Arkansas · Law checked October 19, 2026

Arkansas tax sale: your deadline, your office, your money

Behind on property taxes in Arkansas? Your house can be sold at a tax sale — here's how much time you have to stop it. Your house was sold at a tax sale in Arkansas? The extra money from the sale may be yours to claim — and there's a deadline. Both answers are on this page, from the statute.

Count my Arkansas deadline

How Arkansas sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Arkansas runs until the deed is issued — Any time before the state sale — until 4:00 p.m. on the last business day before the sale date. Land reaches a sale only after about a year with the county and at least 2 more years with the Commissioner, so the runway is long, but the sale itself is final. Being double-checked

What it costs to redeem: All taxes + penalties (including the 10% delinquency penalty) + interest + fees and costs, in full, when the redemption petition is received.

Source: Ark. Code §26-37-202; §26-37-310

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No installment plan for delinquent taxes at the state level — the Commissioner requires the full amount. Partial payments on current taxes are a county matter, before delinquency.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found. (The 65+/disabled homestead assessment freeze under Amendment 79 caps future increases; it does not defer taxes owed.)

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Commissioner of State Lands.

Your claim window: Excess proceeds from the sale are held in escrow for 2 years. The Commissioner's claim process opens after a 1-year hold following the deed — file the claim inside the 2-year escrow window. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: After 2 years in escrow, undistributed money goes to the county where the land sits, and money past that date is no longer recoverable by the former owner.

Source: Ark. Code §26-37-205

The county figure rule. This page gives you the law — the window, the formula, the office. The exact payoff or surplus figure lives in the Commissioner of State Lands's books and changes as interest runs. Ask that office for the figure, in writing, and keep the letter.

Included in the $49 TaxSaleDecoded Kit

  • The surplus claim pack: how to prove the house was yours (deed records, address history, ID), the claim-form path in your state, and what to do when the county says it has no record of your money
  • The redemption playbook: your state's window and cost formula worked step by step, who to pay, how to prove you paid, and the traps in the payoff figure (added fees and interest)
  • The heirs page: the house was a parent's — what changes, which papers prove you are an heir, and the point where it stops being simple
  • The scam shield: how surplus-recovery companies work, the fee caps your state sets for them, and the assignment papers you should never sign
  • The lookback module: what Tyler won, what Pung limited (the extra money is the sale price minus the debt — not your home's value), and the dated state lookbacks, including Illinois claims that die in July 2028

Get the TaxSaleDecoded Kit — $49

One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the claim pack, the redemption playbook, the heirs page, and the scam shield.

All 50 states · The surplus, explained · Redemption, explained