What Marion County Homeowners Behind on Property Taxes Need to Do Before November 10
The penalty clock starts the day after the deadline. Before it does, delinquent homeowners still have real options: payment plans, hardship programs, and a specific window to act.
The penalty clock starts the day after the deadline. Before it does, delinquent homeowners still have real options: payment plans, hardship programs, and a specific window to act.
If you can’t pay your Marion County property taxes by November 10, the worst thing you can do is nothing. The second-worst is assuming you have more time than you do.
The fall installment deadline is November 10, 2024. After that date, Indiana law attaches a penalty automatically. No notice required. No grace period. No exception for a bad month. The penalty is a fixed percentage of what you owe, and it grows. But here’s what most homeowners in Marion County don’t realize: the path from a missed November payment to an actual tax sale is roughly ten to eleven months long, and the intervention window—payment plans, hardship programs, counseling—is widest right now, before the machinery starts moving.
This piece covers that window. It answers the questions the Marion County Treasurer’s office fields every October: What exactly does the penalty cost? How do I get on a payment plan? Will I lose my house? Who can help me? The answers are more specific and more actionable than most homeowners expect.
The Deadline, the Date, and One Possible Extra Day
The Marion County fall property tax installment is due November 10. This is the standard second-installment deadline under Indiana law, and it applies countywide regardless of property type, neighborhood, or assessed value.
November 10, 2024 falls on a Sunday. Under standard Indiana practice, when a statutory deadline falls on a weekend or legal holiday, it typically shifts to the next business day—Monday, November 11, 2024. But November 11 is Veterans Day, a federal holiday. That could push the effective deadline to Tuesday, November 12.
Do not assume you have until November 12 without confirming it. Call the Marion County Treasurer’s office directly (number in the resource box at the bottom of this article) or check the official Marion County property tax portal. The Treasurer’s office will post any official deadline extension. If you’re counting on two extra days and you’re wrong, you’ll owe a penalty on a balance that didn’t have to be late. Set your target as November 10. Treat anything beyond that as a bonus.
Exactly What the Penalty Costs You
Indiana Code § 6-1.1-37-10 governs the penalty structure for late property tax payments. The penalty has multiple layers, and they stack.
On the first day after the deadline—November 11, or whatever the confirmed hard deadline turns out to be—a penalty equal to 5% of the unpaid installment attaches to your account automatically. This is not discretionary. It’s not waivable. It’s not tied to anyone’s notice or approval. It happens.
If the tax remains unpaid more than 30 days past the deadline, the penalty rate increases from 5% to 10% of the unpaid balance. You don’t get two separate penalty charges; the 5% is absorbed into the 10%. But delay past the first month makes your situation meaningfully more expensive. That’s not a technicality—it’s real money.
Separately from the penalty, Indiana law charges 1% per month on the delinquent balance. This accrues on top of the penalty. It’s not charged once—it runs every month the balance remains unpaid. A $1,200 installment unpaid for two weeks costs you $60 in penalty plus $12 in that first month’s interest, for a total of $1,272. If you still haven’t paid at day 31, the penalty is now $120 (10%), and the second month’s interest is another $12. At that point you owe $1,332, not counting administrative fees that may apply. By month three, you’re at $1,344, and the gap keeps widening.
For a homeowner with a higher assessed value—say, a $3,600 installment—the 10% penalty alone is $360, and interest is running at $36 a month. These numbers accumulate faster than most people expect when they first miss a payment. I’ve seen homeowners genuinely shocked when they find out what a six-month delay actually costs them. It’s not catastrophic in isolation, but it’s real money leaving your pocket for nothing.
Partial payments do not stop penalty accrual on the remaining balance. If you owe $1,200 and pay $600, the 5% penalty still attaches to the remaining $600 you haven’t paid. Paying something is better than paying nothing—it reduces the base on which penalties and interest calculate—but it doesn’t reset the clock or protect the unpaid portion from additional charges. This is a widely misunderstood point, and it matters when you’re deciding whether to pay what you can or hold everything until you can pay in full.
Missing One Installment Does Not Put Your House on the Auction List
Every year, some Marion County homeowners who miss the November deadline assume the worst and do nothing, because they believe the damage is already done. That assumption is wrong. It’s also expensive.
Missing the November 10 installment does not make your property immediately eligible for tax sale. It doesn’t trigger any kind of automatic foreclosure. What it does is start a sequence that, if you let it run uninterrupted, eventually leads to a sale—but that sale is roughly ten to eleven months away.
Here’s the actual Marion County timeline. As of November 11, penalties and interest begin accruing on unpaid balances. The Treasurer’s office processes payments daily; balances outstanding as of the close of business on the deadline date are flagged as delinquent. Between February and April 2025, the Treasurer’s office certifies delinquent accounts. This is the administrative step that formally moves an account from “late” to “delinquent” in the state system. Certified delinquent accounts become eligible for inclusion in the tax sale list.
