Creating garnishments for US employees involves defining the settings in the Order Details section in the Properties tab of the garnishment record. These settings define how the application calculates the garnishments, including any limits to the garnishment and the duration of the garnishment. Each setting is described as follows:
Case Number (Required)
Enter the case number of the garnishment order. You can find the case number on the paper or electronic copy of the garnishment order.
The application validates that each case number for the employee's garnishment orders is unique across all active garnishments for the employee.
Order Identifier (Docket #)
If you are using the same case number for multiple garnishment orders, record an identifier number in the Order Identifier field.
Court Order Date (Required)
Enter the date on which the garnishment was court ordered. You can find this date on the paper or electronic copy of the garnishment order. The court order date might drive exemption rules in certain states and, or, for certain garnishment types.
Court Order Received Date (Required)
Enter the date that your organization received the garnishment order. The application validates that this date isn’t before the date in the Court Order Date field. The Court Order Received Date determines the Levy Year exemptions for Federal Tax Levies, Arizona State Tax Levies, and Michigan State Tax Levies.
Ordered Amount Type (Required)
Select how the application determines the amount it attempts to deduct from payments for this garnishment. The following are the available options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Per Check Amount |
The application garnishes a specific dollar amount from each payment made to the employee. Select this option and the application enables the Order Amount field, where you need to enter the dollar amount that the application attempts to garnish from payments. Based on the rules in places for the garnishment jurisdiction, it's possible that the application deducts less than the amount you enter. |
| Percent |
The application garnishes a specific percentage of gross pay or disposable income (depending on the jurisdiction) from each payment made the employee. Select this option and the application displays the Order Percent field, where you need to enter the percent that the application attempts to garnish from disposable income. Based on the rules in places for the garnishment jurisdiction, it's possible that the application deducts less than the percentage you enter. |
| System Calculated |
The application garnishes the maximum allowable deduction based on the rules of the jurisdiction. |
Note: See Garnishment Calculation for US Employees.
Ordered Amount
This field is only enabled if you select Per Check Amount from the Ordered Amount Type drop-down list.
Enter the amount of eligible earnings that the application attempts to deduct from payments for this garnishment.
Ordered Percent
This field is only enabled if you select Percent from the Ordered Amount Type drop-down list.
Enter the percent of eligible earnings that the application attempts to deduct from payments for this garnishment.
Percent Of
This parameter is only valid for New Jersey Creditor Garnishments when the Ordered Amount Type is Percent.
Duration (Required)
Define how the application determines when and if the garnishment stops by selecting one of the following from the Duration drop-down list:
| Duration Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Court Order end date exists |
The application calculates the garnishment every pay run until the date that you define in the Effective To field in the General Details section of the garnishment. If you select this duration option, the Effective To field becomes mandatory for you to define. If the effective date falls mid pay period, and the garnishment is active (that is, the Active checkbox in the General Details section of the garnishment is selected), the application calculates the garnishment for the employee in that pay run. |
| Ongoing deduction | Dayforce applies the garnishment every pay run, and with no defined end (unless you optionally define the Effective To field in the General Details section of the garnishment). |
| Use for single payroll deduction |
Select this option to classify the garnishment as one that should only be garnished once. Important: When you select this option, the garnishment will continue to deduct, unless you also define the Effective To field for the garnishment. Therefore, if you select this option, you should also set an effective to date. |
Override Disposable Earning Amount
Enter a dollar amount to define the disposable income per payment as a specific amount instead of having the system calculate the disposable income.
Important: Entering an Override Disposable Earning Amount can cause the garnishment calculation to be out of compliance.
Define how the application limits the overall amounts paid for the garnishment, if necessary. Selecting an option enables the Limit Amount field, which becomes mandatory to fill out and is where you enter the limit that the application uses.
If the application cannot generate a garnishment deduction due to a limit being met, then the application displays a warning message in Payroll when you calculate pay to indicate that the garnishment couldn’t be calculated.
