Montana Wage Garnishment Calculator

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Montana Wage Garnishment Calculator

How much a Montana paycheck can lose to a wage garnishment, support order, DOR wage levy, student loan or Chapter 13 plan. MCA 25-13-614, 40-5-802, 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677. Estimates only.

Rules encoded (VERIFY): an ordinary wage garnishment takes the lesser of 25% of weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage ($217.50); at or below that floor nothing is withheld (MCA 25-13-614). The statute’s restrictions do not apply to support orders or other excepted process. The Montana Department of Revenue applies the same lesser-of formula to its wage levy, which runs for 120 days per issuance. Support income withholding follows the CCPA tiers 50 / 55 / 60 / 65% of disposable earnings (DPHHS IWO practice). IRS levies use Publication 1494. Federal student loan AWG uses 15% with the federal floor. Montana minimum wage is $10.55 (2025) and $10.85 (2026) but the garnishment floor keys to the federal rate. Judgment interest follows MCA 25-9-201 (8% placeholder – VERIFY). No discharge for one garnishment (15 U.S.C. 1674).

1. Mode, county and pay date

Stack uses the order boxes in section 3.
Context only; the floor uses federal $7.25.
Justice, City or District Court venue.
MCA 25-13-614 tests run weekly; scaled by 52 / periods.
Select a county to see the venue note and the statewide protected floor.

2. Gross pay and legally required withholding

Includes bonuses and commissions.
Voluntary 401(k) excluded.
Take-home only; not in the garnishment base.

3. Order type and amounts

0 applies the statutory maximum.
Informational; support sits outside the 25% aggregate.
Shares the 25% ceiling.

4. Balance and payoff

A DOR wage levy lapses after 120 days and may be reissued (VERIFY).
Montana judgment interest follows MCA 25-9-201 (8% placeholder – VERIFY).

How it works

  • Disposable = gross minus legally required withholding; voluntary shown separately.
  • Weekly conversion = 52 / periods (1, 2, 2.1667, 4.3333); MCA 25-13-614 tests run weekly.
  • Floor = 30x $7.25 = $217.50 weekly; at or below it nothing is withheld for ordinary debts.
  • Consumer cap = lesser of 25% of disposable and the above-floor amount, reduced by other non-support garnishments.
  • DOR wage levy uses the same lesser-of formula and runs 120 days per issuance.
  • Support = lesser of ordered and the CCPA tier 50 / 55 / 60 / 65% of disposable; the statute’s caps do not limit support.
  • Student loan = lesser of 15% disposable and above the federal 30x floor.
  • IRS = disposable above Pub 1494 exempt; no state cap applies.
  • Stack applies precedence in order and the 25% aggregate on non-support, non-tax orders.
  • Payoff amortizes at the entered rate and flags non-amortizing or zero-withholding cases.

Sources

  • MCA 25-13-614 (earnings of judgment debtor: 25% of disposable or excess over 30x federal minimum wage; exceptions for support and other process): mca.legmt.gov and codes.findlaw.com
  • Montana DOR garnishment formula for wage levy (same lesser-of formula; 120-day levy period): revenuefiles.mt.gov and revenue.mt.gov
  • Montana Law Help wage garnishment guide ($290 weekly reference, exemption claims): montanalawhelp.org
  • DPHHS child support income withholding orders (50% base, CCPA tiers, 7-business-day remittance): dphhs.mt.gov
  • 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677 and DOL Fact Sheet 30: dol.gov
  • Montana DLI minimum wage ($10.30 / $10.55 / $10.85, CPI indexed): erd.dli.mt.gov
  • IRS Pub 1494 and Form 668-W: irs.gov
  • 20 U.S.C. 1095a, 34 CFR 34.19: studentaid.gov
  • MCA 25-9-201 (judgment interest): mca.legmt.gov

