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Boone County tax sales, Kentucky

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Boone County runs a paper driven lottery sale out of Burlington, and its clerk published the fullest small county packet in this set. The 2025 certificates were sold on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. at the Burlington office, after a drawing of order on Friday, July 31, 2026. Registration, fees, notarized affidavit, priority lists and lottery lists all had to reach the clerk between July 21 and July 28, 2026, with lists showing August 2026 payoff amounts and sent to the clerk delinquent tax email. The money rules are explicit and are the trap for a careless buyer: priority lists travel with 100 percent of the funds in certified funds, lottery lists with 25 percent, and any remaining balance was due on the sale day itself, when company checks were accepted. Bills are sold one at a time in priority order, not in lots, whatever the statewide regulation lot tables suggest for other counties.

Selling office: Boone County Clerk (Justin Crigler), Burlington Office, Real Estate Department, 2950 East Washington Street, Burlington, KY 41005. Mail: P.O. Box 874, Burlington, KY 41005

Next sale: Tue Aug 4, 2026, 9:00 AM: the 2026 delinquent tax lottery sale, Boone County Clerk Burlington Office, Real Estate Department, 2950 East Washington Street, Burlington (held). The drawing of order was held Friday, July 31, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in the Real Estate Department Records Room at the Burlington office. No 2027 Boone sale date is published as of November 9, 2026.

As of November 9, 2026, the 2026 Boone County lottery sale has been held (Tuesday, August 4, 2026). No 2027 sale date, registration window, drawing date, or list date is published for Boone County. The 2026 pattern, list at the end of June, registration in the last full week of July, drawing the Friday before the sale, is a pattern from one published cycle, not a published 2027 schedule.

Dates and deadlines

Next sale	Tue Aug 4, 2026, 9:00 AM: the 2026 delinquent tax lottery sale, Boone County Clerk Burlington Office, Real Estate Department, 2950 East Washington Street, Burlington (held)
Seller	The Boone County Clerk, Justin Crigler, sells the certificates through the Burlington Office Real Estate Department, 2950 East Washington Street, Burlington, KY 41005. Delinquent tax lists are submitted by email to boonecounty.dtax@ky.gov.
2026 sale	Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 9:00 a.m., a delinquent tax lottery sale for 2025 bills at the Burlington office. The drawing of order was held Friday, July 31, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in the Real Estate Department Records Room. Bills are sold individually, not in lots: the first entity in the drawn order is assigned the first bill on its list, the next entity the first bill remaining on its list, and so on.
Registration	Registration with the Boone County Clerk ran from Tuesday, July 21, 2026 to Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.; all forms, fees, and bill lists had to be received at the Burlington office by July 28, 2026, and lists had to reflect August 2026 payoff amounts. Registration required the signed registration form, a notarized affidavit that the purchaser is not related to another participant, and a copy of the Department of Revenue registration certificate where required. Non refundable fee: $10.00 per bill for the lottery sale or $5.00 per bill for the priority sale, maximum $250.00, by certified funds.
The list	The list of 2025 delinquent property tax bills was published in The Link NKY on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, and was also published on the clerk website and updated weekly for review. Parcel count: NOT PUBLISHED. No count of bills offered appears in the clerk sale packet read.
Leftover channel	County specific leftover practice: NOT PUBLISHED in the Boone clerk sale packet read. The packet states no after sale list, no standing available bills list, and no leftover procedure. The verified statewide channel in the Department of Revenue guide is purchase of remaining certificates at any time after the sale, with a $10.00 per bill registration fee until the $250.00 maximum is reached.
Format	Delinquent tax lottery sale for 2025 tax bills, at the Burlington office, with a separate priority sale for holders of prior year certificates. Bills are sold individually, not in lots, in the order drawn: No online auction platform. Lists are submitted electronically by email to the clerk delinquent tax address on the clerk Priority and Lottery Bill Submission Templates, and the drawing of order was held in person at the Burlington office, with a viewing link or emailed order offered by the Real Estate Department
Selling office	Boone County Clerk (Justin Crigler), Burlington Office, Real Estate Department, 2950 East Washington Street, Burlington, KY 41005. Mail: P.O. Box 874, Burlington, KY 41005

Sources: Boone County Clerk, Boone County 2025 Delinquent Tax Bill Sale Details. Kentucky Department of Revenue, County Clerk Delinquent Property Tax Sale Dates 2026. Kentucky Department of Revenue, Third Party Purchaser. Kentucky Department of Revenue, Basic Information About Buying and Collecting on Certificates of Delinquency, October 2024. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Kentucky County Formation Chart, county seats. 103 KAR 5:180, Procedures for sale of certificates of delinquency by county clerks. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and parcels are pulled up to sale day.

