sell, a first, a second and a third offering in successive Augusts, and the right to buy it back is a different right at each one. Delinquent property taxes are taxes an owner failed to pay by the date the state fixed, after which the county adds penalty and interest and can force a sale to collect them. Real estate with taxes unpaid on the first day of January is delinquent (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.010), and such parcels are subject to sale on the fourth Monday in August (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150). The winning bidder leaves with a certificate of purchase, not your deed (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290). Then the fork. Sold at a first or second offering, you have an absolute right to redeem for the one year next ensuing, then a defeasible right until the purchaser acquires the deed (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340). Sold at a third offering, ninety days. Sold at a later offering after a third drew no buyer, the purchaser takes an immediate collector's deed and there is no period of redemption at all (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.250). Redeeming costs the bid and the costs of sale plus interest at the rate written on the certificate, which may not exceed ten percent a year, plus eight percent on taxes the purchaser has since paid (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290, 140.340). You pay the county collector, who sets the figure. Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
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How long do I have to redeem after a Missouri tax sale?
It turns on which offering sold it. At a first or second offering the owner, a lienholder or an occupant has the absolute right to redeem during the one year next ensuing the sale, and a defeasible right until the purchaser acquires the deed (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340). At a third offering, ninety days (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.250).
How much interest does a Missouri redeemer pay the certificate holder?
The rate written on the certificate of purchase, which shall not exceed the sum of ten percent per annum (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290). Add eight percent per annum on subsequent taxes the purchaser paid. No interest is owing on the sum bid above the delinquent taxes and the collector's costs of sale (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340).
When do Missouri property taxes become delinquent, and when is the sale?
Taxes are payable to the collector by December 31. All real estate upon which the taxes remain unpaid on the first day of January, annually, are delinquent (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.010), and parcels on which taxes are delinquent and unpaid are subject to sale on the fourth Monday in August of each year (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150).
Does the buyer at a Missouri tax sale get my deed on the day of the sale?
Not at a first, second or third offering. After payment the collector gives the purchaser a certificate of purchase (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290), and a collector's deed follows only once the redemption period has run and the purchaser has obtained a title search and given the statutory notice (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.405, 140.420).
How Missouri collects an unpaid property tax bill
Two things govern a Missouri delinquency: one county officer and one date. The officer is the county collector, and the date is the fourth Monday in August (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150). Delinquent property taxes are taxes an owner did not pay by the state's deadline, after which penalty and interest accrue and the county can force a sale to collect them. Before any sale, the penalty is eighteen percent of each year's delinquency, capped at two percent a month where the land is redeemed before it sells (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.100). What sets this state apart is that the sale is not a single event. A parcel nobody bids on comes back the next August, and the one after that, and the redemption right riding on it is a year, then ninety days, then nothing (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340, 140.250).
A Springfield rental whose one year is counted from the August gavel
The arithmetic is easier to follow on one parcel. A Springfield rental owes about 2,480 dollars of 2024 tax, unpaid past December 31, so it is delinquent on January 1, 2025 (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.010) and starts carrying the eighteen percent penalty on each year's delinquency (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.100). More than a year delinquent by the last business day of April 2026, it reaches the Greene County Collector's list and is offered at a first offering on the fourth Monday in August, which in 2026 fell on August 24 (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150). A bidder pays 4,100 dollars against roughly 2,900 dollars of taxes, penalty and costs, and takes a certificate of purchase (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290). The absolute year then runs to August 24, 2027, while the roughly 1,200 dollars of overbid earns no interest and is claimable as surplus (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.230, 140.340).
