43 U.S.C. § 455b — State tax as lien upon lands; prior lien of United States; rights of holder of tax title

This section covers what happens when a state or local government taxes land held by a desert-land entryman under section 455a. Any tax that is legally assessed on the land becomes a lien on that land. The government can enforce that lien the same way private land taxes are enforced — by selling the land through a tax sale, tax deed, or other tax proceeding. But there is a limit. Whatever title or interest the state conveys through that tax sale stays subject to a lien that the United States keeps first. That prior federal lien covers: - All due and unpaid installments on the land's appraised purchase price, and - All other unpaid charges the law allows, whether or not they have come due yet. The person who ends up holding the tax deed or tax title steps into the same rights and privileges as an "assignee" would have. The section lists three kinds of assignee whose rights apply: an assignee of the desert-land entryman on ceded Indian lands, an assignee under section 441 of this title, or an assignee of an entry in a federal reclamation project built under the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, as later changed.