Research Boone County parcels before you bid

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How Kentucky certificate of delinquency sales work

Kentucky sells certificates of delinquency, never land, and the sheriff to clerk handoff is where the certificate is born. Taxes carry the KRS 134.015 ladder: a 2 percent discount by November 1 of the assessment year, face amount to December 31, a 5 percent penalty through January, and a 10 percent penalty after January 31. The sheriff collects until April 15. Unpaid claims are then filed with the county clerk and become certificates of delinquency owned by the taxing jurisdictions (KRS 134.122), with the Department of Revenue responsible for collection and usually contracting it to the county attorney, who must send the owner a first notice within 30 days (KRS 134.504). The certificate base is the face tax plus the 10 percent penalty plus the sheriff commission (KRS 134.119(6)) plus the 10 percent sheriff add on (KRS 134.119(7)).
The clerk holds one annual sale, on the Department's schedule, inside a statutory window. The sale runs not earlier than 90 nor later than 135 days after the claims transfer (KRS 134.128), and the date is not the clerk's free choice: the Department of Revenue sets the preliminary statewide schedule under 103 KAR 5:180, and a clerk may only request a change, at the Department's discretion. In the 2026 season, sales of 2025 bills ran from Tuesday, July 14, 2026 (Pendleton, the first statutory day) to Thursday, October 22, 2026. The clerks deliver the master list of certificates to the Department by May 15 and the Department publishes the consolidated list by June 1 (KRS 134.131). Dates moved between the April and September versions of the 2026 statewide list, so an early list is a draft, never a final calendar.
There is no auction and no bidding, of price or of rate. A buyer files lists of the certificates it wants and pays the full amount due on the day. Bidding a rate down, the mechanic most lien summaries describe, does not exist in Kentucky, because the rate is fixed by statute and the price is fixed by arithmetic. What looks like an auction calendar entry is in fact an allocation event, and preparing for it means preparing lists, deposits, and registration, not a bidding strategy.
The amount due is a stack of statutory charges, and the Department's own example shows how fast it grows. On top of the certificate base, the buyer pays interest at 12 percent (below), a 10 percent county clerk fee (KRS 134.126(9)), a 20 percent county attorney fee, 1 dollar per county attorney notice, a 5 dollar advertising fee, the allocated cost of advertising the list, and the recording fees of KRS 64.012. The Department of Revenue's worked example turns a 1,000 dollar face bill into 1,254.00 dollars when the certificate is created and 1,704.21 dollars by the day of the sale. A buyer underwriting only the face tax and interest has missed roughly two fifths of the ticket.
Allocation runs in two steps: priority first, then the drawing. A priority certificate is a current certificate on a parcel where the purchaser already holds a prior year certificate; priority claims are allocated before anything else, and when two purchasers claim the same priority certificate, the holder of the most recent prior year wins, by seniority and not by lot (KRS 134.128(2)(d)4). The remaining certificates are chosen in size tiered lots in an order set by a random drawing the clerk runs on the sale day (103 KAR 5:180, Section 6). Counties call the event a lottery sale, and Jefferson County's own procedures are titled that way; the drawing sets the order of choosing, and the Department writes the rules and audits the sale but does not run it.
The 12 percent rate is real, and almost every description of it is wrong in the mechanics. Interest is simple, 12 percent per annum, charged monthly with a fraction of a month counting as a full month, on the statutory base before purchase and on the amount the purchaser actually paid after purchase (KRS 134.125). It is not compound, it is never bid down, and it does not run on the purchaser's later fees (KRS 134.452). The owner's cost of waiting is therefore steep and lumpy: a payment made one day into a new month owes that whole month.
The owner can pay at any time, and there is no fixed redemption window to wait out. Before a third party purchase the owner pays the clerk (KRS 134.127(1)(a)); after a purchase the owner pays the purchaser, who must release the lien under KRS 382.365, and if the purchaser cannot be located the owner may pay the full amount into escrow at the clerk and take the release there (KRS 134.127(3)). A registered purchaser must offer a monthly installment plan on written request, with a processing fee capped at 8 dollars per month (KRS 134.490(5)), and the purchaser's own added fees are capped by KRS 134.452: prelitigation tiers at 350, 560, and 700 dollars, and 115 dollars on an assignment. Any guide that prices a Kentucky certificate on uncapped purchaser fees is pricing charges the statute forbids.
Foreclosure is a circuit court action, and its one year clock is not anchored to your purchase. Under KRS 134.546 the holder sues in circuit court and the property is sold through the master commissioner, in rem, in personam, or both, after the 45 day pre-action notice of KRS 134.490(2). The one year in KRS 134.546(1) runs from the date the taxes became delinquent, January 1 of the year after the assessment year. For the 2026 season's 2025 bills that date is January 1, 2027, only about three to six months after the July to October 2026 sales, not a year after them. The certificate lien is prior and superior to any other obligation and lives eleven years (KRS 134.420). If the foreclosure sale brings less than two thirds of the appraised value (KRS 426.520), the owner may redeem within six months at the purchase money plus 10 percent plus qualifying post sale costs (KRS 426.530, incorporated by KRS 134.546(5)); at or above two thirds there is no redemption. If nobody buys, the master commissioner deeds to the certificate owners pro rata. Chapter 134 gives that deed no clean title guarantee, unlike the separate city procedure in KRS 91.514, so title is a case level question, and certificates nobody bought at the clerk's sale simply stay at the clerk, purchasable afterward under KRS 134.128(6); nothing is struck off to the county or the state.