Relevant Laws
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.010 (delinquent on January 1, and the county's option to use the court route)
Subsection 1 provides that all real estate upon which the taxes remain unpaid on the first day of January, annually, are delinquent, and the county collector shall enforce the lien of the state thereon. Subsection 2, rewritten by S.B. 973 effective August 28, 2026, lets any county elect by resolution or order of the county commission to operate under sections 141.210 to 141.810 for any parcel, as a partial opt-in county, and requires the collector to remove such parcels from any list of parcels advertised for first, second, third, or post-third sales. The former requirement that the parcel be unpaid for at least two years before that diversion was repealed.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.100 (the penalty on the delinquency itself)
Provides that each tract of land in the back tax book, in addition to the amount of tax delinquent, shall be charged with a penalty of eighteen percent of each year's delinquency, except that the penalty on lands redeemed prior to sale shall not exceed two percent per month or fractional part thereof. It also sets the per tract fees the collector and clerk receive for making and recording the delinquent land lists.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.110 (paying off the back tax book before any sale)
Provides that any person interested in or the owner of a tract in the back tax book may redeem it from the state's lien by paying the proper collector the amount of the original taxes as charged in the back tax book together with interest from the day the tax first became delinquent at the rate specified in section 140.100. It also requires any payment on real property taxes to be applied first to the oldest back delinquent taxes on that same parcel.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.120 (the county commission may compromise back taxes)
Provides that if it appears to a county commission that a tract in the back tax book is not worth the amount of taxes, interest and cost due thereon, or would not sell for that amount, the commission may compromise the taxes with the owner, and upon payment to the collector of the amount agreed upon a certificate of redemption shall issue under the seal of the commission releasing the land from the lien of the state and all taxes charged on the back tax book.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150 (the fourth Monday in August, and the notices before publication)
Subsection 1 makes all lands, lots, mineral rights and royalty interests on which taxes or special assessments are delinquent and unpaid subject to sale on the fourth Monday in August of each year. Subsection 2 provides that delinquent taxes, penalty, interest and costs may be paid to the county collector at any time before the property is sold, and requires notice to the publicly recorded owner of record by first class mail before publication, plus a certified mail notice where the assessed valuation exceeds one thousand dollars, with notice to owner and occupant if a certified notice is returned unsigned.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.160 (three year limit on starting the sale proceedings)
Provides that no proceedings for the sale of land and lots for delinquent taxes under this chapter shall be valid unless initial proceedings therefor shall be commenced within three years after delinquency of such taxes, with a carve out where an instrument returning tax exempt real estate to taxable status has not been recorded.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.170 (publication of the delinquent land list, version effective August 28, 2015)
Requires the county collector to cause a copy of the list of delinquent lands and lots to be printed in a newspaper of general circulation in the county for three consecutive weeks, one insertion weekly, the last insertion at least fifteen days prior to the fourth Monday in August, with a notice attached stating that the land will be sold at public auction in or adjacent to the courthouse on the fourth Monday in August, commencing at ten o'clock. This link is to the version effective August 28, 2015, which is the operative text: the Revisor's note on the later posted version records that it was declared unconstitutional in Byrd v. State of Missouri, 679 S.W.3d 492 (Mo. banc), which held H.B. 1606 of 2022 invalid in its entirety. The publication schedule quoted here is identical in both versions.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.190 (how the bidding works and who may bid)
Provides that on the day named in the notice the collector shall commence the sale and continue it from day to day, and that the person or land bank agency offering to pay the required sum for a tract shall be considered the purchaser. It bars a sale to anyone currently delinquent on other property taxes who does not sign an affidavit, bars bids from nonresidents unless they consent to jurisdiction and appoint a resident agent, and was reenacted by S.B. 973 effective August 28, 2026.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.240 and 140.250 (the second offering, the third offering, and the post third year sale)
Section 140.240 provides that where no person bids a sum equal to the delinquent taxes with interest, penalty and costs at the first offering, the tract shall be again offered at the next sale, and records the same for a failed second offering. Section 140.250, reenacted by S.B. 973 effective August 28, 2026, provides that after two successive years without a qualifying bid the collector shall sell to the highest bidder at the next regular tax sale subject to a minimum bid, and that there shall be a ninety-day period of redemption from such sales. Unsold parcels are then advertised or offered every thirty days, and a purchaser at any sale subsequent to the third offering shall be entitled to the immediate issuance and delivery of a collector's deed with no period of redemption from such post-third year sales, unless that purchaser elects to proceed under subsection 1 instead.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290 (the certificate of purchase and the ten percent ceiling on its rate)