By spring through summer 2025, delinquent accounts appear on the tax sale eligible list. Notices go out to property owners. Receiving a tax sale notice does not mean your property has been sold. It means you’ve been warned that the sale is coming and that you still have time to cure the delinquency. In late September or October 2025, Marion County holds its annual tax sale. Properties that remain delinquent and haven’t entered a payment agreement or otherwise resolved their balance can be sold at this auction.
That ten to eleven month window between a missed November deadline and the actual sale date is your real cushion. It’s not comfortable to coast on—penalties and interest are costing you real money every month—but it does mean homeowners who act in November, December, or even January have options that homeowners who wait until September do not. The intervention window is now. The options available to you today will narrow as the timeline progresses. The Treasurer’s office has more flexibility in November than it does in August, when tax sale lists are being finalized.
How to Set Up a Payment Plan With the Marion County Treasurer
Marion County homeowners who can’t pay their full installment by the deadline can apply for a payment agreement with the Treasurer’s office. This isn’t a widely advertised program, and the terms aren’t posted in plain language on the county website—which means many homeowners who qualify never pursue it. That’s a problem worth naming directly.
The Treasurer’s office has historically focused payment agreement options on owner-occupied residential properties—meaning the homeowner lives in the house as their primary residence. Investment properties and vacant land may have different treatment. Don’t assume you’re ineligible without asking directly.
When you call or walk in, have your parcel number ready. This is the identifying number for your property and appears on your tax bill and your property tax notice. Bring a government-issued photo ID. If you have documentation of the hardship causing payment difficulty—a recent job loss notice, medical bills, a letter from an employer confirming reduced hours—bring that too. It’s not always required, but it can support your case if the office has discretion on terms.
Applying in November is significantly better than applying in March, both because earlier application gives you more options and because the Treasurer’s office has more room to work with homeowners before accounts are certified as delinquent in the February–April window.
The Treasurer’s office doesn’t publish detailed payment plan terms online, and those terms can vary by circumstance. Before you agree to any plan, confirm several things: What’s the required minimum down payment to enter the agreement? How long can the plan run—six months, twelve months, longer? Do penalties continue to accrue during the plan period, or does the plan suspend penalty accrual? What happens if you miss a plan payment—does the agreement terminate immediately? Does the plan protect your property from appearing on the tax sale eligible list while the agreement is in good standing? Get the answers in writing if at all possible, or at minimum write them down during your call with the representative’s name.
The Marion County Treasurer is located in the City-County Building at 200 E. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204. The main phone line is (317) 327-4444—confirm this is current when you call. Walk-in hours are Monday through Friday during standard business hours; confirm current hours and whether extended pre-deadline hours are available when you call. The office’s peak volume period is the two to three weeks before November 10. If you can go in person on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning in late October rather than the week of the deadline, you’ll wait less and likely get more time with staff.
Seniors and Disabled Homeowners: Programs That Can Reduce What You Owe
If you’re a senior or disabled homeowner struggling with Marion County property taxes, there’s a good chance you’re paying more than you legally have to. Three programs routinely get conflated in public materials, and the confusion causes eligible homeowners to miss benefits they should have been receiving for years. That’s frustrating, and it’s fixable.
Under Indiana Code § 6-1.1-12-9, the Over-65 Deduction reduces the assessed value of your home for tax calculation purposes, which lowers the base on which your bill is calculated. The deduction is applied through the Marion County Assessor’s office, not the Treasurer. The deadline to file for the deduction for the following tax year is December 31 of the current year—meaning December 31, 2024 for taxes payable in 2025. If you’ve never filed for this deduction and you believe you qualify, contact the Assessor’s office immediately. An unclaimed Over-65 Deduction may be inflating the base bill you’re struggling to pay right now.
The Over-65 Circuit Breaker Credit, under Indiana Code § 6-1.1-20.6, is a separate program that caps the property tax liability of eligible homeowners 65 and older. It’s not a deferral—it’s a hard cap on liability. Homeowners who have both the Over-65 Deduction and the Circuit Breaker Credit can see significantly reduced bills. This also runs through the Assessor’s office.
Whether Marion County currently administers a standalone deferral program that postpones payment—allowing eligible seniors to delay payment until the property is sold or transferred, with the deferred amount treated as a lien—requires direct verification with both the Assessor’s and Treasurer’s offices. Call both offices and ask specifically: “Does Marion County offer a property tax deferral program for seniors that allows me to postpone payment?” Get the answer, the eligibility requirements, and the application deadline.
