FOREST TAXATION IN THE UNITED STATES 155 
10 percent, if redeemed within 6 months, to 50 percent after 4 years. 
If not redeemed by the owner within 5 years, a sale at public auction 
is held by the State to wipe out all existing liens. A deed is then 
issued by the State, and the owner loses his right of redemption if all 
legal technicalities have been complied with. The State does not 
guarantee the tax deed, however, nor give the purchaser possession. 
These rights must be established in court. 
The fourth type of procedure is in use in Rhode Island,” where the 
purchaser at a tax sale is the bidder who will assume the tax, interest, 
and penalties for the least quantity of the delinquent land. The 
owner or any party with an interest must redeem within 1 year; 
otherwise the purchaser acquires a clear title if all legal requirements 
as to notification have been met.* A similar procedure is employed 
in Louisiana. 
While these four types of procedure illustrate the principal methods 
by which tax liens may be foreclosed, there are slight variations from 
one or another of these general procedures i in particular States. Thus 
in Oregon certificates may be offered for sale after a tax has been 
delinquent for 6 months, or the county may issue the certificate to 
itself. It may even dispense with the sale and assume all the liens 
itself. In Louisiana a tax sale is held 5 months after the date of 
delinquency, and any parcel not sold to a private bidder is adjudi- 
cated to the State. The owner has 1 year in which to redeem, after 
which the State’s title becomes absolute, and it may sell, lease, or 
make other use of the land. In Ohio lands delinquent for taxes are 
certified to the State, and the lien is enforced by a foreclosure sale 
after the taxes have been delinquent for 4 consecutive years.“ 
TimME oF Tax SALES 
The period allowed to elapse after a tax becomes delinquent before 
the tax sale is held varies widely among the States for which informa- 
tion is available. In Florida the law provides for a sale immediately 
after the expiration of the regular collecting period, and in Rhode 
Island the sale may be held after 3 weeks of advertising. In most 
States where tax liens are sold the period is from 3 to 6 months, though 
it is 13 months in South Dakota and 28 in Michigan. In States 
where there is no sale of tax liens but only a final foreclosure sale the 
period is much longer—being, for example, 4 years in Ohio and 5 
in California. 
PERIOD OF REDEMPTION 
The period allowed for redemption from a tax sale depends to some 
degree upon the method that can be used to enforce the lien, that is, 
whether a tax deed may be issued after the expiration of the period of 
redemption on a tax certificate or whether resort must be made to fore- 
closure proceedings. <A certificate holder may apply for a deed after 
1 year in Michigan and Louisiana; after 2 years in Maine, Mississippl, 
and South Dakota; after 3 years in Oregon and Montana; and after 
5 years in Washington. In most States, however, the certificate 
holder does not have to demand title immediately after the expiration 
42 In 1931 a special commission appointed to examine the matter of revising the collection laws recom- 
Fics ne fale of tax liens rather than of the property itself, but their recommendations were rejected by 
43 Rhode Island, General Laws, 1923, ch. 12, secs. 7 and 8. 
4 California, General Laws, 1931, Acts 8453-8454, 
