To claim a wage garnishment exemption in Wisconsin, complete the Wisconsin Garnishment Exemption Form CV-424 (Earnings Garnishment – Debtor’s Answer), check every exemption ground that applies to you, and deliver the signed form to your employer. Your employer must treat the exemption as valid and stop or reduce the withholding unless a court later rules otherwise. You can file at any time while the garnishment is active, but any money already sent to the creditor before your form arrives is gone, so speed matters more than any formal deadline.
Who Qualifies for an Exemption
Wisconsin law already protects 80 percent of your disposable earnings from any garnishment. Disposable earnings are what remains after Social Security, federal income tax, and state income tax are taken out. Voluntary deductions like health insurance or retirement contributions don’t count.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.34 – Exemption So the most a creditor can ever take is 20 percent. The CV-424 form exists to claim protection beyond that baseline.
Your earnings are fully exempt if either of these is true:
- Your household’s total income is at or below the federal poverty line for your family size.
- You currently receive, received within the past six months, or have been determined eligible for public assistance, medical assistance, Supplemental Security Income, FoodShare, county relief under § 59.53(21), or need-based veterans benefits.
Even if you don’t qualify for a full exemption, you may qualify for a partial one. If a standard 20-percent garnishment would push your household income below the poverty line, the creditor can only take the amount by which your household income exceeds the poverty line.1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.34 – Exemption This is where filing the form matters most, and where debtors who assume the garnishment is fixed often lose money they were entitled to keep.
Debts the Exemption Does Not Cover
Before filling out anything, confirm what the creditor is collecting. The exemptions above do not apply to three categories of debt under § 812.34(1):1Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.34 – Exemption
- Judgments for child support or spousal support.
- Federal, state, or local unpaid tax debts.
- Orders under Wisconsin’s Chapter 128 debtor relief or a federal Chapter 13 repayment plan.
If the garnishment is for one of these, CV-424 won’t help you reduce what’s being withheld on poverty or public-assistance grounds. You may still have other defenses to raise in Section 3 of the form.
Forms to Have in Front of You
The creditor was required to serve you with the exemption notice (CV-423), a blank Debtor’s Answer (CV-424), and the poverty-guideline worksheets when the garnishment started.2Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.35 – Commencement of Action If you can’t find them, download fresh copies from the Wisconsin Court System’s Circuit Court Forms page under Small Claims/Garnishment.3Wisconsin Court System. Circuit Court Forms Three forms do the work:
- CV-424, the Debtor’s Answer, is the form you sign and deliver to your employer.
- CV-426 is a three-schedule worksheet that walks you through your disposable earnings and whether the poverty-line reduction applies.
- CV-427 is a reference table converting the annual federal poverty level into weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly figures for household sizes one through eight. Wisconsin updates it every July 1.
Only CV-424 is delivered to your employer. Keep CV-426 and CV-427 with your records in case the creditor objects.
Filling Out CV-424 Section by Section
Start at the top. Copy the county, case number, creditor’s name, and garnishee (employer) name from the garnishment papers you received. Any mismatch here creates confusion when your employer forwards the answer to the creditor.
Section 1 is where you check every ground for exemption that applies. The options are:4Wisconsin Court System. Earnings Garnishment – Debtor’s Answer
- Box (a) or (b): the judgment has already been paid or was discharged in bankruptcy.
- Box (c): a bankruptcy filing is active and the automatic stay is in effect. Enter the bankruptcy court name and case number.
- Box (e): you receive, recently received, or were found eligible for need-based public assistance. Mark every specific program that applies.
- Box (f): at least 25 percent of your disposable earnings are already assigned to child support or maintenance by court order.
- Box (g): your household income is below the federal poverty line for your family size.
- Box (h) or (i): the standard 20 percent garnishment, or the amount by which your earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, would push your household below the poverty line. The garnishment then drops to whatever keeps you at the line.
Section 2 is for partial reductions when you aren’t claiming a full exemption but the withholding is still too high. The common scenario: you already pay court-ordered child support that’s less than 25 percent of disposable earnings, and a new garnishment on top of it would push the total past the 25 percent cap. Check the box and show the math.
Section 3 is an open field for any other defense, such as mistaken identity or a void judgment.
Sign and date at the bottom. The form carries a bad-faith warning: claiming an exemption you know you don’t qualify for exposes you to the creditor’s actual damages, costs, and attorney fees.4Wisconsin Court System. Earnings Garnishment – Debtor’s Answer
Doing the Math on CV-426
You don’t have to attach CV-426 to your answer, but if you check the poverty-line boxes without running the numbers, you may either overclaim (bad-faith risk) or underclaim (money leaves your paycheck that shouldn’t). Use the same pay-period basis throughout: weekly income against weekly poverty figures, monthly against monthly.5Wisconsin Court System. Garnishment Exemption Worksheet
Schedule 1 totals your household income. Column A is your disposable earnings; Column B is every other source in the household, including a spouse’s pay, Social Security, or pension.