How buying works in Boone County

Boone County Clerk registration period Tuesday, July 21, 2026 through Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at 4:00 p.m., in person or by mail to P.O. Box 874, Burlington, KY 41005, with lists submitted electronically to boonecounty.dtax@ky.gov. Purchasers planning 5 or more bills statewide, 3 or more in any one county, or $10,000 or more statewide must also be registered with the Department of Revenue, and a copy of that certificate goes to the clerk.

Prepare lists, not bids. Kentucky allocates by list and drawing, so the competitive work happens weeks before the sale: choosing parcels, splitting them between your priority list (certificates on parcels where you already hold a prior year) and your current list, and funding two different deposits against them. A purchaser who arrives ready to bid has prepared for a sale Kentucky does not hold.
Priority is the only structural edge, and it compounds. A certificate you hold this year makes next year's certificate on the same parcel your priority claim, allocated before the drawing and defended by seniority of the most recent prior year. The rational Kentucky portfolio is therefore built in layers on the same parcels over successive years, which is also why casual one year buyers find the best parcels already spoken for.
The drawing rewards breadth within the tiers. Current certificates are chosen in size tiered lots in a randomly drawn order, so a list's depth inside each tier is what converts a good draw into good certificates. Thin lists waste early picks on leftovers; the deposit rule (25 percent of current value) is what makes a deep list affordable, and it is the real budget constraint, not the full price.
Underwrite the full ticket, not the face. The amount due at purchase is roughly 1.7 times the face tax in the Department's own example, and your 12 percent runs on what you actually paid. Models built on face tax alone understate the capital per certificate and overstate the yield on it; models built on the full ticket, with the KRS 134.452 fee caps, are the ones that survive contact with the clerk's list.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Deposit, Boone County	Priority sale: 100 percent of the funds to cover the list, certified funds only, submitted with the list between July 21 and July 28, 2026. Lottery sale, for purchasers without prior year certificates: 25 percent of the total of the entire list, certified funds only, submitted with the registration and list in the same window. All deposits by certified funds made payable to the Boone County Clerk.
Payment, Boone County	Any remaining balance was due on the day of the tax sale, August 4, 2026, once the bills were sold; company checks were accepted for that sale day balance. Deposits and registration fees were certified funds only. Amounts were based on the current amount due at the time of payment, using August 2026 payoff amounts on the lists.
What is sold	Certificates of delinquency only: the tax claim itself, owned by the taxing jurisdictions from the April 15 transfer (KRS 134.122) and sold by the county clerk at one annual sale 90 to 135 days later (KRS 134.128). No land, no deed, and no possession changes hands at the clerk's sale.
The price	The full amount due on the purchase day, set by arithmetic, never by bidding: the certificate base (face tax, 10 percent penalty, sheriff commission, 10 percent sheriff add on), plus interest to the day, plus a 10 percent clerk fee (KRS 134.126(9)), a 20 percent county attorney fee, 1 dollar per county attorney notice, a 5 dollar advertising fee, the allocated advertising cost, and KRS 64.012 recording fees. The Department of Revenue's worked example: a 1,000 dollar bill is 1,254.00 dollars at creation and 1,704.21 dollars at the sale.
Interest	Simple interest at 12 percent per annum, charged monthly, a fraction of a month counting as a full month, on the statutory base before purchase and on the amount actually paid after purchase (KRS 134.125). The rate is fixed by statute. It is not compound, never bid down, and not charged on the purchaser's own fees.
How certificates are allocated	Priority certificates (a current certificate on a parcel where you already hold a prior year certificate) are allocated first, conflicts resolved for the holder of the most recent prior year (KRS 134.128(2)(d)4). All other certificates are chosen in size tiered lots in an order set by a random drawing the clerk runs on the sale day (103 KAR 5:180, Section 6). There is no price or rate bidding at any step.
Registration, state layer	State registration (KRS 134.129; 103 KAR 5:190) is triggered only above 5 certificates statewide, 3 in one county, or 10,000 dollars statewide: a 250 dollar nonrefundable notarized application, filed at least 60 days before the triggering purchase, expiring December 31. A small buyer under all three thresholds owes no state registration at all, whatever a summary says.
Registration and deposit, clerk layer	Every participant registers with each county clerk, every year. Registration fees run 5 dollars per priority certificate and 10 dollars per current certificate, capped at 250 dollars. The deposit is 100 percent of the priority certificate value plus clerk fees, and 25 percent of the current certificate value, with any balance due within ten business days (103 KAR 5:180, Sections 3 and 4). The deposit is not the 250 dollar figure secondary sources repeat; that is the capped fee total and the separate state application fee.
The owner's payoff	The owner may pay the amount due at any time, to the clerk before a third party purchase and to the purchaser afterward, with a mandatory lien release under KRS 382.365 and a full escrow fallback at the clerk if the purchaser cannot be located (KRS 134.127(1) and (3)). There is no fixed redemption period to expire; the lien is live until paid or foreclosed.
Purchaser fees are capped	KRS 134.452 caps what a purchaser may add: prelitigation fee tiers capped at 350, 560, and 700 dollars, an assignment fee cap of 115 dollars, and an installment plan processing fee of no more than 8 dollars per month where a plan is required (KRS 134.490(5)). Interest does not run on purchaser fees.
The route to the land	Foreclosure under KRS 134.546 in circuit court, sold by the master commissioner, available once one year has run from the delinquency date (January 1 after the assessment year), not from purchase, after the 45 day notice of KRS 134.490(2). The lien is prior and superior to any other obligation and lives eleven years (KRS 134.420). A foreclosure sale below two thirds of appraised value leaves the owner a six month redemption at purchase money plus 10 percent (KRS 426.530); Chapter 134 gives the deed no clean title guarantee.
The leftover channel	Certificates nobody buys stay owned by the taxing jurisdictions at the county clerk and may be purchased at any time after the sale, with current registration (KRS 134.128(6)). Certificates created too late for the sale wait for the next annual sale (KRS 134.128(7)). Nothing is struck off, and there is no state inventory to buy from.

