Set up and assign a garnishment

If you receive a garnishment order or levy for an employee, we need to set it up correctly in your QuickBooks Online Payroll Full Service account so that the withholdings are calculated as stated in the order.

We set up the garnishment deduction and calculate the amounts on employee paychecks as part of your Full Service Payroll service.

However, you as the employer will need to make the payments directly to the agencies or creditors as instructed in the garnishment order or tax levy.

Step 1 – You send us the order documents

As soon as you get a garnishment order for an employee:

• Fax a copy to 780.669.5714.

Generally we only need the first 2 pages of the order documents, which typically contain the employee's information and how to calculate the garnished wages. You don't need to send us the other information, such as how to remit payments.

Step 2 – We'll set up the deduction in your payroll account

We'll set up the deduction for your employee within 2 business days after we receive the order documents and will email you once completed.

After we set it up, you can see the garnishment in the employee's profile:

In the left navigation bar, click Employees.
Under Does this employee have any deductions?, click the pencil icon next to the garnishment.
Click OK.

Need to make changes?

To make any changes to the garnishment, contact us.

See also

• Add or edit deductions and contributions
• What's a garnishment?

  A garnishment is an order by a court, the federal government, or a state agency for an employer to withhold wages from an employee's pay and send the money to an agency or creditor. The order might also let you add an administrative fee to the employee.

  Garnishment types

  • Federal and state tax levies
  • Child or spousal support withholding orders
  • Bankruptcy
  • Federal and state student loans
  • Federal agency debt orders (non-tax)
  • Creditor garnishments

  Other names used to refer to a garnishment order include "earnings withholding order," "federal tax levy," "support order," "bankruptcy order," "writ of garnishment," or "garnishment summons."