Property taxes are billed in September and are payable in two installments. The first installment is due on October 1, delinquent after November 1, and the second installment is due on March 1 of the next calendar year, delinquent after May 1st.

Delinquent property taxes accrue interest at an annual rate of 16% simple interest prorated monthly. In addition, when a property tax lien is listed for sale there are advertising fees ($5.00 or 5% whichever is greater) plus sale fees. Fees include a non-refundable/non-interest earning Tax Payer Information Fee of $5.00/10.00* as per ARS 42-18122B.

* If delinquent base tax is $600 or less, the fee is $5.00. If the delinquent base tax is more than $600, the fee is $10.00.

The Treasurer’s Office must publish the list of delinquent taxes at least once not more than three weeks before the sale but not less than two weeks. The list is published in a newspaper of general circulation and is selected by the County Board of Supervisors.

The place, date and time of the tax certificate sale. A listing of each parcel showing the parcel number, delinquent tax amount, the property owner's name, and the property's legal description. In addition, each listing includes the Assessor’s full cash value of the land, improvements and any personal property associated with the property. The parcels are consecutively numbered for reference during the sale.

The parcel list will be advertised in the Arizona Business Gazette. The publication date is January 19, 2012. You may also access the list at www.ananews.com approximately one week after the publication date.

You can find a copy of this publication beginning January 19, 2012 at any newsstand, see www.abgnews.com for locations.

The Arizona Business Gazette
P.O. Box 194
Phoenix, AZ 85001-0194
1-602-444-7312

Yes, contact the Treasurer's Office at 1-602-506-5850 if interested; the cost is $25.00 and will be available January 9, 2012.

They are a first lien on the real estate. Buyers are provided a listing of all certificates purchased.

At the public auction conducted each February. The auction is called a Tax Lien Certificate Sale.

The 2012 Tax Sale will be held Monday, February 6th.

The Tax Sale will be conducted completely on the Internet.

Bids can be submitted on the web site once the Advertised List is published on the Internet, usually in mid January. The advertised list will be divided into several batches. Bids can be withdrawn or altered at any point up to the closing of the batch on the day of the sale.

Anyone. To participate in the sale a bidder must register with the Treasurer’s office. A person must visit the office and complete a Bidder Information card. The Office requires your legal name, the name of a contact person, a valid mailing address, current phone number, email address, and Tax ID number. To obtain the card and form, you can come into our office, visit our contact page, or download the bidder form.

Beginning January 9th the registration process may be completed on the Internet via the Tax Sale Web site. A bidder number is assigned for identification purposes during the sale. Bidders are required to make a deposit via ACH Debit on the Tax Sale Web site Payments Page that is 10% of the estimated amount they intend to purchase. The Treasurer’s Office requires a minimum deposit of $500.00. The deposit may be increased any time prior to the close of the auction.

Please be careful to remember your password, as it is the key to your access to the Tax Sale Web site. If, however, you forget your password, it may be recovered easily by clicking on the "Forgot your password?" link on the Tax Sale Web site home page. When you provide your matching personal information, a new temporary password will be sent to your registered email address. This password will need to be changed after your next login.

It is the responsibility of the bidder to maintain their own accounts.

No, the bidder must conduct any research surrounding potential purchases. Utilize Parcel Inquiry to research parcel information.

Statutes are available on-line (Title 42, Chapter 18, beginning with Article 3), and at the Maricopa County Law Library, 101 W Jefferson Street, Phoenix AZ 85003, Phone 1-602-506-3461.

An auction in which bids are transmitted and received through the Internet using a computer and a web browser.

Each item is auctioned in the order listed in the publication. The bidding begins at 16% (the maximum rate) and is bid down. The "winning" bidder's number and rate of interest are recorded. Any item not bid upon is "sold" to the State.

A bidder must have a computer with Internet access and a web browser (recommended: Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher on Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000, or XP; Netscape 7.1 or higher; or Mozilla FireFox 0.8 or higher). If you do not have access to a computer, the Treasurer’s Office will supply computers for training and/or bidding by appointment. You can reach the Treasurer’s office at (602) 506-8511. Also, many public libraries and other buildings make computers available to the general public.

Users are encouraged to participate in a Self Demo, Trial Auction or a Guided Demo prior to bidding.

Self Demo- Please click the Demo button on the Tax Sale Web site Home page and follow the instructions. The instructions are designed to lead users through the auction process.