What happens to certificates that do not sell in Boone County

The Boone County clerk sale packet publishes no leftover channel, no after sale available list, and no remaining count, so Boone specific leftover practice is NOT PUBLISHED. The verified statewide rule, from the Department of Revenue guide, is that after the tax sale in a county has been completed, any remaining certificates of delinquency may be purchased at any time by any third party purchaser who meets the state registration requirements, with a registration fee of $10.00 per certificate paid to the county clerk until the $250.00 maximum is reached. For Boone County that purchase runs through the Burlington Real Estate Department; no Boone inventory list for it is published in the sources read.

Before you bid

Confirm which statewide list version you are reading. The 2026 sale dates moved between the Department's April list and its September update, and individual county dates moved with them. Work from the clerk's own sale notice for the county in front of you, and treat any statewide calendar printed early in the year as a draft.
Register in both layers, on the regulation's clocks. State registration, where triggered, is a notarized application filed at least 60 days ahead with a 250 dollar fee, expiring December 31. Clerk registration runs on its own county deadlines inside 103 KAR 5:180, and the deposit split (100 percent priority, 25 percent current) must be funded in the form the clerk requires. Missing either layer ends the purchase before the drawing starts.
Price the one year foreclosure anchor correctly. For 2025 bills the KRS 134.546 year runs out on January 1, 2027, months after the sale, not a year after it. Your holding period to a foreclosure filing is shorter than the summaries say, and so is the interest you collect before it; both directions belong in the parcel model.
Set the maximum before the sale opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your exit value to the highest amount you can pay, with the costs shown. In Kentucky the maximum applies per certificate against the full statutory ticket, clerk fee, county attorney fee, advertising, and recording included, not against the face tax on the list.

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