Indiana also offers a property tax deduction for disabled veterans that can reduce assessed value by up to $24,960, with eligibility based on disability rating. If you’re a veteran with a service-connected disability and you haven’t applied for this deduction, contact the Marion County Assessor’s office. Like the Over-65 Deduction, it’s applied through the Assessor, not the Treasurer.
If you’re a senior or disabled homeowner who suspects you may be paying more than you owe, the first call is to the Assessor’s office. The Treasurer collects what the assessment says you owe. If the assessment is wrong—or if you’re entitled to a deduction that hasn’t been applied—fixing it at the source changes your bill, not just your payment plan. As part of our legal and finance coverage, we’ve covered related programs Marion County residents routinely miss. The Assessor’s office is also in the City-County Building at 200 E. Washington St.; call the main Treasurer’s line at (317) 327-4444 and ask to be directed to the Assessor’s office for deduction inquiries.
Other Help Available Right Now in Indianapolis
Some homeowners need more than a phone call with the Treasurer. If your situation involves broader debt, a complicated title, potential foreclosure, or you simply need someone to help you think through your options before you talk to the county, Indianapolis-area organizations can help.
Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership (INHP) is a local nonprofit that provides housing financial counseling, including help for homeowners facing financial distress. They’ve worked with Marion County homeowners on property tax issues and can help you understand your options, prioritize payments, and navigate contact with the Treasurer’s office. Their counselors know Marion County specifically, which matters—generic housing counselors sometimes give advice calibrated to other states’ rules. Verify current contact information, service availability, and appointment requirements directly with INHP before going in.
GreenPath Financial Wellness offers free and low-cost financial counseling services, including help with budgeting, debt management, and housing-related financial stress. If your property tax situation is part of a larger financial picture that includes credit card debt, medical bills, or other pressures, a GreenPath counselor can help you map what’s ahead and figure out what to address first. Services are available by phone and online, which matters if getting to an office is a barrier. Verify current contact information at greenpath.com.
For low-income homeowners facing collection action, with a tax sale notice, or dealing with title complications that complicate their ability to resolve a delinquency, Indiana Legal Services provides free civil legal representation. Their Indianapolis office is downtown and accessible by IndyGo. The main intake line is (317) 631-9410. Indiana Legal Services handles property tax cases, and their attorneys know Marion County tax sale procedure. If you’ve received formal notice that your property may be headed to sale, call them before you do anything else. You may also find it useful to review free and low-cost legal help in Indianapolis organized by what you need if you’re weighing other civil legal issues at the same time.
Delinquency rates in Marion County run higher in specific corridors—the near-eastside, Martindale-Brightwood, and far-eastside neighborhoods among them. Community development organizations operating in those areas can often connect residents to INHP, GreenPath, and Indiana Legal Services if direct contact is a barrier.
Marion County Treasurer Contact and Office Information
Office location City-County Building 200 E. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46204 (Confirm current suite number when you call—the building has multiple offices and has been reconfigured.)
Main phone (317) 327-4444 (Confirm this is current when you call; ask whether a dedicated delinquency or hardship line is available.)
Online payment portal indy.gov/activity/treasurer-property-tax-payments accepts e-check (ACH) and credit or debit card payments. Credit and debit card payments carry a convenience fee, typically around 2.55% of the payment amount or a flat fee—confirm the current rate before paying. E-check payments carry a smaller flat fee. If you’re paying a large installment, the fee difference is worth knowing before you choose a payment method.
Check and money order payments A drop box has historically been available at the City-County Building for check and money order payments. Do not put cash in the drop box. Confirm drop box location and current availability with the Treasurer’s office directly.
Walk-in hours Monday through Friday during standard business hours. Extended hours may be offered in the week before November 10—call to confirm. The office is at peak volume in the two to three weeks before the deadline. Early in the week, early in the morning is consistently faster than Friday afternoon.
Getting there The City-County Building is served directly by multiple IndyGo routes, including Route 8 and Route 39, with stops on Washington Street and Market Street. Parking garages within the area include the Market Square Garage and the Pan Am Garage on Ohio St. Street parking is limited and metered.
For payment plan inquiries specifically, ask the main line to connect you with the delinquent tax or payment agreement staff. Be specific about what you need—walk-in staff handle a range of questions and routing your call correctly will save time. For deductions and assessment corrections, contact the Marion County Assessor’s office separately. The Treasurer and Assessor are different offices in the same building.
The November 10 deadline is a hard date with real financial consequences, but it’s not a cliff. Homeowners who act before it—or immediately after it, if the balance can’t be resolved in time—have options that homeowners who wait until spring do not. Payment plans, deductions that should have been applied years ago, free legal and financial counseling: none of these require you to already be in crisis. They just require a phone call.
Make it this week.
