The Treasury can order money to be taken from your payroll and your company is obliged to do so.

The Treasury can order money to be taken from your payroll and your company is obliged to do so.

The Tax Agency can order that part of your payroll be withheld. Although unknown to some workers, this can occur if the worker has debts or defaults pending with the Treasury, the State Administration or the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS). Likewise, this payroll seizure can also occur if a court has so decreed through a final ruling, in the event that the debt is owed to an individual or a private entity.

For this retention to occur, an Attachment Procedure must be received, whether it comes from an Administration or a court, as explained by Ligur Abogados. In the case at hand, when the seizure is going to be made on the payroll, it is the company where said employee works that will receive a notification from the body with which the debt is contracted, such as the Treasury.

In this notification, the amount of the embargo will appear, which is what the company will have to retain on the worker’s payroll. It should be noted that The company or employer is obliged to execute the withholding indicated by said order in the salary of its employee.and deposit said amount into the account that has been notified to you. If you do not do so, it would be understood that the company is the subsidiary responsible for the debt, so it could have to take charge of it and assume it.

The entire payroll cannot be seized

Despite the above, even if there is a garnishment order, in no case can they withhold all of the salary. As stated in article 607 of Law 1/2000 on Civil Procedure, “the salary, salary, pension, remuneration or its equivalent, which does not exceed the amount indicated for the interprofessional minimum wage, cannot be seized.”

This ‘protection’ is also included in article 27 of the Workers’ Statute, which establishes that “The minimum interprofessional salary, in its amount, both annual and monthly, cannot be seized”. This is why the SMI established at any time will always be charged. Now, if more than the minimum wage is charged, they can withhold part of our payroll.

This retention is applied based on a series of sections, which are established in article 607 of the Civil Procedure Law. These are the following:

  • First section: the same as the SMI. Nothing can be seized.
  • Second section: up to double the SMI. 30% of salary can be garnished.
  • Third section: up to triple the SMI. 50% of the payroll can be garnished.
  • Fourth section: up to four times the SMI. 60% can be seized.
  • Fifth section: up to five times the SMI. 75% can be seized.
  • Sixth tranche: any amount that exceeds the previous amount. Up to 90% can be seized.

As explained, the minimum wage cannot be seized, so These percentages are applied to the excess part of the Minimum Interprofessional Wage. For example, let’s imagine that we charge 1,200 euros. Taking into account the current minimum wage, of 1,134 euros (although they are going to raise it), they could seize 30% of 66 euros (19.8 euros).