Child support garnishment

Set up a vendor as a payroll agent

Select
Setup
,
Vendors
, then
Add
. If this is an existing vendor, select
Edit
.
Enter the vendor information.
In the
Identification
section of the
Main
tab, make sure
Payroll Agent
is the vendor type.
In the
Payment Preferences
section of the
Main
tab, choose a payment method:
Check
if you'll be mailing a check.
Payment
if you'll be paying the liability outside of the application.
Select
Enter
to save your changes and then go to the Adding a child support payroll item for the client task.

Select
Setup
,
Vendors
, then
Add
. If this is an existing vendor, select
Edit
.
Enter the vendor information.
In the
Identification
section of the
Main
tab, make sure
Payroll Agent
is the vendor type.
In the
Payment Preferences
section of the
Main
tab, select
Direct Deposit
.
In the
Direct Deposit
tab, enter direct deposit information for the vendor and then select
Enter
to save your changes.

Add child support information for the employee

Select
Setup
, then
Employees
.
Select the client and select the employee in the
Employees
list.
In the
Deductions
grid of the
Payroll Items
tab, mark the
Active
checkbox next to the child support payroll item and select the ellipsis button to open
Employee Payroll Item Settings
for this item.
If a child support deduction item isn't listed, contact your Payroll Specialist.
Certain sections aren't available (grayed out) so you can only modify them at the client payroll item level. Modify the fields in other sections for this employee.
In the Child Support Orders section, enter all of the child support orders for this employee in the grid. Orders for various amounts and states can be entered here using this single deduction item.
note
In the Agent column, select the payroll agent vendor that was set up for the child support deduction. Only vendors set up as Payroll Agent type will show up in the dropdown.
The
Maximum % of disposable income
will default to the following rates based upon how the child support case is set up, but this field can be overridden to a value between 0% and 100% if a rate other than the default is needed.
If no additional checkboxes are marked, the maximum % of disposable income will be set to 60%.
If the
In Arrears
checkbox is marked, the maximum % of disposable income will be set to 65%.
If the
This employee supports a second family
checkbox is marked, the maximum % of disposable income will be set to 50%.
If both the
In Arrears
and
This employee supports a second family
checkboxes are marked, the maximum % of disposable income will be set to 55%
The case information that you enter into the grid (Case identifier, date, state, agent) will appear in the addenda record for the ACH file that is created when the vendor check with the liability is printed. This identifies the court case to which the direct deposit amount should be applied.
When you enter the state and county for the child support order, the application automatically generates the appropriate FIPS code within the addenda record for the ACH file.
The
Total Order Amount
field also specifies a perpetual limit for the case. If you leave this field at its default $0.00 amount, the application assumes that the garnishment deduction has no limit.
When there are multiple orders, enter them in the grid, specifying the amount for each in the Amount column. If there is not enough disposable income to cover the amounts, the application will prorate the garnishment amounts using the ratio of each order amount compared to the total disposable income amount.
Select
OK
to save the payroll item settings.

Add child support details to vendor check layouts

Go to
Layout Designer
and open the check layout.
Select
Insert
,
Region
, then
Repeating Region
.
Select the location on the layout on which you want the child support details to print, and drag across the desired location to create the repeating region.
In the
Variables
tree, go to the
Child Support Details
group.
Select the variable that you want to insert and drag it to the desired location within the repeating region.

Limits

If an individual is supporting a child or spouse in addition to the child or spouse named in a garnishment order, 50% of disposable earnings can be garnisheed. If amounts due are in arrears more than 12 weeks, 55% can be garnisheed.
If an individual is not supporting another spouse or dependent child, 60% of disposable earnings can be garnisheed. If amounts due are in arrears more than 12 weeks, 65% can be garnisheed.