Garnishment priorities

Garnishment priorities determine the order in which Payroll takes garnishments from employee pay. Payroll uses the priority to determine the order and system logic used to ensure the proper amount of income is protected for the employee.

You can define the priority of the garnishment when you define the deduction used for the garnishment. You can override the priority on the employee garnishment. Overriding for the employee can be useful if the deduction is used on multiple garnishments for the same employee.

The following table lists the correct priorities to assign to U.S. garnishments:

Priority	Kind of Garnishment
1	Bankruptcy Orders
2	Child Support
3	Federal Tax Levy
4	Federal Student Loan
5	State Tax Levy
6	State Student Loan
7	Local Tax Levy
8	Creditor Garnishments

In Canada, bankruptcy orders should be first priority, then the Requirement to Pay for unremitted source deductions. Family support orders usually take the third level of priority, but most federal orders defer to provincial level for priority.