The limit period options are described as follows:
| Limit Period Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Month to Date |
The application limits the amount of earnings per month it garnishes based on the dollar amount you enter in the Limit Amount field. This limit is separate from the federal or state rules that the application enforces on each individual payment. The amount you enter defines the maximum amount of an employee's earnings the application deducts in a month to cover the garnishment, regardless of the amount it would have otherwise deducted per payment. For example, you configure a garnishment to deduct a percentage of an employee's earnings. The employee is paid monthly, and in the current pay run, the application calculates a garnishment payment of $800, respecting the minimum income rules for the jurisdiction. However, if you select Monthly from the Limit Period drop-down list and enter 700 in the Limit Amount field, the application only deducts $700 for this garnishment payment. Moreover, if you add a separate payment in the same pay run, the application will not deduct any amount for the garnishment from it, because the $700 monthly limit was reached. |
| Lifetime to Date |
Limits the amount of pay garnished to a total amount that the application can deduct for this garnishment record. The application limits the amount of earnings it garnishes based on the dollar amount you enter in the Limit Amount field. In this case, the garnishment is treated like a balance owed, and each amount garnished from the employee's pay lowers the amount owing until it reaches zero and the garnishment stops. For example, with a garnishment configured to subtract $100 per pay and a balance limit of $500, the application garnishes $100 off of the employee's pay, for five pay checks, until the $500 limit has been paid in garnishments. When you select this option, the Garnishment Balances subsection in the Additional Details section of the garnishment record displays the read-only fields Original Balance and Remaining Balance, in addition to the Total Amount Withheld field that is always displayed, as shown in the following example:
In this section, you can review the balance as the employee pays it off. The application only updates these fields when pay run data is committed. In this example, the employee has paid off the entire balance:
|
| Pay Period to Date |
Limits the amount garnished per pay period based on the dollar amount you enter in the Limit Amount field. This limit is separate from the federal or state rules that the application enforces on each individual payment in a pay run. The amount you enter defines the maximum amount of an employee's earnings that the application deducts in a pay period to cover the garnishment, regardless of the amount it would have otherwise deducted per payment. For example, you configure a garnishment to deduct a percentage of an employee's earnings. The employee is paid biweekly, and in the current pay run, the application calculates a garnishment payment of $800, respecting the minimum income rules for the jurisdiction. However, if you select Pay Period to Date from the Limit Period drop-down list and enter 700 in the limit amount field, the application only deducts $700 for this garnishment payment. Moreover, if you add a separate payment in the same pay run, the application will not deduct any amount for the garnishment from it, because the $700 limit was reached. Additional Information: In the current pay period, once you commit a pay run and the garnishment limit is met, the application prevents the garnishment from being calculated in other pay runs in the same pay period. For example, in the PPN 01, you commit a regular pay run where the garnishment limit is met for an employee. You then create an off-cycle pay run associated with the same pay period. If you create earnings for this employee in the off-cycle pay run, the application does not deduct the garnishment. However, pay runs from the current pay period do not need to be committed in order for the application to enforce the limit in subsequent pay periods. For example, if the limit is met in the regular pay run of PPN 01, and you don’t commit this pay run, the application still enforces the limit in PPN 02. |
Limit Amount
Enter a dollar amount based on the option selected from the Limit Type drop-down list.
Override Garnishment Amount
Important: Using the Override Garnishment Amount field might cause garnishment results to be calculated that exceed normal applicable jurisdictional compliance rules.
The application only enables this field when you select Per Check Amount from the Ordered Amount Type drop-down list.
If needed, you can enter a dollar amount for the application to deduct for the garnishment that overrides any jurisdictional limits.
When you enter an amount in this field and save the garnishment, the application displays a confirmation message where you need to click Yes to continue or No to cancel the save.
For example, you create a garnishment with the following order details:
- Ordered Amount Type: Per Check Amount
- Ordered Amount: 200
When you calculate payroll for the employee, the application runs the rules for the jurisdiction and the application can only deduct $150 for the garnishment.
Now say that, for the same garnishment, you enter 200 in the Override Garnishment Amount field. In this case, when you calculate payroll, the application deducts $200 regardless of the jurisdictional limit.
Override Processing Sequence
Important: Overriding the priority sequence field might cause results to be calculated contrary to the way applicable jurisdictional compliance rules would normally process them.
Optionally, you can enter a number to override the default priority order that the application uses to process this garnishment in relation to other garnishments that the employee is assigned.
By default, all garnishments are considered to have a sequence value of zero and garnishments are prioritized according to the rules established by tax authorities.
If you assign a garnishment a value greater than zero, the application prioritizes it so that if higher priority garnishments consume most or all of the employee’s disposable earnings, the lower priority garnishments are reduced accordingly.
For example, an employee is assigned Garnishment A and Garnishment B. By default, the application processes Garnishment A first, but you need to override this behavior so that the application processes Garnishment B first. To override this behavior, you can enter 1 in the Override Processing Sequence field for Garnishment B and enter 2 in the Override Processing Sequence field of Garnishment A.
When you enter a number in this field and save the garnishment, the application displays a confirmation message where you need to click Yes to continue or No to cancel the save.
Total Withheld Amount (view only)
This field displays the Lifetime To Date that has been withheld for this garnishment. This is a view-only field.
See also: