Can Income Taxes Be Taken for Wage Garnishments in Missouri?

Garnishment

• If a person won't pay a money judgment voluntarily, then he may be compelled to do so through the forcible seizure of his assets. This can take the form of a seizure of money deposited within a bank account or the seizure of wages paid by an employer. While a creditor will usually seek out wages paid by an employer, he may also be allowed to tap other income streams.
  
  

Tax Refund

• One payment that a debtor might receive is an income tax refund. However, in Missouri, a private creditor cannot garnish an income tax refund. The only state in which a private creditor can apply to the government to garnish the tax refund of a person who owes a debt is Michigan. However, he may be able to seize the money once the debtor has deposited the refund check in his bank account.
  
  

Income Taxes

• A creditor can under no circumstances garnish the income taxes of an individual. This would be impossible for several reasons. For one, a creditor cannot intercept payments from an individual to the government: garnishments can only be applied to people paying the debtor. Second, the government would have first right to money that the individual owes in taxes on his income, before a private creditor.
  
  

Government Debts

• While a private creditor cannot garnish income tax refunds, a government tax collecting agency may be able to. If a person owes money to the state or federal government, whether for back taxes or for another type of debt, such as child support, then these governments may be able to withhold that person's income tax refund. However, the debtor's tax payments could not be diverted to pay another type of debt besides taxes.