Wage Garnishment and Exempt Property in Texas

For ordinary debts, Texas does not let a creditor take money out of your paycheck. The state constitution bars garnishment of current wages, with only two exceptions: court-ordered child support and court-ordered spousal maintenance. Federal law adds its own exceptions for defaulted federal student loans and unpaid federal taxes. What a judgment creditor can do is freeze a bank account and reach property that no exemption covers. Most of what a household owns, including the home, usually falls under one.

The Texas rule on paychecks

The rule starts in the constitution itself. Article XVI, section 28 says no current wages for personal service shall ever be subject to garnishment, except to enforce court-ordered child support payments or spousal maintenance. Two statutes repeat it. Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 63.004 makes current wages exempt from garnishment unless state or federal law provides otherwise, and directs that an employer named as garnishee be discharged as to wages it owes. And Property Code section 42.001(b)(1) lists current wages among property exempt from seizure, outside the dollar caps that apply to other belongings.

So a credit card issuer, a medical provider, or a debt buyer cannot get a court order sending part of your paycheck to it, even after winning a judgment. Unpaid commissions for personal services are also exempt, up to 25 percent of the personal property cap, under section 42.001(d).

Who can still take part of a paycheck

Child support and spousal maintenance

These are the constitutional exceptions. In Texas, support is usually collected through an income withholding order served on the employer, a process covered in how Texas enforces child support. Federal law sets the ceiling. Under 15 U.S.C. 1673(b)(2), the most that can be garnished for a support order is 50 percent of weekly disposable earnings if the parent supports another spouse or dependent child, or 60 percent if not. Each figure rises 5 points, to 55 or 65 percent, when the garnishment covers support owed for a period before the 12 weeks leading up to that workweek. The general 25 percent federal cap in section 1673(a) does not apply to support orders, chapter 13 bankruptcy orders, or tax debts.

Defaulted federal student loans

Federal law overrides the Texas wage exemption here. 20 U.S.C. 1095a lets the Department of Education or a guaranty agency garnish the disposable pay of a borrower who is not making required payments, notwithstanding any state law. The statute sets its own process and its own limits:

• No more than 15 percent of disposable pay per pay period, unless the borrower agrees in writing to more (section 1095a(a)(1)).
• Written notice mailed at least 30 days before proceedings begin, with the right to inspect records and to propose a repayment agreement (sections 1095a(a)(2) to (4)).
• A hearing on whether the debt exists and how much is owed. A petition filed on or before the 15th day after the notice is mailed gets that hearing before any order issues, and the decision is due within 60 days (section 1095a(b)).
• No firing or discipline because of the garnishment (section 1095a(a)(8)).

IRS levies

The IRS does not need a court judgment or a state garnishment writ. Under 26 U.S.C. 6331(a), if a tax is not paid within 10 days after notice and demand, the IRS may levy on all property and rights to property except what federal law exempts. Section 6331(d) requires written notice of intent to levy at least 30 days before the levy, outside of jeopardy cases, and section 6331(e) makes a levy on wages continuous until it is released. Section 6334(c) says nothing is exempt from levy except what 26 U.S.C. 6334(a) lists, and that list includes a weekly amount of pay figured from the standard deduction and the number of dependents, and the wages needed to satisfy an earlier court judgment for the support of minor children.

Why creditors go after bank accounts instead

Because the paycheck is off limits, a private creditor with a judgment looks for money held by someone else. The usual target is a bank. Under section 63.001(3), a creditor with a valid, subsisting judgment can get a writ of garnishment by swearing that, to its knowledge, the debtor does not have enough property in Texas subject to execution to pay it. Rule 657 treats the judgment as final for this purpose from the day it is signed, unless a supersedeas bond has been approved and filed. Garnishment before judgment requires a court order after a hearing and a bond from the creditor (Rules 658 and 658a).

Once the bank is served, section 63.003 forbids it from paying out money it owes the account holder, and a payment in violation is void up to the amount needed to satisfy the creditor. Under Finance Code section 59.008, a bank that has registered with the secretary of state is served through its registered agent, and the customer, not the bank, carries the burden of going to court to stop or limit the bank's response.

What about a paycheck that has already landed in checking? None of the Texas statutes or rules behind this guide says whether deposited pay still counts as current wages. They protect current wages without defining the term or addressing deposits. Whether a particular balance is protected depends on the facts, including where the money came from, and on how the judge rules on an exemption claim. Some deposits have clearer protection under their own law. Social Security benefits, for example, are not subject to garnishment or other legal process under 42 U.S.C. 407(a), although 26 U.S.C. 6334(c) expressly overrides that protection for an IRS levy.

After a bank account is frozen

Amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure in 2022 created a fast track for individuals to claim exempt property back after a post-judgment garnishment. The sequence runs like this:

1. The debtor receives the writ and its notice

   Under Rule 663a in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the debtor must be served with the writ, the application, the affidavits, and any orders as soon as practicable after the bank is served. The face of the writ must carry an English and Spanish notice explaining that the money has been frozen, that an individual's property may be exempt, and how to ask for it back.

