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Set up employees and payroll items

Garnishment limits

Learn about the limits on creditor garnishments under the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA). The application withholds the lesser of a percentage of disposable income or the amount by which weekly disposable income exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage.
The federal Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) protects consumers from unfair or harsh debt collection practices. Title III of the CCPA, also known as the Federal Wage Garnishment Law, protects employees specifically by
  • Prohibiting employers from terminating employees for any single debt.
  • Limiting the amount that can be withheld from employees' wages for certain debts.
Accounting CS withholds a creditor garnishment amount that is the lesser of:
  • A percentage of disposable income (pay amount after all taxes including state and local).
  • The amount by which the weekly disposable income exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage. This calculation changes based on the pay frequency.

Order of priority for calculating garnishments

By default, the application processes garnishments for an employee in the following order, except in certain cases. You can change the default priority order of the four garnishment types that are marked with an asterisk (
*
) by entering an
Order Date
 for every active garnishment for that employee.
  1. Child support
    *
  2. Federal levy
    *
  3. Chapter 13 bankruptcy
    *
  4. Creditor garnishment
  5. Defaulted student loan
  6. Other
    *

State-specific limits

Most states use the limits described at the beginning of this article, but there are some exceptions.
State
Garnishment Limit
Colorado
20% of weekly disposable income or exceeds 40 times the federal minimum wage
Illinois
15% of weekly gross income or disposable income exceeds 45 times the state minimum wage
Maine
25% of weekly disposable income or exceeds 40 times the federal minimum wage
Minnesota
25% of weekly disposable income or exceeds 40 times the federal minimum wage
Nevada
25% of weekly disposable income or exceeds 50 times the federal minimum wage
New Mexico
25% of weekly disposable income or exceeds 40 times the federal minimum wage
Virginia
25% of weekly disposable income. Exceeds 40 times the federal or Virginia minimum wage
West Virginia
20% of weekly disposable income or exceeds 50 times the federal minimum wage

Example of creditor garnishment limit calculations

Factors in this calculation:
Garnishment percentage
25% of disposable income
Employee’s gross pay amount
$550.00
Taxes withheld
$105.38
Employee’s net pay (disposable income)
$444.62
Employee’s pay frequency
Bi-weekly (doubles the 30x to 60x)
Federal minimum wage
$7.25
The calculation for a garnishment will change based on the pay frequency for the employee. In this example, we calculate the lesser of 25% of the employee's disposable income or 60 times the federal minimum wage because the employee is paid bi-weekly..
$550.00 – $105.38 = $444.62 (The employee’s disposable income for this pay period)
60 x $7.25 (minimum wage) = $435.00 (number of pay periods x federal minimum wage)
The application withholds the lesser of the following:
  • 25% x $444.62 = $111.15 (25% of the employee’s disposable income for this pay period)
  • $444.62 – $435.00 = $9.62 (disposable income minus the minimum wage calculation)
Because the 2nd calculation is the lesser of the 2 amounts, Accounting CS withholds $9.62 for the payroll period.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Accounting CS
  • Subject: Payroll checks, Setup
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