Pennsylvania is the state where wage garnishment supposedly does not exist: under 42 Pa.C.S. §8127, wages are generally exempt from attachment, and an ordinary creditor who wins a judgment against you normally collects $0 from your paycheck. State taxes are the great exception. Under Act 46 of 2003 (72 P.S. §10003.15), the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue (DOR) can order your employer to withhold 10% of your gross wages for delinquent state taxes — with no court order at all. This page covers only that Pennsylvania state-tax process. If your garnisher is the IRS instead, the federal rules are entirely different — start with the wage garnishment hub and the IRS rules and timeline.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Pennsylvania’s state-tax garnishment rules are set by Act 46 and the Department of Revenue’s published procedures; confirm your own notice details against the department’s current pages.
| Ordinary judgment creditor | PA Department of Revenue (state taxes) | |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | 42 Pa.C.S. §8127 | Act 46 of 2003, 72 P.S. §10003.15 |
| Court order needed? | Wages are exempt — normally nothing to order | No court order required |
| Amount from your paycheck | $0 in the usual case | 10% of gross wages each pay period |
| Exceptions in the law | Support, divorce property distribution, board of four weeks or less, student (PHEAA) loans, criminal restitution, residential rent | Any delinquent state tax, including corporate-officer (responsible-person) assessments |
Taxes are pointedly not on the §8127 exception list. That is exactly why the DOR does not act under §8127 at all — it uses its separate Act 46 authority, which is not limited by the exemption. Readers who stop at “Pennsylvania doesn’t allow wage garnishment” miss the one garnisher the state actually sends.
The order takes 10% of gross wages — the full amount before any deductions, not what lands in your bank account. The DOR counts salary, commissions, bonuses, employer-controlled tips and exercised employee stock options as gross wages. There is no exempt-amount table and no percentage-of-disposable-earnings calculation on the state side: the federal Publication 1494 exempt amounts apply to IRS levies, not to a DOR order.
Before anything reaches your employer, the DOR must send you a Notice of Intent to Garnish Wages at least 30 days before the Official Order of Wage Garnishment issues. The notice itself lists what avoids the garnishment if done inside those 30 days:
Treat the date printed on the notice as a hard deadline. Everything on this page that can still help you lives inside that window.
Here is the rule this page exists to teach, in the DOR’s own position: once the Official Order of Wage Garnishment has been issued, a payment plan is no longer an option to resolve the liability. You may make extra voluntary payments on top of the garnishment to burn the balance down faster, but the garnishment will not be released until the liability is paid in full or a bankruptcy is filed. There is no hardship-release valve on the state order comparable to the federal §6343 hardship release.
Disagreeing with the tax does not stop it either. The garnishment continues while you dispute; the remedy the DOR names is a Board of Appeals petition after payment, filed within the statute of limitations. The generic state track — identify the garnisher, call the agency, claim hardship — is mapped on how to stop tax garnishment; in Pennsylvania, the timing rule above overrides most of it.
You earn $1,000 a week in gross pay and owe delinquent Pennsylvania tax.
On receiving the Official Notice, your employer must return the Employer Certification Notice, begin withholding within 60 days of the Date Issued, withhold 10% of gross wages each pay period until an Official Notice of Wage Garnishment Termination arrives, and remit within 3 business days of each withholding. The DOR order is paid ahead of garnishments received later — except child support, which may be paid first regardless of the date received. Questions go to the DOR’s Wage Garnishment Section, 717-425-2495 ext. 91130. (Federal employer duties under an IRS levy are a separate subject — see employer obligations.)
Other states in this series: North Carolina, South Carolina, New York.
I received a Notice of Intent to Garnish Wages — what do I do? Act inside the 30 days from the Date Issued: pay the liability in full (myPATH, or check with voucher to the address on the notice), set up a formal payment plan, or send the department proof of a petition or of a bankruptcy filing. If none of those happens, the order goes to your employer — and the payment-plan option disappears with it.
Can the PA Department of Revenue garnish my wages without going to court? Yes. Act 46 of 2003 (72 P.S. §10003.15) authorizes an administrative wage garnishment order for any delinquent tax, including assessments against corporate officers. No judge, judgment or court order is involved.
How much can Pennsylvania take — is it 10% of gross or net pay? Gross. Both the statute-based notice and the DOR’s wage garnishment page state 10% of gross wages — salary, commissions, bonuses, employer-controlled tips and exercised stock options, before deductions. (Some secondary websites describe a net-pay figure; the department’s own documents say gross.)
Can I set up a payment plan after the garnishment order has been issued? No — that is the DOR’s stated rule. Once the Official Order issues, a payment plan is no longer an option. You can pay extra voluntarily alongside the garnishment, but the order stays in place until the liability is paid in full or a bankruptcy is filed.
How does a PA wage garnishment end — when will my employer stop withholding? When the liability is paid in full (or a bankruptcy is filed), the DOR sends an Official Notice of Wage Garnishment Termination, and withholding stops. Until that notice arrives, your employer must keep withholding 10% of gross each pay period.
My employer got the order — when must they start, and how fast must they remit? The employer returns the Employer Certification Notice, must implement withholding within 60 days of the order’s Date Issued, and must remit each withholding to the department within 3 business days. The employer may keep 2% of the amount garnished as an administrative fee.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Sources: PA Department of Revenue, “Wage Garnishment” page and Notice of Intent / Official Notice examples (pa.gov); Act 46 of 2003, 72 P.S. §10003.15; 42 Pa.C.S. §8127. Currency verified 2026-10-23.