Wage garnishment in Virginia

Most a card or medical judgment can take

25% of take-home pay or the part above $510.80 a week if lesssource

Pay you always keep

$510.80 a week (40 x $12.77 Virginia minimum wage)source

Hearing after you file an exemption claim

Within 7 business dayssource

Bank accounts

$1,000 held back automatically by the banksource

How much of my paycheck can be garnished in Virginia?

Under Code of Virginia section 34-29, a creditor gets the smaller of two numbers each week: 25% of your disposable earnings (pay left after the deductions the law requires, such as taxes) or whatever is above 40 times the minimum wage. The law uses the federal or the Virginia rate, whichever is higher.

The Virginia minimum wage statute sets $12.77 an hour for 2026, so the protected floor is $510.80. The rate climbs to $13.75 on January 1, 2027 and $15.00 on January 1, 2028, which lifts the floor to $550 and then $600.

• Take-home of $500 a week: nothing can be withheld.
• Take-home of $600: only $89.20 can go.
• Take-home of $900: the 25% figure, $225, is the most.

You get this protection without filing anything. The garnishment papers must show your employer how to figure it.

The summons in garnishment and its return date

A creditor first has to sue you and win a judgment. It then asks the court clerk for a summons in garnishment, which a sheriff can serve on your employer. A wage summons must be made returnable to the court no more than 180 days after it is issued, according to section 8.01-514. The return date is the day the court looks at the garnishment again.

Withholding keeps going until the debt is paid or that return date arrives, whichever happens first. After it passes, the creditor can file again. Virginia legal aid notes that your copy of the papers comes with an exemption claim form, often on colored paper and stapled to the summons. Keep every page.

Filing the DC-454 exemption claim

Every garnishment summons must carry a notice of exemptions and a claim form. Virginia’s court form is the DC-454 Request for Hearing, Garnishment/Lien Exemption Claim. You check the exemptions that fit, such as wages above the legal limit, Social Security, unemployment or public assistance and deliver or mail the form to the clerk of the court that issued the summons.

The law gives you a hearing within seven business days of filing. Bring pay stubs, benefit letters and bank statements. If you think the wrong amount is being withheld, you may file the claim even though the wage limit itself applies on its own. Act early: legal aid warns that money already paid over to the creditor is very hard to get back. Call and a garnishment specialist reads your summons and return date with you.

Can my bank account be garnished in Virginia?

Yes, but a 2026 law changed what the bank must leave you. Under section 34-4.3, a bank or credit union that gets a garnishment summons must keep up to $1,000 across all your accounts there and you keep full use of it. The amount is set to adjust for inflation on April 1, 2027 and every three years after that.

The Virginia Legal Aid bank garnishment guide adds that direct deposits of exempt benefits from the past two months, like Social Security or unemployment, should also be protected without any action from you. This automatic protection does not apply when the debt is child support or spousal support. If the bank took exempt money anyway, file the DC-454 and bring proof of where the deposits came from.

State tax garnishments under the July 2027 change

Today, the 25% and 40-hour limits do not cover support orders, Chapter 13 bankruptcy orders or debts for state or federal taxes. A version of section 34-29 taking effect July 1, 2027, drops state taxes from that list. From then on, a Virginia tax garnishment has to respect the same weekly floor as a card or medical judgment. Federal tax levies stay outside the limit.

Support orders follow their own caps: 50% to 65% of disposable earnings, depending on whether you support another spouse or child and whether the arrears are older than 12 weeks.