Provides that after payment the collector shall give the purchaser a certificate of purchase describing the land, the tax, penalty, interest and costs, the years of delinquency and the sum bid, and that the certificate shall contain the true date of the sale, the time when the purchaser will be entitled to a deed if not redeemed, and the rate of interest the certificate shall bear, which rate of interest shall not exceed the sum of ten percent per annum. Any bid in excess of the taxes, penalty, interest and costs is noted in a separate column.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.310 (possession after one year, homesteads excepted)
Provides that the purchaser of a tract at a sale for delinquent taxes, homesteads excepted, shall at any time after one year from the date of sale be entitled to immediate possession during the redemption period unless sooner redeemed, and that an owner or occupant may retain possession by a written assignment of or agreement to pay rent sufficient to discharge the purchaser's bid with interest. Rent collected operates as a payment on the certificate.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340 (redemption, the one year absolute right, and what redeeming costs)
Provides that on paying the reasonable and customary costs of sale to the county collector, the owner, lienholder, occupant or any other person having an interest has the absolute right to redeem at any time during the one year next ensuing and a defeasible right until the purchaser acquires the deed, when the right expires. Subsection 2 itemises the costs: the purchase money named in the certificate, the costs of the sale, the cost to record the certificate and to record its release, the reasonable and customary cost of the title search and the postage of the statutory notices, interest at the rate specified in the certificate not to exceed ten percent annually, no interest on any sum bid in excess of the delinquent taxes plus the collector's costs, and subsequent taxes paid by the purchaser with interest at eight percent per annum. Subsection 5 leaves the figure to the collector.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.350 (five years for minors and incapacitated or disabled owners)
Provides that minors and incapacitated and disabled persons as defined in chapter 475 may redeem any lands belonging to them sold for taxes within five years of the date of the last payment of taxes encumbering the real estate by the minor, incapacitated or disabled person, the party's predecessors in interest, or any representative of such person, in the same manner as section 140.340 provides for other persons.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.360 (improvements the purchaser made)
Provides that where lasting and valuable improvements have been made by the purchaser at a tax sale, or by anyone claiming under the purchaser, the premises shall not be restored to the person redeeming until the value of those improvements has been paid or tendered, with the value fixed as in proceedings for the relief of occupying claimants if the parties cannot agree, and that no compensation is allowed for improvements made before the expiration of one year from the date of sale.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.405 (the purchaser's title search and ninety day notice of the right to redeem)
Requires a purchaser to obtain a title search report and, at least ninety days before the date the purchaser is authorized to acquire the deed, to notify the owner of record and every holder of a publicly recorded unreleased deed of trust, mortgage, lease, lien, judgment or other recorded claim of the right to redeem, by both first class and certified mail. Subsection 6 requires a third offering purchaser to give that notice within forty-five days after the purchase, running ninety days from the postmark date. Subsection 8 provides that failure to comply results in the purchaser's loss of all interest in the real estate, and the section does not apply to post third year sales.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.410 and 140.420 (the eighteen month deed deadline, and what the deed does)
Section 140.410 requires the purchaser to pay all subsequent taxes and to cause a deed to be executed and placed on record within eighteen months from the date of sale, failing which the amount due the purchaser ceases to be a lien on the land and the collector records the cancellation of the certificate. Section 140.420, reenacted by S.B. 973 effective August 28, 2026, provides that if no person redeems before the expiration of the right to redeem the collector shall execute a conveyance vesting in the grantee an absolute estate in fee simple, and that every other right, title, interest, claim, equity of redemption and lien is barred and forever foreclosed.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.230 (the surplus from the sale and the ninety day claim window)
Requires the collector to pay any amount above the debt, taxes and costs into the county treasury, to be held for the lesser of three years or ninety days following the expiration of the redemption period. The surplus is distributed first to former lienholders of record by priority of the former liens and then to the former owners, with lien priority set as of the date of the tax sale. A claim must be filed with the county commission within ninety days after the expiration of the redemption period, in writing, referencing the lien of record, and no surplus is distributed outside a redemption until ninety days after the redemption period expired. Funds not distributed at three years become a permanent school fund of the county, and no county pays interest on the fund.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 141.230, 141.520 and 141.530 (the circuit court route and its instalment redemption contract)
Section 141.230, reenacted by S.B. 973 effective August 28, 2026, provides that the land tax collection law applies to counties that have elected to operate under sections 141.210 to 141.810, and that any county may elect to operate as a partial opt-in county, after which its collector may elect to use that law for any parcel. Section 141.520 provides that after a judgment of foreclosure there shall be a waiting period of six months before any advertisement of sheriff's sale is published, and bars redemption where the judgment finds residential property vacant for not less than six months. Section 141.530 lets any interested party redeem during that waiting period and at any time before the sheriff's sale, and lets the collector enter a written redemption contract for monthly or bimonthly instalments, not more than twelve and not beyond twenty-four months, extendable by the court to forty-eight months for an occupied homestead or certain low valued owner occupied property.
