Multiple Garnishments in One Category

Payroll uses the multiple garnishment rule you assign to the garnishment rule to determine how to take garnishments, court ordered arrears, and fees when there are:

  • Multiple garnishments within the same garnishment category

  • Insufficient funds available to take all garnishments

The following sections explain how Payroll uses each of the Multiple Garnishment Rules to calculate multiple garnishments in the same category.

Prorate Based on Garnishment Amount

If the garnishment uses this Multiple Garnishment Rule, Payroll first calculates current garnishment amounts, then court order arrears, and finally fees using the following logic:

  1. Divides each current garnishment amount by total amount of current garnishments

  2. Multiplies the amount available for garnishment by the percentage from Step 1 to determine the new garnishment deduction amount

The remainder is put into arrears, depending on the arrears flag for the garnishment.

Equal Amount to Each Garnishment

If the garnishment uses this Multiple Garnishment Rule, Payroll first calculates current garnishment amounts, then court ordered arrears, and finally, fees using the following logic:

(Amount available for garnishment) / (Number of garnishments) = (New garnishment amount)

Each garnishment is granted an equal amount. The remainder is put into arrears depending on the arrears flag for the garnishment.

Effective Date Order

Note: This multiple garnishment rule does not depend on there being insufficient funds to withhold all the garnishments.

If the garnishment uses this Multiple Garnishment Rule, Payroll deducts each garnishment based on the effective date order. The garnishments that are partial payments or are not paid are put into arrears, depending on the arrears flag for the garnishment.

Payroll first calculates current garnishment amounts, then court ordered arrears, and finally fees.

Withhold One Garn at a Time

Each garnishment is paid based on effective date with only one garnishment per Category being taken. Garnishments that are partial payments are put into arrears, depending on the arrears flag for the garnishment.

Example

Two Rivers has set up their child support garnishment to use Effective Date Order when multiple garnishments exist for a given garnishment category.

John, an employee of Two Rivers, has two separate support orders. The child support order was effective December 31, 2000. The spousal support order was effective June 30, 2001. He does not have enough disposable income to cover both garnishments. The child support garnishment would be deducted first, then the spousal support garnishment would be taken.