It is when money is forcibly taken to cover someone’s debt. The garnishment can either be collected from the debtor’s pay check or it can be taken from their bank account if they don’t have a standard pay check to garnish.
Garnishments usually start on the following five reasons:
Child Support – The court can attach the wages of the employee when a child support is not paid on time. In general, the money is paid directly to the court and then the court pays the custodial parent in the form of a check.
Spousal Support – During divorce, the court can garnish the wage of a spouse when the spouse doesn’t pay and a marital support is ordered. With alimony garnishment, the money generally goes directly to the court and then the court issues the other spouse a check.
Student Loans – When a student loan is not paid back, a garnishment could take place. The money generally goes directly to the issuer.
Tax Levies – The government often makes tax garnishment for unpaid taxes. This could be made for local, state, or federal taxes.
Voluntary Wage Assignment – It’s a court order that’s issued on behalf of a creditor to fulfil an unpaid debt. This might refer to a bank, Credit Card Company or other company.
Often, there are no pay checks to garnish if a person is unemployed or self-employed. In this case, the garnishment may be attached to the debtor’s bank account. It would remove any funds currently in the bank and attach any future ones. The account is generally frozen first and funds aren’t actually removed until the debtor has had a chance to respond.
It’s important to act quickly if you are facing a potential garnishment. If your bank account is garnished, it could end up taking all or most of the money which could leave you unable to pay your bills.