Mo. Rev. Stat. 139.053 and 139.050 (paying taxes in instalments where the county or city allows it)
Section 139.053 lets the governing body of any county, excluding township counties, provide by ordinance or order for the payment of all or any part of current real and personal property taxes, at the option of the taxpayer, on an annual, semiannual or quarterly basis, with the estimate based on the previous year's liability. Section 139.050 provides that in constitutional charter cities of seven hundred thousand inhabitants or more all current and all delinquent general, school and city taxes may be paid entirely or in instalments of at least twenty-five percent, with the delinquent taxes bearing interest at the rate provided by section 140.100.
Missouri Senate: Senate Bill 973, 2026 regular session, signed and effective August 28, 2026
The legislature's own bill page for the act that rewrote part of this chapter five months before this page was written. It records the title CCS HCS SS SCS SB 973, Current Status Signed by Governor, and Effective Date August 28, 2026. Its summary states that current law required a parcel in certain counties to have unpaid taxes for at least two years before the county could satisfy the delinquency through judicial foreclosure rather than sale at auction, and that the act repeals that two year requirement, amending sections 140.010 and 141.230. The act also repealed and reenacted sections 140.190, 140.250 and 140.420 without changing the three offering structure or the ninety day third offering redemption period.
Missouri State Tax Commission: what fees and penalties may I owe
A state agency page stating the payment deadline that starts everything else: if any taxpayer shall fail or neglect to pay to the collector his taxes by December 31, the collector is mandated to apply a penalty, citing section 139.100, with an exception for a taxpayer serving in the military and stationed away from home. The Commission's companion page on tax sale timing states that in most counties sale of delinquent properties occurs once a year in August.
Greene County Collector: tax sale questions and dates
A county collector page showing how the statute is run in practice, including that properties are offered when taxes are more than one year delinquent as of the last business day in April, that the sale is the fourth Monday of August at 10 AM at the Greene County Historic Courthouse, that the owner or any interested party has the absolute right to redeem for one year after the sale while the redemption period for third offer sales is 90 days and there is no redemption period for post third offer sales, and that April 30 is the last day to pay oldest years only before sale fees are incurred on May 1.
Regional Variances
Missouri delinquent property tax rules at a glance
Sale mechanism
A lien that becomes a deed. The collector sells the parcel at public auction on the fourth Monday in August to the highest bidder (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150, 140.190), the winner receives a certificate of purchase rather than a deed (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.290), and a collector's deed vesting an absolute estate in fee simple issues only after the redemption period and the statutory notice (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.405, 140.420). A purchaser at a sale after a failed third offering takes an immediate deed instead (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.250).
Delinquency date
January 1. Taxes are payable to the collector by December 31, and all real estate upon which the taxes remain unpaid on the first day of January, annually, are delinquent (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.010, 139.100).
Penalty before the sale
Eighteen percent of each year's delinquency charged against the tract in the back tax book, except that the penalty on land redeemed prior to sale may not exceed two percent per month or fractional part of a month (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.100). Per tract collector, clerk and recording fees are added (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.100).
Time before the sale
The parcel is offered at the August sale after it reaches the back tax book, and initial proceedings must be commenced within three years after the delinquency (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.160). County practice fixes the cutoff: the Greene County Collector offers parcels more than one year delinquent as of the last business day in April.