Test cases

TC1 Yellowstone County, 2026, weekly. Gross $1,000.00; required $200.00; disposable $800.00. 25% cap $200.00; floor room $800.00 minus $217.50 = $582.50. Withheld $200.00, take-home $600.00, 25.00%. $4,000 at 8% clears in 21 weeks, total $4,200.00, interest $200.00.
TC2 Missoula County, 2026, weekly. Gross $260.00; required $50.00; disposable $210.00, at or below the $217.50 floor. Withheld $0.00. The 25% cap would have allowed $52.50 had the floor not barred it.
TC3 Gallatin County, 2026, biweekly. Gross $2,400.00; required $560.00; disposable $1,840.00. Child support, no second family, arrears 12 weeks or older: 65% tier $1,196.00; ordered $1,200.00. Withheld $1,196.00, take-home $644.00.
TC4 Flathead County, 2026, weekly, DOR wage levy. Gross $600.00; required $120.00; disposable $480.00. The DOR formula mirrors the statute: 25% cap $120.00 against floor room $262.50. Withheld $120.00, take-home $360.00; the levy runs 120 days per issuance.
TC5 Lewis and Clark County, 2026, biweekly, stack. Gross $2,400.00; required $560.00; disposable $1,840.00. Support $300.00; DOR $200.00 within its $460.00 cap; consumer requested $400.00 within the $460.00 25% cap and $1,405.00 floor room. Consumer $400.00, total $900.00, take-home $940.00.
Estimates only; not legal advice. All figures VERIFY, including the 25% and 30x federal floor formula of MCA 25-13-614 and its exceptions, the DOR 120-day levy practice and formula, the CCPA support tiers as applied by DPHHS, Justice and City Court jurisdiction limits, exemption claim deadlines and the MCA 25-9-201 judgment rate. Pub 1494 estimate uses 2026 standard deductions ($16,100 / $24,150 / $32,200) plus $5,300 per dependent plus $1,600 per age-65 or blind box. Not modeled: service-date priority, contested exemption hearings, automatic stays, self-employment income, bonuses, severance, pensions, unemployment or workers compensation. Consult a Montana attorney or Montana Legal Services. Deploy: replace the block, Update, purge cache, hard refresh; verify document.getElementById(“montana-wage-garnishment-calculator”).getAttribute(“data-js-ready”) returns “true” with no SyntaxError.

What Is a Montana Wage Garnishment Calculator?

A Montana wage garnishment calculator estimates withholding from gross pay, legally required deductions, pay frequency, order type, and applicable calculator limits. For an ordinary judgment, this tool uses the smaller of 25% of disposable earnings and disposable earnings above its 30-times-federal-minimum-wage floor, while also reducing available room for other non-support garnishments.

The calculator supports weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly pay. Its main result is the amount withheld per pay period. It also displays weekly and annual withholding, disposable earnings, the protected floor, take-home pay, the percentage of disposable earnings withheld, and the factor that limits the result.

The calculator provides estimates rather than legal determinations. Its interface labels several legal rules, procedures, interest assumptions, and timing statements for verification.

How the Montana Wage Garnishment Calculation Works

The first step is finding disposable earnings. The calculator adds the entered federal income tax, Montana income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and other required withholding. If that total exceeds gross pay, it is capped at gross pay. Voluntary deductions are handled separately.

D=G−min⁡(G,R)D=G-\min(G,R)

G is gross pay, R is total legally required withholding, and D is disposable earnings.

Ordinary consumer and private student loan judgments

For an ordinary consumer or private student loan judgment, the calculator uses an encoded federal minimum wage of $7.25 and a multiplier of 30. This produces a $217.50 weekly protected floor. The floor is scaled to the selected pay period.

s=52p,F=30(7.25)ss=\frac{52}{p},\qquad F=30(7.25)s

Here, p is the number of pay periods per year, s is the number of weeks represented by one paycheck, and F is the protected amount for that pay period. The calculator uses 52 annual periods for weekly pay, 26 for biweekly, 24 for semimonthly, and 12 for monthly pay.

The amount of disposable earnings above the protected floor is:

H=max⁡(0,D−F)H=\max(0,D-F)

The ordinary judgment calculation also creates a 25% disposable-earnings cap and subtracts other non-support garnishments from that 25% room.

A=max⁡(0,0.25D−O)A=\max(0,0.25D-O)

O is the amount entered for other non-support garnishments. The calculator's ordinary cap is therefore:

C=min⁡(0.25D,H,A)C=\min(0.25D,H,A)

If the entered amount demanded per period is zero, the calculator uses the full calculated cap. If a positive demanded amount is lower than the cap, it uses the lower amount instead.

Worked example

Suppose weekly gross pay is $1,000 and legally required withholding totals $200. Disposable earnings equal $800. Assume there are no voluntary deductions and no other non-support garnishments.

D=1000−200=800D=1000-200=800

Twenty-five percent of disposable earnings is $200. The amount above the $217.50 weekly floor is $582.50. The remaining 25% aggregate room is also $200.

C=min⁡(200,582.50,200)=200C=\min(200,582.50,200)=200

With no smaller positive amount demanded, the calculator displays $200.00 withheld for the week. Take-home pay after required withholding and garnishment is $600.00, and the garnishment equals 25.00% of disposable earnings.

Montana DOR wage levy calculation

The Montana DOR branch uses the same basic lesser-of structure as the ordinary calculation. It compares 25% of disposable earnings with disposable earnings above the 30-times-$7.25 floor. It then uses the lower value, subject to a lower positive amount demanded.

CDOR=min⁡(0.25D,H)C_{DOR}=\min(0.25D,H)

The calculator labels the DOR levy as running for 120 days per issuance. That duration is informational in the interface and does not shorten or prorate the numerical withholding calculation.

Support, federal student loan, IRS, and Chapter 13 formulas

Child support and maintenance use a separate percentage of disposable earnings. The code starts at 60% if the second-family box is not checked and 50% if it is checked. Selecting arrears of 12 weeks or older adds five percentage points.

Csupport=rD,r∈{0.50,0.55,0.60,0.65}C_{support}=rD,\qquad r\in\{0.50,0.55,0.60,0.65\}

Federal student loan AWG uses the smaller of 15% of disposable earnings and the amount of disposable earnings above the same federal floor.

CAWG=min⁡(0.15D,H)C_{AWG}=\min(0.15D,H)

An IRS levy uses disposable earnings above an estimated exempt amount. A positive override replaces the estimate. Otherwise, the code uses the selected year's built-in standard deduction, adds $5,300 per dependent and $1,600 per age-65-or-blind box, then divides by annual pay periods.

E=S+5300d+1600bp,CIRS=max⁡(0,D−E)E=\frac{S+5300d+1600b}{p},\qquad C_{IRS}=\max(0,D-E)

S is the built-in standard deduction, d is the dependent count, and b is the age-65-or-blind count. The calculator floors those two count fields to whole numbers before using them.

Chapter 13 converts the entered monthly plan payment into a per-pay-period amount and caps it at disposable earnings.

CCh13=min⁡(D,12Mp)C_{Ch13}=\min\left(D,\frac{12M}{p}\right)

M is the entered monthly Chapter 13 payment.

Payoff timeline formula

Payoff mode uses the calculated withholding as a recurring payment. The APR field defaults to 8% and accepts values from 0% through 40%. For a positive APR, the calculator converts the annual rate into a per-period rate and applies an amortization formula.

i=APR100p,n=⌈−ln⁡(1−BiP)ln⁡(1+i)⌉i=\frac{APR}{100p},\qquad n=\left\lceil\frac{-\ln\left(1-\frac{Bi}{P}\right)}{\ln(1+i)}\right\rceil

B is the balance, P is withholding per period, i is the periodic interest rate, and n is the number of pay periods. If the payment does not exceed one period of interest, the calculator reports that the balance does not amortize.

For example, a $4,000 balance at 8% APR with a $200 weekly payment produces 21 periods in the calculator. It displays $4,200 total paid and $200 interest. For positive APR calculations, the code multiplies the rounded-up number of periods by the full payment rather than reducing the final modeled payment.

How to Use the Montana Wage Garnishment Calculator

  1. Select Single order, Stacking, or Payoff timeline mode.
  2. Choose the wage year, Montana county, and pay frequency.
  3. Enter gross pay and any federal tax, Montana tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and other required withholding.
  4. Enter voluntary deductions separately if you want them reflected in take-home pay.
  5. Select the order type and enter an amount demanded per period when applicable. A zero amount uses the calculated maximum in single-order mode.
  6. Complete any support, IRS, Chapter 13, stacking, debt-balance, or APR fields that apply.
  7. Check the required acknowledgment and select Calculate.

The primary result is “Withheld per pay period.” The results also show weekly and annual withholding, gross and disposable earnings, the protected floor, applicable caps, remaining room, take-home pay, and the share of disposable earnings withheld. Currency values are displayed with two decimal places, and the withholding percentage is displayed to two decimal places.

Important Inputs and Calculation Details

Pay frequency affects how the calculator scales its weekly floor. Biweekly pay represents two weeks. Semimonthly pay represents about 2.1667 weeks, and monthly pay represents about 4.3333 weeks.

The year selector contains Montana minimum-wage values of $10.30 for 2024, $10.55 for 2025, and $10.85 for 2026. Those values are shown as context. The ordinary garnishment floor still uses the encoded federal $7.25 rate. The selected year does affect the calculator's built-in IRS exemption estimate.

County is required but does not change the numerical withholding formula. The selection is used for venue and procedure text. Gross pay must be greater than zero, and the required acknowledgment must be checked before results are shown.

Most money fields accept values from $0 through $10,000,000. The balance field accepts up to $100,000,000. IRS dependents accept 0 through 20, and the age-65-or-blind field accepts 0 through 2. The APR field accepts 0% through 40%.

The “Support already withheld” input is displayed in the results but does not reduce the ordinary single-order calculation. “Other non-support garnishments” does reduce the ordinary 25% room. Voluntary deductions do not reduce disposable earnings; they are subtracted later when take-home pay is calculated.

How stacking mode works

Stacking mode processes five dedicated order fields in this sequence: support, IRS levy, DOR wage levy, federal student loan AWG, and consumer judgment. A zero value in one of these fields means that order contributes nothing.

Support is limited by its support percentage and remaining disposable earnings. The IRS step uses remaining earnings above the estimated IRS exemption. The DOR step uses the smaller of 25% of original disposable earnings and the floor-room amount, then also limits withholding to the amount still remaining.

The AWG step uses 15% of original disposable earnings and the federal floor. It is not separately capped to the disposable earnings remaining after support, IRS, and DOR deductions. In an extreme combination, the internal remaining amount can therefore become negative, although displayed take-home pay is floored at $0.00.

The consumer step uses the ordinary consumer-cap calculation, so the entered “Other non-support garnishments” amount can reduce its cap. It also applies separate remaining room after the AWG step. Because those reductions are handled in separate tests rather than added together, stacking results involving several overlapping non-support attachments should be read as the calculator's programmed estimate rather than a combined legal determination.

Stacking mode also opens the payoff panel and uses total stacked withholding as its recurring payment. A positive balance is not separately required for stack mode, so leaving the balance at zero causes the payoff panel to display its “Enter a balance” state.

This is a legal and financial estimate. Actual court orders, exemptions, levy rules, interest rates, priority rules, and procedural requirements can differ from the assumptions encoded in the calculator. The interface itself marks these legal figures for verification.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the calculator estimate an ordinary Montana wage garnishment?

It compares 25% of disposable earnings with the amount of disposable earnings above its $217.50 weekly protected floor. It also reduces the available 25% room by other non-support garnishments. The smallest applicable amount becomes the cap before any lower positive amount demanded is applied.

What counts as disposable earnings?

The calculator subtracts entered federal income tax, Montana income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and other required withholding from gross pay. If those required deductions exceed gross pay, the deduction total is capped at gross pay. Voluntary deductions are excluded from disposable earnings.

Does Montana minimum wage change the protected floor?

No. The calculator displays Montana minimum-wage figures for context, but the ordinary garnishment and federal student loan floor calculations use its encoded federal minimum wage of $7.25. Thirty times that rate produces the $217.50 weekly floor used by the calculation.

How does the calculator handle a Montana DOR wage levy?

The DOR branch uses the smaller of 25% of disposable earnings and disposable earnings above the calculator's federal wage floor. A lower positive demanded amount can reduce the result. The interface also identifies the levy as lasting 120 days per issuance, but that duration does not alter the per-paycheck formula.

What does zero in the amount demanded field mean?

In single-order mode, zero tells the calculator to use the maximum produced by the selected order's formula. If a positive demanded amount is lower than that cap, the smaller demand is used. In stacking mode, zero in one of the five dedicated order fields means that order contributes no withholding.

How does support withholding work in the calculator?

The support calculation starts at 60% of disposable earnings without a second-family selection and 50% with that box selected. Checking the arrears-12-weeks box adds five percentage points. The four possible programmed rates are therefore 50%, 55%, 60%, and 65%.

Why might payoff mode show no payoff period?

The payoff section shows no positive period count when the balance is zero, withholding is zero, or a positive-interest payment does not cover one period of accrued interest. In that last case, the calculator reports that the balance never amortizes because the recurring payment cannot reduce it.

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