Schedule 2 finds the standard garnishment amount. You calculate 20 percent of your disposable earnings and compare it to the amount by which your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. At $7.25 per hour, that floor is $217.50 per week. If your weekly disposable earnings are below $217.50, nothing can be garnished. The creditor gets the lesser of the two figures.
Schedule 3 applies the poverty test. Look up your household size on CV-427 for the correct pay period. Add the Schedule 2 garnishment amount to that poverty threshold. If the total exceeds your household income, the garnishment must be reduced so your household stays at or above the poverty line. If your household income is already below the poverty line, your earnings are fully exempt and Schedule 2 doesn’t matter.
2025–2026 Poverty Guidelines
These figures apply from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 on the CV-427 schedule.6Wisconsin Court System. Poverty Guidelines for Earnings
- 1 person: $301/week · $602/biweekly · $652/semimonthly · $1,304/month
- 2 persons: $407/week · $813/biweekly · $881/semimonthly · $1,763/month
- 3 persons: $513/week · $1,025/biweekly · $1,110/semimonthly · $2,221/month
- 4 persons: $618/week · $1,237/biweekly · $1,340/semimonthly · $2,679/month
- 5 persons: $724/week · $1,448/biweekly · $1,569/semimonthly · $3,138/month
- 6 persons: $830/week · $1,660/biweekly · $1,798/semimonthly · $3,596/month
- 7 persons: $936/week · $1,871/biweekly · $2,027/semimonthly · $4,054/month
- 8 persons: $1,041/week · $2,083/biweekly · $2,256/semimonthly · $4,513/month
For each additional household member, add $106/week, $212/biweekly, $229/semimonthly, or $458/month. After July 1, 2026, pull a fresh CV-427 from the court system’s website.
Delivering the Form to Your Employer
Deliver or mail the completed CV-424 to your employer, the garnishee named on the paperwork. You don’t file it with the court, and you don’t send it to the creditor.7Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.37 – Debtor’s Answer Your employer must mail a copy to the creditor by the end of the third business day after they receive your answer.
First-class mail is fine. Certified mail with a return receipt isn’t required, but it creates proof of when you delivered the form if timing later comes up. Write the delivery date on CV-424 in the designated field.
Section 812.37(1) lets you file an answer or amended answer at any point before or during the garnishment’s effective period.7Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.37 – Debtor’s Answer Practically, though, get the form to your employer before the next payroll runs. Money already forwarded to the creditor is not recovered by a later filing.
After You Submit
Under § 812.37(3), your employer must accept your claimed exemption as true and withhold only what you acknowledged is subject to garnishment, unless a court orders otherwise.7Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.37 – Debtor’s Answer Your employer doesn’t evaluate whether your claim is correct. They follow the checkboxes.
The creditor can push back by filing a motion for a hearing with the court. There’s no fixed deadline for them to object; the statute allows a motion at any time during the garnishment.8Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.38 – Judicial Hearing Once filed, the court schedules a hearing within five business days.
Bring proof to the hearing. If you claimed the poverty-line protection, bring your completed CV-426, recent pay stubs, and something documenting household size. If you claimed the public-assistance exemption, bring the benefit award letter or eligibility notice. The court either confirms your exemption or sustains the objection and reinstates the garnishment.
If the creditor never objects, your exemption stands for the duration of that garnishment without any further order.
Mistakes That Sink a Claim
The biggest one is not filing at all. Wisconsin’s system assumes debtors who qualify will use CV-424; if you don’t, the standard 20 percent keeps coming out even when a partial reduction would have applied.
The next is checking the poverty-line box without running CV-426. The form doesn’t ask for the worksheet, but a creditor’s objection puts the math in front of a judge fast. Working through it also flags cases where you qualify only for a partial reduction. Claiming a full exemption when you’re entitled to a partial one is what triggers the form’s bad-faith exposure.
Mismatched pay periods are a quiet killer. If your paycheck is biweekly, every income figure and every poverty threshold you use has to come from the biweekly column. Mixing weekly income against monthly poverty numbers produces a nonsensical result that a hearing will not save.
If your income or benefits status changes while the garnishment is running, file an amended CV-424 with your employer. The same rules apply: the employer forwards a copy to the creditor and honors the updated exemption unless a court says otherwise.7Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 812.37 – Debtor’s Answer