Garnishment Special Deduction Routine

The Garnishment (GAR) special deduction routine supports processing of multiple garnishments for a single employee. The Garnishment Routine reviews all pending garnishment deductions for an employee to determine the order and allocation of the ordered withholdings. In addition, this routine determines if the employee had any support garnishments processed and factors those deductions into the calculations of non-support garnishment withholdings.

For information on data setup and calculations that are used for Multiple Garnishments, refer to Multiple Garnishments.

Garnishment Processing

GAR - Non-Support Garnishment ProcessingGAR - Non-Support Garnishment Processing

When an employee is selected for payroll processing and Gross-To-Net identifies a deduction to be processed with the Garnishment (GAR) Special Routine ID, all deductions are reviewed before processing continues. The Garnishment routine reviews all the employee’s pending garnishment deductions to determine the order and allocation of the ordered withholdings. The following processing occurs:

The program first subtracts the calculated Minimum Protected Wage Amount from the employee’s disposable wages. If the result is zero or negative, garnishment processing is discontinued as there are no wages available for processing. If the result is positive garnishment processing continues.
There is no minimum protected wage amount for Alabama State Revenue. When Special Routine ID is Garnishment Routine and Amount / Percent 6 = 1 (this indicates the Deduction Plan is Alabama State Revenue) the program sets the Amount Available for Garnishment to Employee’s Disposable Wages.
The program then reviews the employee’s processed deductions in order to identify if any child/spouse support payments were processed. If no support payments have been made the program sets the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount equal to the lesser of the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount and the Amount Available for Garnishment.

If child/spouse support payments have been made the program totals the support garnishment amounts. The total support garnishment amount is compared to the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount.

If the total support garnishment amount is greater than or equal to the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount, then garnishment processing is discontinued as the withholding exceeds the maximum withholding allowed for non-support garnishments.

If the total support garnishment amount is less than the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount, then the program calculates the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount.

The Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is determined as follows.

The program compares the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount and the Amount Available for Garnishment.
If the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount is less than or equal to the Amount Available for Garnishment, the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is equal to the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount minus the total amount of support deductions. If the resulting amount is negative or zero, garnishment processing is discontinued as all available wages have been garnished. If the resulting amount is positive, the program continues to process additional garnishments.
If the Max Non-Support Garnishment Amount is greater than the Amount Available for Garnishment, the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is equal to the Amount Available for Garnishment minus the total amount of support deductions. If that resulting amount is negative or zero, garnishment processing is discontinued as all available wages have been garnished. If the resulting amount is positive, the program continues to process additional garnishments.

The remaining garnishments are processed by Deduction Processing Order Number until available wages have been depleted or all garnishments have been processed.

GAR - Non-Support Garnishments With Different Processing Order NumbersGAR - Non-Support Garnishments With Different Processing Order Numbers

If the pending non-support garnishments have different Deduction Processing Order Numbers they are processed in order until the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount has been depleted or all garnishments have been processed.

The deduction amount is compared to the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount. If the deduction amount is equal to the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount, the deduction amount is processed as ordered and garnishment processing is discontinued as there are no remaining wages available for garnishment.

If the deduction amount is greater than the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount, the deduction amount is reset to the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount, the order is processed and garnishment processing is discontinued as there are no remaining wages available for garnishment.
If the deduction amount is less than the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount, the deduction amount is processed as ordered. The deduction amount is then subtracted from the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount resulting in a new Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount for the next garnishment.

GAR - Non-Support Garnishments With Same Processing Order NumbersGAR - Non-Support Garnishments With Same Processing Order Numbers

If the remaining non-support garnishments have the same Deduction Processing Order Number the withholding amounts are determined based on the MULTI GARN ALLOCATION RULE SPAR page entry.

The pending non-support garnishments are reviewed and grouped by Deduction Processing Order Number to determine the order for processing. The deductions in the lowest Deduction Processing Order Number group are processed first.
The processor performs a look up to the MULTI GARN ALLOCATION RULE SPAR page entry to determine if the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is dispersed either on an equal or percentage basis.
If there is an E entered in the Text Value field of the MULTI GARN ALLOCATION RULE SPAR entry, the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is dispersed using equal allocation processing. The Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is divided in equal amounts across the grouped garnishments. If the allocated amount is greater than the deduction amount, the garnishment is processed as ordered and the remaining amount is dispersed across the remaining garnishments.

Once all garnishments within the Deduction Processing Order Number group have been processed, the total amount of processed deductions is subtracted from the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount. If the result is zero, garnishment processing is discontinued as there are no more remaining wages available for garnishment processing. If the result is positive, the processor subtracts the total deduction amount from the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount and continues to process additional garnishments.

If there is a P entered in the Text Value field of the MULTI GARN ALLOCATION RULE SPAR entry, the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is dispersed using percentage allocation processing. The Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount is prorated based on their deduction rate/amount. If the amount cannot be divided evenly across the garnishments the remainder is applied to the final processed garnishment.

Example 1: the calculation would be as follows for an employee with 2 non - support orders that are percentage based:

Non-support Order 1	40% - garnishment percent
Non-support Order 2	30% - garnishment percent
Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount	205.00
Non-support Order 1 Payment	117.14 (40/70 * 205.00)
Non-support Order 2 Payment	87.86 (30/70 * 205.00)

Example 2: the calculation would be as follows for an employee with 3 non-support orders that are amount based:

Non-support Order 1	50.00 - garnishment amount
Non-support Order 2	75.00 - garnishment amount
Non-support Order 3	100.00 – garnishment amount
Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount	75.00
Non-support Order 1 Payment	16.67 (75.00 *(50/(50+75+100)))
Non-support Order 2 Payment	25.00 (75.00 *(75/(50+75+100)))
Non-support Order 3 Payment	33.33 (75.00 *(100/(50+75+100)))

Once all garnishments within the Deduction Processing Order Number group have been processed the total amount of processed deductions are subtracted from the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount. If the result is zero, garnishment processing is discontinued as there are no more remaining wages available for garnishment processing. If the result is positive the processor subtracts the total deduction amount from the Adjusted Non-Support Garnishment Amount and continues to process additional garnishments.

Administrative Fee Processing

For every non-support garnishment processed the program determines if an administrative fee should be assessed. The program performs a look up to the Deduction Plan (DLPN) page for each garnishment processed; if the Secondary Deduction Type and Secondary Deduction Plan field have been populated, an additional deduction is processed using the entered type and plan. If a garnishment is backed out due to a negative net condition the corresponding administrative fee is also reversed.

Garnishment Fee Processing

For the sites utilizing the Next Generation Payroll service, if the Include Garnishment Fee in Disposable Income check box is selected on the Deduction Plan (DPLN) reference page, the Garnishment Special Routine retrieves the garnishment fee value from the Secondary Deduction Type and Secondary Deduction Plan and deducts the amount from the garnishment disposable income.

For example, if the garnishment fee is $5 and the 25% limit for an employee from the disposable income is $100, then $95 is taken for the garnishment deduction code and $5 for garnishment fee deduction code and the total of garnishment and garnishment fee stays within the 25% limit.