The purpose of this page is to walk new property owners through steps to ensure that their property is properly filed, assessed, and that they will receive all proper tax breaks.
1. Real Estate Verification
Per South Dakota Codified Law 10-11-54 through 60 the Director of Equalization office is required to verify all sales as recorded in the Register of Deeds office. You should receive a letter in the mail in the month following the month that your deed is recorded with the Register of Deeds. This letter will contain the sequence number you need to fill out the following form online. This form will take about 5 minutes and will walk you through many of the items listed below.
2. Mailing Address
The buyer address provided on the closing documents is used as your mailing address. If that is not your current address provide an update to the Director of Equalization’s office to be used for county mailings. 605-745-5136 or [email protected]
2a. Commercial Only – Our records contain a ‘Doing Business As’ field for reference. If you are changing the business located in your building please let us know the new name. 605-745-5136 or [email protected]
2b. Physical address – If your property needs a physical address assigned to it see our address page.
3. Special Savings for South Dakotan Property Owners
APPLICATION REQUIRED
Tax assistance classifications and reduction programs belong with the owner not the property. These are removed when a new owner purchases the property. As the new owner you must apply, even if the property had the program or status in the past.
Owner Occupied Status – Deadline March 15
Any South Dakotan who owns and occupies a home as their primary residence can receive the Owner Occupied classification. A property owner can only claim one owner-occupied classification in the state.
You may apply through the Director of Equalization office (605-745-5136 or [email protected]) or submit an electronic form on the Department of Revenue’s website
Ag Status – Deadline November 1
For land to be classified as agricultural, the primary and main use of the land must be devoted to agricultural pursuits and the property must meet either an acreage minimum or an income requirement. You can submit an electronic form on the Department of Revenue’s website or apply through the Director of Equalization office (605-745-5136 or [email protected]).
Additional Tax Assistance programs are available for veterans, the elderly, and new construction. See the Tax Assistance page for more information.
4. Mobile or Manufactured Homes Only
Contact the Director of Equalization to complete a verification. Additionally, if your dwelling qualifies as a mobile or manufactured home, it needs to be registered and titled with the State of South Dakota in the name of the new buyer.
5. CodeRED
The CodeRED system is used for notifying our public in the event of an emergency. We have used it for important road closures, fire evacuations, water outages, and winter weather closures. We do try to not overuse the system. Please consider signing up.
6. Timing
In South Dakota the process for valuing property and applying taxes is over a year long. The timeline looks like this: Any property changes made before November 1st of Year 1 will be represented in the assessment notice sent to you in March of Year 2. The assessed value on that March notice will be used to calculated the taxes sent to you in January of Year 3 which you will pay in April and October of Year 3.
This means if you change something between November 1st and March 1st it will be delayed another year.
Special Note for those buying in November & December
Special Note for those buying in January & February
7. Building, Planning, Zoning
Fall River County does not have planning and zoning. And while most citizens embrace this with joy it does mean that you as the landowner are sometimes responsible to know things that would normally be regulated by a building permit process. There is a planning and zoning page on the website that walks through some of these items to help you avoid legal mishaps. We also encourage everyone to read the document, Code of the West, to be aware of common challenges in living in rural Fall River County. The Cities of Edgemont and Hot Springs have their own building permit systems, contact the appropriate city hall for information.
