[SaC1012]

Can my employee garnish my bonus or commission check? If so, at what percent. I just had a garnishment on my wages of my bonus check and the check was for ($1377.00 gross) and all I received was $10.47 the garnished almost the whole thing. Is that legal?

[RichardBondMan]

Can my employee garnish my bonus or commission check? If so, at what percent. I just had a garnishment on my wages of my bonus check and the check was for ($1377.00 gross) and all i received was $10.47 the garnished almost the whole thing. Is that legal?

You meant to ask if an employer (not employee) can garnish most all of your wages didn't you ? Keep in mind that the employer is just complying with the rules of the garnishment, they have no choice in the matter. It's the IRS ordering them to take your wages and send it to them. I think they probably can take most all of it, didn't you have an opportunity to object, protest, appeal the matter or did you just ignore the garnishment papers, notices and fail to appeal?

[ScottGem]

There is usually a limit of the amount they can take from wages (usually 25%). But a bonus is not wages. So its very possible its legal for them to take the whole thing. That you received anything (the $10.47) means that what you owe has now been satisified so you shouldn't need to worry anymore.

As Richard pointed out, why did you let it get to this stage? The IRS is generally very willing to work out a settlement so you should have been able to avoid this.

[SaC1012]

The monies that I received was a commission check but, my employer put it down as a bonus check. I received a call from my hr dept that this was coming last week. I tried to call the IRS but could not get through. I do owe the IRS monies from a prior year for income taxes.

[Fr_Chuck]

You would have received dozens of notices from the IRS. There would have been a hearing to set in place legal motions for a garnishment of wages ( and perhaps also an attachment of bank accounts)

In some states they can take up to 50 percent if you do not have a family and 25 percent if you have a family, in other places they can only take 25 percent ( the 25 percent of your pay is normal)

Now remember the IRS works under their own federal rules and often do what they want ( even if wrong) since it is hard to fight them, you will need to hire an attorney who does mostly IRS work. ( and should have hired him before this happened, since often you can work out a deal.

Often the order is to attach all pay up to... total dollars, or a percentage each pay. And bonus money is not looked at as regular pay, and often yes they can take up to the max allowed in the court order for that pay period.

Andyes why did you not work with them, work out a payment plan, heck often if you work with them and did not do too much illegal, they will forgive a lot of the debt and work out payment plans.

At this point it can normally only get worst, with attachment of bank accounts also. You need to get an attorney if you want to try and work something out at this point and time

[ScottGem]

The monies that I received was a commission check but, my employer put it down as a bonus check. I received a call from my hr dept that this was coming last week. I tried to call the IRS but could not get through. I do owe the IRS monies from a prior year for income taxes.

As we have said, because it was not a regular paycheck, they can legally take out what you owe (or all if it doesn't satisfy the debt). As I indicated, the fact that you received something from the check could be indicative that the debt was satisfied. You should know how much you owe.

Frankly, you seem to have procrastinated this into your present predicament. As Chuck pointed out, you should have received several notices and should have been assigned an auditor to handle the case. I find it hard to accept that you couldn't get through to the agent assigned to the case for a week.

The money is gone. You stand no chance of getting it back. The question is whether you owe anymore and what they will do to collect.

[talaniman]

This happened to me some years ago and it was because I ignored all their attempts to rectify this tax situation, but after they got my attention ( they took all but 76 dollars from a 2500 dollar check) They allowed me to repay my debt at 50 dollars a month and it was done over the phone. They also sent me to my company payroll to sign a waiver form that will allow me 184 bucks if it happens again. You better get on this and get it settled because believe me, THEY WILL GET THERE MONEY!!

[s_cianci]

It's legal if a judgment's been issued against you for the collection of a debt (child support, alimony, back taxes, past due consumer debt, etc.) Actually your employer doesn't garnish the check, the party having the judgment against you does. The employer is required to send them the money rather than give it to you. The garnishment should be noted on the paystub. I'm sure that if you ask they'll gladly tell you exactly what the garnishment was for.

[sideoutshu]

Call them and make arrangements to start paying willingly. You may be able to arrange an amount close to what is being garnished. The problem with IRS garnishment is that you won't get tax refunds either.