About This Course:
This training session gives you tools to better understand the responsibilities that a company has regarding garnishments, Child Support orders, and levies under state and federal guidelines such as Consumer Credit Protection Act, IRS levy requirements, and state-specific levy and garnishment withholding requirements.
And now that laws requiring the reporting of new hires can quickly identify new employees - and in some states, Independent Contractors - who owe child support, understanding the correct process for handling garnishments - even before you might have to deal with one - is of the utmost importance, and one we'll help you conquer in this training session.
About This Course:
As with all of the federal and state laws, garnishment rules and regulations must be followed to the letter - and with the constant threat of penalties for violating any one of them - it's no wonder why processing each and every garnishment is such a daunting task - and subject to errors.
For instance, if you received a garnishment or child support order, would you know: When should you begin a garnishment? How to you determine how much to withhold for child support? How much can be withheld per paycheck? What you do once a garnishment is satisfied? What to do if an employee quits before the garnishment is satisfied?
Don't worry. Understanding all the laws and requirements regarding garnishments, child support orders, Federal and state levies, and student loan and credit garnishments can be overwhelming, but you can learn the specifics with this training course!
What You'll Learn:By attending this training session you will learn:
- State and federal law regarding garnishments
- How to determine how much to withhold for child support
- The priority of garnishment orders - yes, some people get more than one!
- Recent legislation challenges such as lump sum reporting for child support orders
- Discussion of legally allowed Child Support fees - and how to administer
- Review of EIWO and the benefits
- How to properly calculate applicable earnings (Ex: Disposable earnings, take home pay)
- The process for terminated employees that have garnishment orders
- How to keep up with changing legislation
- Other garnishment processing best practices
Top FAQs
Employers generally have to notify the debtor in writing that a wage garnishment is about to start before sending payments to the creditor. The wage garnishment then typically continues until the debts are paid off or otherwise resolved. Employers are required to provide employees with a copy of garnishment paperwork.
Payroll is much more than just handing out paychecks, and includes a variety of responsibilities such as handling garnishments, travel pay, multi-state taxation, unclaimed paychecks, and much more in a timely and accurate fashion.
In addition to ensuring that employees are paid correctly and on time, "Payroll" has numerous time and reporting requirements. The primary payroll areas include paychecks, reporting, operations, and management.
Yes. For child support orders, the maximum amount that can be withheld runs between 50 (if the employee is supporting another spouse and/or children) and 65% (if the employee is not supporting another spouse and/or children and is at least 12 weeks in arrears in making support payments).
Payroll Administrators must be able to:
- Properly "classify" workers
- Apply the various exemptions
- Calculate gross pay and properly make deductions
- Correctly identify, pay, and withhold taxes for employees
- Administer deferred compensation, cafeteria plan, sick pay, and other compensation
- Handle stock options, expense reimbursements, relocation, and other "expenses"
- Follow the proper policies, procedures, and documentation requirements for garnishments and levies
- Properly complete and file all required reporting requirements
- Correctly complete year-end requirements and establish year-beginning requirements
- Implement and maintain fraud, audit, disaster recovery, and record retention processes and procedures
The amount of pay subject to garnishment is based on an employee's "disposable earnings", which is the amount left after legally-required deductions are made. Employers should be aware that there are two general types of garnishments, one for child support and one for creditors (commonly referred to as "levies").
While many payroll-related regulations are federally-governed, there also are many state requirements, including those for handling garnishment, final paychecks, and unclaimed paychecks. Each state's requirements differ in the details, so be sure to check your state's requirements by clicking the applicable link(s) at the bottom of this page.
In business since the mid-1990's, we have over 25 years of experience delivering high-quality training content via seminar, webinar, online, and other formats. Each of our courses are delivered by an industry expert who will share his or her years of experience to help you be in compliance, smarter, and more productive, and almost all offer SHRM and HRCI credits.
Continuing Education Credits:
Click the 'Credits' tab above for information on PHR/SPHR, PDCs, and other CE credits offered by taking this course.
