Under Virginia wage garnishment limits, a standard creditor can withhold the lesser of two amounts each week: 25% of your disposable earnings, or the portion of those earnings that exceeds $510.80. That $510.80 floor is 40 times Virginia’s 2026 minimum wage of $12.77 an hour, and if your weekly disposable pay lands at or below it, your entire paycheck is protected from an ordinary creditor garnishment. Different rules apply to child support, alimony, and IRS levies, and Virginia gives you a fast, no-fee way to challenge a garnishment or claim exempt income.
The Formula, With Real Numbers
Virginia Code § 34-29 sets the cap for garnishments tied to ordinary judgments — credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and similar debts. Your employer applies a “lesser of” test each pay period:
- 25% of your disposable earnings, meaning your pay after federally required deductions (federal and state income tax, Social Security, Medicare). Voluntary deductions like health insurance premiums or retirement contributions do not reduce the figure.
- The amount by which your disposable earnings exceed 40 times the applicable minimum wage. Virginia uses whichever is higher between the federal rate ($7.25) and the state rate ($12.77 as of January 1, 2026). At $12.77, the protected floor is $510.80 per week.
Two examples show how the “lesser of” rule cuts. Someone with $700 in weekly disposable earnings loses at most $175 (25% of $700), because that’s smaller than the $189.20 that sits above the $510.80 floor. Someone earning $550 in disposable pay loses only $39.20 — the amount over the floor — even though 25% of the paycheck would have been $137.50. And someone whose disposable earnings are $510.80 or less loses nothing at all.
These limits are more protective than the federal baseline in the Consumer Credit Protection Act, which uses 30 times the federal minimum wage ($217.50 per week). When state and federal wage garnishment rules diverge, the one that leaves the worker with more money controls.
Support Orders and IRS Levies Follow Different Rules
The 25% cap and the $510.80 floor cover ordinary creditor garnishments only. If the money is coming out for child support, alimony, or federal taxes, do not use the formula above.
Child Support and Alimony
Virginia Code § 34-29(b1) allows up to 50% of disposable earnings to be withheld for a support order if you are supporting a current spouse or another child, and up to 60% if you are not. An additional 5% is added — bringing the ceiling to 55% or 65% — once you fall more than 12 weeks behind. The $510.80 weekly floor does not apply to support withholding. When a support order and a creditor garnishment both hit your pay, the support order is satisfied first, and the creditor can only reach what remains under its own cap.
IRS Wage Levies
An IRS levy is not a garnishment and ignores the Virginia caps entirely. The IRS instead sets an exempt amount using your filing status, dependents, and the standard deduction, published each year in IRS Publication 1494. For 2026, a single filer with no dependents paid weekly keeps $309.62 per pay period, plus $101.92 for each claimed dependent. Everything above the exempt figure goes to the IRS until the debt is paid or the levy is released.
Income That Cannot Be Touched
Some income is off-limits to creditors no matter what the formula would allow, and the protection travels with the money into your bank account as long as the source is still identifiable.
- Social Security retirement, disability, and survivor benefits are broadly protected under 42 U.S.C. § 407.
- VA disability and pension benefits carry similar federal protection.
- State-administered benefits like TANF, SNAP, and unemployment insurance are generally exempt from commercial garnishment.
- Child support and spousal support you receive are exempt under Virginia Code § 34-26.
- Portions of a tax refund attributable to the Child Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, or the Earned Income Credit are exempt under Virginia Code § 34-26.
Virginia also allows a householder to claim a homestead exemption under § 34-4 (up to $5,000 in general personal property, or $10,000 if you are 65 or older; up to $50,000 in a principal residence; plus $500 per dependent) and a “poor debtor’s” list under § 34-26 that shields specific items like tools of your trade, a vehicle up to $10,000, and household furnishings. These matter most when a creditor tries to reach property or a bank account rather than a paycheck, but they can be stacked with the wage protections.
How to Challenge a Garnishment
Every garnishment summons must arrive with a notice of exemptions and a claim form. That’s required by Virginia Code § 8.01-512.4. If you think the garnishment is calculating too much, reaching exempt income, or should not have issued at all, you can move quickly.
Use Form DC-454, available from any General District Court clerk’s office or the Virginia Judicial System website. Fill in the case number, the names of the creditor and your employer, and the legal basis for your claim — the § 34-29 wage cap, the § 34-4 homestead exemption, or the specific statute protecting the income at issue. Attach recent pay stubs and, if you are protecting deposited benefits, bank statements that trace the money back to its source. File the form with the clerk of the court that issued the summons. There is no filing fee.
Once you file, you are entitled to a hearing within seven business days. The court notifies the creditor and your employer. Your employer keeps withholding in the meantime, but the money is held by the court or the employer rather than paid to the creditor until the judge decides. At the hearing you present your evidence, the creditor responds, and the judge can release the withheld funds back to you, reduce the garnishment going forward, or let it continue.
Withholding does not stop on the day of judgment. Your employer starts with the next pay period after being served and continues until the return date set on the summons, which for wage garnishments can run up to 180 days. On the return date, the accumulated funds go to the court unless an exemption has been sustained.
Your Job Is Protected — For One Debt
Virginia Code § 34-29(f) bars your employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for a single debt, regardless of how long the garnishment runs or how much is owed. Federal law under the Consumer Credit Protection Act says the same, so you have doubled coverage.
That protection ends once garnishments from two or more separate creditors are hitting your paycheck. Neither statute prevents termination at that point. If more than one debt is heading toward judgment, settling or negotiating a payment plan before a second garnishment lands is often the only way to preserve the discharge protection you have on the first.
An employer who fires you over a single-debt garnishment can be liable for wrongful termination, but these claims have short windows. If you were let go shortly after a summons was served and you believe the garnishment was the reason, talk to an employment attorney without waiting.