Land · Indiana tax sale guide

Indiana tax lien sales by county

Verified

Indiana sells a certificate, and the certificate pays fixed percentages set by statute. Each fall the county treasurer auctions the tax lien on delinquent parcels: bidding opens at the minimum bid, the delinquent taxes, penalties and sale costs, and anything bid above that amount goes into the county tax sale surplus fund. If the owner redeems, the purchaser is repaid 110 percent of the minimum bid inside six months or 115 percent inside the year, plus the overbid and later taxes at 5 percent a year. An Indiana bid is really a decision about how much money to put into the 5 percent bucket in order to own the 110 or 115 percent bucket.

This page set covers the top 20 Indiana counties by population and sale volume. Each county page carries who sells, the 2026 sale status and date, the platform, registration and deposit rules, and the commissioners certificate sale that later offers the parcels nobody bought, verified against county and statute sources. Timing is the first fact: Indiana's season is September and October, and every dated 2026 sale in this set had already run when these pages were checked, so this set is the verified record of the 2026 season and the working map for 2027. The second fact is the parcel nobody expects: a property on the county vacant and abandoned list sells with no right of redemption at all, and the list a parcel was sold from changes what the winning bid actually bought.

Verify before you go: counties can move a date, change terms, cancel a sale, or pull parcels at any time. The official sale list is the final word.

The 20 counties

Each row links to that county's own page: selling office, venue or platform, deposit, payment terms, leftover channel, and sources. Where a county has not posted a dated sale, the row says so instead of projecting a pattern onto it.

How Indiana tax lien sales work

• Unpaid taxes become a lien, and the treasurer certifies the list. A parcel becomes eligible when taxes or special assessments from the prior year spring installment or before are delinquent. Under IC 6-1.1-24-1 the county treasurer certifies the delinquent list to the county auditor on or after January 1 of the sale year and not later than fifty one days after the first tax payment due date in that year, and the auditor and treasurer then apply for a court judgment and order for sale.
• The treasurer sells, and the auditor keeps the record. Under IC 6-1.1-24-5(e) the county treasurer sells the parcel at public auction to the highest bidder, subject to the right of redemption, and under IC 6-1.1-24-5(g) the county auditor serves as clerk of the sale. The treasurer may run the sale by electronic means under IC 6-1.1-24-5(i), and most counties in this set sell online in the fall through SRI Incorporated on ZeusAuction. Marion County is the exception in this set: it sells on GovEase.
• Bidding opens at the minimum bid, and the overbid leaves the deal. The minimum bid under IC 6-1.1-24-5(e) is the delinquent taxes and special assessments, the taxes and assessments due in the year of sale, penalties, sale costs, and any unpaid costs from a prior sale. The purchaser pays the full bid immediately to the treasurer under IC 6-1.1-24-7; the minimum bid portion is applied to the taxes and costs, and anything paid above it goes to the tax sale surplus fund.
• Redemption pays fixed percentages, not a bid rate. Under IC 6-1.1-25-2 the redeemer pays 110 percent of the minimum bid if the parcel is redeemed within six months of the sale, or 115 percent if it is redeemed after six months and within the year, plus the overbid itself with interest at 5 percent per year, plus later taxes the purchaser paid with interest at 5 percent per year, plus the notice and title costs the statute allows. Nothing in Indiana is bid down or bid up: the percentages are the same in every county.
• Some parcels sell with no redemption at all, and unsold certificates go to the commissioners. A parcel on the county vacant and abandoned list under IC 6-1.1-24-1.5 has no right of redemption after its sale. For an ordinary parcel the deed is earned on deadlines: the notice under IC 6-1.1-25-4.5 within six months, and the petition for a tax deed under IC 6-1.1-25-4.6 within three months after the redemption year expires. Parcels nobody bids on pass to the county executive under IC 6-1.1-24-6 and are offered again at a commissioners certificate sale under IC 6-1.1-24-6.1, at a price below the original minimum bid, with a redemption period of only 120 days.

One Indiana fact decides most bids: the return is capped at both ends by statute. Redemption pays at most 115 percent of the minimum bid, and only 5 percent a year on the overbid and on later taxes, so a contested parcel bid well above its minimum returns close to 5 percent even in the best redemption case. The money in Indiana is made at or near the minimum bid, on parcels other bidders pass over, by buyers who never miss the six month notice deadline and the three month petition window that turn a certificate into a deed.

Research the parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcel, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across the country, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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Get the alert, not just the calendar.

The dates on these pages are the free layer. The Pine membership is the paid layer, proven in New York: members pick their counties, get alerts when a sale is scheduled or a list posts, and receive the full property list with the analysis already done. Indiana counties open from the interest list first, in the order readers join it.

Keep going

Once a deadline puts you in a sale, the Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit is the checklist and bid worksheet to run on each parcel before you bid.