Redemption period and clock
Measured from the sale date, and different at each offering. First or second offering: an absolute right during the one year next ensuing plus a defeasible right until the purchaser acquires the deed (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340), bounded by the purchaser's duty to record the deed within eighteen months of the sale (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.410). Third offering: ninety days from the sale, and for a holder of a recorded claim ninety days from the postmark on the purchaser's notice (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.250, 140.405). After a third offering that drew no buyer: no period of redemption from such post third year sales (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.250). Minors and incapacitated or disabled owners: five years from the last payment of taxes (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.350).
Redeemer's charge
An annual rate written on the certificate under a statutory ceiling, not a flat penalty and not bid down at the auction. The redeemer pays the purchase money and the costs of sale together with interest at the rate specified in the certificate, not to exceed ten percent annually, and the certificate's rate itself shall not exceed the sum of ten percent per annum (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340, 140.290). Subsequent taxes the purchaser paid carry eight percent per annum, and no interest is owing on the sum bid above the delinquent taxes plus the collector's costs of sale (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340).
Other redemption costs
The costs of the sale, the cost to record the certificate of purchase and to record its release, the reasonable and customary cost of the purchaser's title search, the postage of the statutory notices, the costs incident to entry of the recital of redemption, and all subsequent taxes the purchaser paid (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340). A purchaser's notice costs are reimbursable only if incurred after March 1 following a first or second offering purchase. Lasting and valuable improvements must be paid or tendered for, with none allowed for improvements made inside the first year (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.360). The collector determines the figures, so they vary by county.
Notice to the owner
Before publication, a first class mail notice to the publicly recorded owner of record, plus a certified mail notice where the assessed valuation is greater than one thousand dollars, and mail to owner and occupant if a certified notice comes back unsigned (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150). Then publication of the delinquent land list for three consecutive weeks, the last insertion at least fifteen days before the fourth Monday in August (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.170). After the sale the purchaser carries the duty: at least ninety days notice of the right to redeem by first class and certified mail before the purchaser may acquire the deed, and within forty-five days of a third offering purchase to holders of recorded claims (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.405).
Where to redeem
The county collector. Before the sale, delinquent taxes, penalty, interest and costs may be paid to the county collector at any time before the property is sold (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.150). After the sale the redemption amount is deposited with the county collector, who mails notice of the deposit to the purchaser, which stops any further interest or penalty running to them (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.340).
Surplus proceeds
Claimable from the county commission, not from the purchaser. Any amount bid above the debt, taxes and costs is paid into the county treasury and held for the lesser of three years or ninety days following the expiration of the redemption period, going first to former lienholders of record by priority and then to the former owners. A written claim referencing the lien of record must be filed with the county commission within ninety days after the redemption period expires, and undistributed funds become a permanent county school fund at three years (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.230).
Payment plan
No single statewide instalment plan on a delinquent bill, but four routes exist. The county commission may compromise back taxes on a tract not worth the taxes, interest and costs due (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.120). A county other than a township county may allow current taxes to be paid annually, semiannually or quarterly by ordinance (Mo. Rev. Stat. 139.053). A constitutional charter city of seven hundred thousand inhabitants or more may take current and delinquent taxes in instalments of at least twenty-five percent (Mo. Rev. Stat. 139.050). In a county using the land tax collection law the collector may sign a written redemption contract of up to twelve instalments over twenty-four months, extendable by the court to forty-eight for an occupied homestead (Mo. Rev. Stat. 141.530).
The alternative court route
Any county may elect by resolution or order of the county commission to run a parcel under the land tax collection law, sections 141.210 to 141.810, and its collector then removes that parcel from any list advertised for first, second, third or post third sales (Mo. Rev. Stat. 140.010, 141.230). S.B. 973, effective August 28, 2026, repealed the former requirement that the parcel be unpaid for at least two years first. On that route the collector sues in rem, a judgment of foreclosure is entered, a six month waiting period runs during which any interested party may redeem, and the sheriff sells subject to confirmation by the court (Mo. Rev. Stat. 141.520, 141.530, 141.550).
Frequently Asked Questions
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