Sale held Monday, August 24, 2026

Missouri county collectors sell tax certificates (not deeds) at a public auction held at the county courthouse on the fourth Monday in August. At a first, second, or third offering the bidding starts at the amount of delinquent taxes, penalties, interest, and costs, and the property is sold to the person (a Missouri resident, or a nonresident who appoints an in-county agent) who offers to pay that required sum; a delinquent taxpayer is not barred if they sign the disclosure affidavit. The purchaser must pay immediately at the sale, receives a recorded certificate of purchase bearing interest up to ten percent per annum, and the owner has one year to redeem. The statutes do not set a bidder registration process, a deposit, or a payment method, so those fields are unknown; counties commonly add their own registration or bidding-number rules. A 2022 amendment (H.B. 1606) that would have let the collector conduct the auction by electronic media was declared unconstitutional in Byrd v. State (2023) and the 2015 version of 140.170 governs, so the state sale format is in person.