Ordinarily, when a creditor wants to recover an unpaid debt from a debtor via wage garnishment, he must file and win a lawsuit and then seek approval to garnish wages from the court. A few states do not permit creditors to garnish wages from individuals who live and work in the state. Texas is one of those states.
Determination
The state of Texas does not allow an employee's wages or salaries to be garnished by Texas creditors or ordinary debt collectors. To recover unpaid debts, creditors have to apply other methods, such as a bank account garnishment, which requires the debtor's bank to deduct monies deposited into her account and pay it to the judgment-creditor. To obtain the right to garnish a debtor's bank account, the creditor must first win a judgment then obtain the court's approval to garnish.
Exceptions
Though creditors usually cannot garnish a Texas debtor's wages, an exception applies to child support and federal tax levies. An employer can withhold up to 50 percent of a debtor's disposable income for child support; disposable income is the employee's pay after legally required deductions. An IRS tax levy withholding depends on the amount of the employee's pay that is exempt from the levy. A child support withholding order must be court-ordered to be valid. The IRS can issue a wage levy without a court order, provided it sends the taxpayer the required notices prior to doing so.
Domestication
If you live in Texas and are paid in another state that allows wage garnishments, a creditor can obtain a judgment against you in Texas and domesticate it in the state you are paid and garnish your wages there. If you live and work in Texas and owe an out-of-state creditor money, the creditor can obtain a judgment and enforce it via garnishment in its own court. In both cases, the garnishment laws of the other state apply.
Considerations
Besides wages and salaries, other types of income are exempt from garnishment in Texas. This includes Social Security benefits, many pensions plans, public assistance, such as unemployment benefits, workers' compensation, and some insurance and annuities plans.
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