2. The creditor sends the protected property packet

   Rule 679b(a) requires the judgment creditor to serve the Notice of Protected Property Rights, its instructions, and the Protected Property Claim Form approved by the Supreme Court of Texas. The deadline is three business days after the creditor learns the individual debtor's property has been frozen or seized.

3. A waiting period protects the money

   Under Rule 679b(b), no one may sell the debtor's property or hand the proceeds to the creditor within 14 days after those documents are served, or 17 days if they were mailed.

4. The debtor files a claim, and the court decides

   Filing the claim form, or another sworn document with the same information, triggers a required hearing and freezes any payout until the court rules. The debtor must prove the exemption and the value of the property, and an unchallenged signed claim form can be enough. Rule 679b(c) gives the court 10 days from filing to decide, extendable for good cause, and requires release within three business days if the property is exempt.

Rule 664a offers another route: a sworn motion to dissolve or modify the writ on any ground. A motion based on something other than exemptions must be decided within 10 days unless extended for good cause, and filing it pauses further action under the writ.

Belongings Texas law protects from creditors

Property Code section 42.001(a) exempts listed personal property from garnishment, attachment, execution, or other seizure up to an aggregate fair market value of $100,000 for a family or $50,000 for a single adult. Those caps exclude the amount of any liens or security interests on the property. The categories, set out in section 42.002(a), are:

• Home furnishings, including family heirlooms, and food and other provisions.
• Clothing, and jewelry up to 25 percent of the cap.
• Tools, equipment, books, and apparatus used in a trade or profession, including boats and motor vehicles, plus farming or ranching vehicles and implements.
• One vehicle for each family member or single adult who has a driver's license, or who relies on someone else to drive for them.
• Two firearms, and athletic and sporting equipment, including bicycles.
• Household pets, plus two horses, mules, or donkeys with a saddle, blanket, and bridle for each, 12 head of cattle, 60 head of other livestock, 120 fowl, and feed on hand for them.

Some property is exempt without counting toward the cap: current wages, professionally prescribed health aids, support payments received, and a bible or other book of sacred writings, under section 42.001(b). If the total value exceeds the cap, section 42.003(b) lets the debtor choose which property is levied on, and the court decides if the debtor does not choose or the creditor contests the exemption. These exemptions do not stop a secured creditor, such as a car lender, from taking the collateral it holds a lien on (sections 42.001(c) and 42.002(b)).

Retirement accounts and similar plans

Section 42.0021 adds a separate exemption, on top of the dollar caps, for tax-qualified plans such as employer and government retirement plans, IRAs, health savings accounts, and Coverdell, 529, and ABLE accounts, vested or not. A withdrawal stays exempt for 60 days, or longer if it qualifies as a rollover. Section 42.005 lets a child support lien reach most of these assets.

Can a creditor take your house?

For nearly all debts, no. Article XVI, section 50(a) protects the homestead of a family or a single adult from forced sale for the payment of all debts except a closed list. That list includes the purchase money, property taxes on the home, an owelty of partition (such as a debt between spouses from dividing the home in a divorce), refinancing an existing lien, written contracts for building or repair work that meet the constitution's conditions, a qualifying home equity loan, a reverse mortgage, and converting a manufactured home lien into a lien on the land. Property Code section 41.001 repeats the protection and adds burial lots.

The limit is measured in land area, not dollars. Under section 41.002, an urban homestead may be up to 10 acres in one or more contiguous lots, and a rural homestead up to 200 acres for a family or 100 acres for a single adult. Property counts as urban if it sits inside a city's limits, its extraterritorial jurisdiction, or a platted subdivision, and has police protection, fire protection, and at least three of five listed city utilities. Neither section 41.002 nor article XVI, section 51 puts a dollar cap on the home's value. Two details catch people off guard. Money from selling a homestead is protected from creditors for six months after the sale under section 41.001(c), and renting the home out temporarily does not end its homestead status if no other homestead has been acquired (section 41.003).

Where the protections stop

Under Rule 679b(c), the debtor carries the burden of proving an exemption, so in a garnishment the protection generally has to be claimed rather than assumed. Mixed accounts, cash on hand, property near the dollar caps, and land that is partly business use can all turn on facts a judge has to weigh. Anyone facing a garnishment, a levy, or a threatened sale of a home may want to contact the organizations listed on free legal help in Texas.

Most garnishments begin with a lawsuit. The rules for suits filed by debt buyers and collectors are in Texas small claims and justice court, and the limits on what collectors may say and do before a judgment are in Texas debt collection laws. Both sit with this guide in the debt and collections section. Each citation here links to the official text, as it does across the full guide library, so any rule above can be read in full.