How to Fill Out and File the New York Income Execution Form (T439)

To fill out a New York income execution form, you need a valid, enforceable money judgment and specific information about the debtor, their employer, and the amount owed; once completed, the form goes to the county sheriff or, in New York City, a city marshal, who serves it on the debtor first and the employer only if the debtor fails to pay. The process is governed by CPLR 5230 and 5231, and small errors on the form, including a mismatched employer name or a missing transcript date, are the usual reason an execution is rejected or stalled.

What You Need Before Starting

You cannot issue an income execution without a valid money judgment from a New York court. The judgment must be currently enforceable, which in New York means it was entered within the past twenty years.¹

If the judgment came from a lower court such as a city or district court rather than Supreme Court, you also need a transcript of judgment filed with the county clerk in the county where you want to enforce it.² Keep the filing date handy, because it goes on the form itself.

You also need to know where the debtor works. The income execution is delivered to the sheriff of the county where the debtor lives, or, if the debtor lives out of state, the county where they work.³ If the sheriff cannot locate the employer in that county, you can redirect the execution to the sheriff of any county where the employer has an office or place of business.

Blank forms are typically available from the county sheriff’s office, from a New York City marshal, or through the court clerk. In New York City, the Department of Finance publishes a request form for small claims and civil court judgments.⁴

What Goes on the Form

The income execution combines the general requirements of CPLR 5230 for all executions with the specific requirements of CPLR 5231 for wage garnishments. Every entry needs to match the underlying judgment and the employer’s actual legal records. Any mismatch between the employer’s name on the form and its actual legal name can get the execution kicked back, so verify business names against payroll records or public filings before you file.

Every income execution must include:

Judgment details: the date the judgment was entered, the court that entered it, the original judgment amount, the applicable interest rate, and the total amount currently due.²
Party names: the full names of both the judgment creditor and the judgment debtor, exactly as they appear on the judgment.
The debtor’s last known address, so the execution directs the officer to levy only on property belonging to or debts owed to the named debtor.
Employer information: the name and address of the person or entity paying the debtor, along with the amount and frequency of payments and the installment amount to be collected.³
Transcript filing date: if the judgment originated in a court other than Supreme, County, or Family Court, the form must state when the transcript was filed with the county clerk.²

The form must also carry a notice to the debtor stating that they should begin paying the specified installments immediately, and that if they default, the execution will be served on their employer.

Setting the Withholding Amount

New York caps the amount that can be taken from a debtor’s income at no more than 10% of gross earnings per pay period.³ That 10% is the ceiling, not necessarily the actual deduction. Two additional limits can push the number down, and the employer must apply whichever produces the smallest result:

The weekly deduction cannot exceed 25% of the debtor’s disposable earnings, meaning what is left after legally required deductions such as federal and state income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare.
The deduction cannot reduce the debtor’s weekly disposable earnings below 30 times the greater of the federal or New York state minimum wage.

Because New York’s minimum wage sits well above the federal rate of $7.25 per hour, the state rate controls. As of January 2026, that is $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, and $16.00 per hour in the rest of the state.⁵ Multiplied by 30, the weekly floor is $510 in the higher-wage regions and $480 elsewhere. If a debtor’s weekly disposable earnings sit at or below that floor, the employer withholds nothing.³

The installment amount you write on the form should reflect the 10% figure applied to the debtor’s gross pay. The employer will then recalculate against the two other limits and withhold the lower amount if either applies.

Choosing the Correct Interest Rate

The form has to specify the correct interest rate, and in New York there are two.

For most judgments, interest runs at 9% per year. For consumer debts, meaning obligations arising from transactions for personal, family, or household purposes, the rate drops to 2% per year for judgments entered after the 2021 amendment to CPLR 5004 took effect.⁶ Credit card debt, medical bills, and personal loans fall into the consumer category. Commercial debts, business-to-business obligations, and tort judgments stay at 9%. If the consumer rate applies, the form must also note the date the new rate took effect.²

Where to File and How Service Works

Once the form is complete, deliver it to the enforcement officer, which is a county sheriff or, in New York City, a city marshal. The officer then serves the income execution in two stages.

First, the officer serves a copy on the debtor, either in person or by mail, and gives the debtor 20 days to start making voluntary payments. This window gives the debtor a chance to pay quietly without the employer being brought in.³ If the debtor starts paying the required installments directly to the sheriff, the employer is never notified.

Second, if the debtor does not pay within 20 days, or the sheriff cannot serve the debtor within 20 days of receiving the execution, the officer serves the execution on the employer. From that point the employer is legally required to withhold and remit funds to the sheriff, who forwards the money to the creditor.³ For government employers, including municipal corporations, public benefit corporations, and boards of education, the levy becomes effective 15 days after service rather than immediately.

If the debtor quits or is fired, the levy becomes ineffective and the execution is returned to the creditor. If the same employer rehires or reinstates the debtor within 90 days, the execution revives automatically.

Fees and Poundage

In New York City, marshals break their income execution fees into separate charges for each step: $15 to receive and record the execution, $15 to serve it on the debtor, and $15 to serve it on the employer if needed, plus mileage and postage where applicable.⁷ City marshals and the city sheriff charge the same rates by law, though their billing procedures differ.

On top of service fees, the enforcement officer collects poundage, a percentage of every dollar collected. In New York City, poundage is 5% of the total collected. Outside the city, it is 5% on the first $250,000 and 3% on anything above that.⁸ These fees come out of the collected funds before the creditor is paid, so build them into any projected recovery.

If Another Execution or Support Order Is Already in Place

New York does not limit a debtor to one income execution at a time. Multiple executions can be issued against the same debtor and the same employer, and they are satisfied in the order they were delivered to an enforcement officer: first in time, first in right.³ A later creditor’s execution collects nothing until the earlier one is fully satisfied, but it holds its place in line.

Support orders always jump ahead of regular income executions regardless of when they were filed.⁹ When the debtor is already subject to payroll deductions for child support, spousal support, or maintenance under CPLR 5241 or 5242, the income execution gets whatever room is left within the 25% cap. If support deductions already consume the full 25%, nothing is left for the income execution to collect.

What Happens After You File

Once an income execution is in effect, the debtor can move the court for an order modifying it, and the creditor has the same right. Under CPLR 5240, the court has broad authority to deny, limit, condition, or otherwise adjust any post-judgment enforcement procedure, including income executions.³ Common grounds include a claim that the employer is deducting more than the statute allows, a change in the debtor’s financial circumstances, or exempt income.

Employers do not have discretion to ignore a properly served execution. If an employer fails to withhold and remit, the judgment creditor can bring a proceeding to recover the accrued installments directly from the employer.³ Under CPLR 5205, 90% of a debtor’s earnings for personal services are exempt from any money judgment, which is the mirror of the 10% cap on the income execution itself.¹⁰ If the debtor’s only income is a federally protected benefit such as Social Security, those funds are shielded by federal law independent of the state rules and the execution will collect nothing from them.

1
New York Courts. Statute of Limitations Timetable
2
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 5230 – Executions
3
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 5231 – Income Execution
4
NYC Department of Finance. Request for an Execution from NYC Small Claims or Civil Court
5
NY.Gov. New York State’s Minimum Wage
6
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 5004 – Rate of Interest
7
NYC.gov. Marshals’ Judgments FAQ
8
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 8012 – Mileage Fees, Poundage Fees, Additional Compensation, and Limitation on Compensation of Sheriffs
9
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 5242 – Income Deduction Order for Support Enforcement
10
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules 5205 – Personal Property Exempt from Application to the Satisfaction of Money Judgments