Trial Auction - Please click the Trial Auction button on the Tax Sale Web site Home page. The Trial Auction is a simulation of a real auction, in which bidders practice bidding and, subsequently, viewing auction results. Guided Demo - Please contact Auction Support to receive a Guided Demo (which is available only after user completes the Self Demo). Auction Support will guide the user through the auction process on the website over the phone at 800-410-3445 x1.

A Batch is an auction subgroup of the Advertised List that serves as a means of organizing tax certificates for the purpose of facilitating bid submission. Each tax certificate in each Batch is auctioned independently of every other tax certificate and arranged in sequential order with a unique auction closing time for each Batch.

In a live auction, a bidder will lower his bid by one percent increments until he is the only bidder left or until the interest goes below his acceptable minimum level, at which point he would drop out. Proxy bidding is a form of competitive sale in which bidders enter the minimum interest rate that they are willing to accept for each certificate. The auction system acts as an electronic agent, submitting bids on behalf of each bidder. The result of the proxy system is that the electronic agent keeps lowering the bid to submit by one percent increments until you are either the only bidder left, (in which case you get the certificate at one percent lower than the previous bid) or until you reach the floor you have set. Zero percent bids will not be treated as proxy bids. They will be awarded at zero.

If you are the only bidder on a given certificate and your minimum rate is greater than zero percent, the electronic agent will submit a bid of 16% on your behalf.

In the case of a tie at the winning bid rate, the system awards to one of the tie bidders through a random selection process using a random number generator.

In no case will a bidder be awarded a certificate at a rate lower than his specified minimum acceptable rate.

Certificates that receive no bids will be "struck to the state" at 16%.

Bidders will receive an email invoice on February 6, 2012 indicating the total amount due, if any. All payments must be made via ACH Debit on the Payments Page of the Tax Sale Web site by no later than 5:00 p.m. on February 6, 2012. Failure to pay by that date results in the forfeiture of the deposit and makes the certificates available for re-sale.

An ACH debit is an electronic funds transfer from your bank account, initiated by the Treasurer with your prior authorization. Debits entered on the Payments Page of the web site will be submitted immediately for processing. Funds must be drawn from a US financial institution. Some types of money market, brokerage, and/or trust accounts cannot accept ACH debits. Please check with your financial institution prior to initiating payment on the web site. For more information on ACH, please visit the NACHA, the Electronic Payments Association at www.nacha.org.

Refund of unused monies to your account will take about 2 weeks to complete. Refunds are issued via ACH debit by the Treasurer 7 to 10 business days after the auction date. You will be notified about your refund by email.

The Treasurer remits the principal (face amount of certificate) and the interest earnings if the property taxes are paid by the owner or an agent.

If a certificate should be cancelled or reduced, the interest earned will be 10% per year, simple interest or the rate of interest bid at the tax certificate sale, whichever is less on the cancelled or reduced amount. Bankruptcy rulings may also affect interest rates.

To correct errors, omissions, or double assessments and when ordered by a court.

If not redeemed, a CP may be transferred by affidavit to another person who has a Bidder Identification Card on file with the Treasurer's Office.

There is a $10.00 transfer fee.

The Treasurer's Office must be notified of the transfer for it to be valid. The Treasurer pays the redeemed taxes to the last CP holder on record.

State held tax certificates, may be acquired by individuals after the close of the tax sale. The Treasurer’s Office will announce the date(s) these certificates become available on the main page of our website.

Certificates are dated as of the date the sale was made. Ten years later, if the purchaser has taken no additional action to foreclose the tax lien, the lien expires and is voided. No payments will be made to the purchaser. A purchaser may initiate a Judicial Foreclosure action after three years from the initial sale date.

Any certificate holder including the County may file an “Action to Foreclose” in the Superior Court of Maricopa County three years from the date of the sale.

The STATE CP REPORT will be available for public viewing in our customer service area or you can purchase a CD containing this list for $50.00 after the sale.

To be announced at a later date. These purchases will have additional fees included that are non-interest earning and non-refundable.

The Office is PAPERLESS; this means Certificates are no longer printed. At the end of the sale, you will receive an itemized listing of the certificates you purchased including their costs, via email from Bid Maricopa. Additionally, the Maricopa County Treasurer's Office provides monthly activity reports on your Tax Lien web online account. Finally, your annual outstanding portfolio statement will be available on your Tax Lien web online account at the end of the first week of March.

Monthly Activity statements will be sent out the third business day of each month to ONLY those buyers that have activity in that month. For those paperless buyers, the Office will process the refund check the same day or following business day. If multiple redemptions occur in the same day, a person may receive one check for various liens. The stub will be itemized with the parcel, CP and dollar amount per lien. The Office has the capability to include 11 redemption amounts per check.