1. Administering Payroll for United States Involuntary Deductions
  2. Proration Rules for Support Orders for the US

Proration Rules for Support Orders for the US

You can use proration calculation values on an employee's Involuntary Deductions card to set up proration.

Along with the proration hierarchy, these calculation values help to enforce the applicable state's proration rules. For the payroll process to properly calculate support values, the total of the proration values you enter must equal the total withholding amount. If you don't enter proration values, the payroll process continues to calculate proration using the total withholding amount.

Here's some areas of consideration for proration.

  • Default rules for states and territories

  • Electronic Income Withholding Orders (e-IWOs)

  • Proration overrides

For further info, see the following sections.

Default Rules for States and Territories

Each state and territory defines the hierarchy rules for the proration of their support orders. The payroll process uses the HRX_US_INVOL_DED_CALCULATION_RULES fast formula to identify the rules it needs to satisfy these requirements.

For example, Rule A prioritizes deduction proration in this order.

  1. Prorates current support amounts.

  2. If there's income remaining, the rule prorates all arrears amounts.

  3. If there's income remaining, it prorates current medical support amounts.

  4. If there's income remaining, it prorates all other support amounts.

For employees that have multiple support orders from different states, the payroll process uses the rules that apply to the first support order it processes.

As you can see below, most states follow Rule A.

This rule

Prorates deductions in this order

And is used by these states

Rule A

  1. Current support

  2. All arrears

  3. Current medical support

  4. Other

AK, AR, AZ, CA, CT, DC, DE, FL, HI, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MS, MT, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PR, SC, SD, VA, WA, WI, WV, WY

Rule B

  1. Current support

  2. Current medical support

  3. All arrears

  4. Other

AL, CO, GA, ID, NV, UT, VI

Rule C

  1. Current support

  2. Current medical support

  3. Support arrears

  4. Medical support arrears

  5. Other

GU, PA, VT

Rule D

  1. Current support and current medical support

  2. All arrears

  3. Other

OR, TX

Rule E

  1. Current child support and current medical support

  2. Current spousal support

  3. All arrears

  4. Other

MO

Rule F

  1. Current child support

  2. Current spousal support

  3. Current medical support

  4. Child support arrears

  5. Spousal support arrears

  6. Medical support arrears

  7. Other

NE

Rule G

  1. Current child support

  2. Current medical support

  3. Current spousal support

  4. All arrears

  5. Other

RI

Rule H

  1. Current child support

  2. Current medical support

  3. Current spousal support

  4. Child support arrears

  5. Medical support arrears

  6. Spousal support arrears

  7. Other

TN

Electronic Income Withholding Orders

When using the e-IWO process to load new and amended orders, it uses the current and arrears amounts provided on the order to load the proration calculation values.

For further info, see Human Resources Cloud Administering US Electronic Income Withholding Orders on the Help Center.

Proration Calculation Values

There are multiple calculation values to help you enforce the proration rules for your support orders. They are calculation value definitions you set on the card component.

These overrides apply to specific fields on the IWO form. The US Department of Health and Human Services provides complete info on this form, including instructions, samples, and a form you can download. For further info, see their Administration for Children and Families website.

Note: If these overrides aren't available, you must upgrade your element. For further info, see Upgrade Involuntary Deductions for the US in the Help Center.

Override

What it does

Proration Child Support Arrears Amount

Amount of arrears for the child support.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 6a of the IWO form.

Proration Child Support Current Amount

Amount of the current support for the child support.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 5a of the IWO form.

Proration Medical Support Arrears Amount

Amount of the arrears medical support for the child support.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 8a of the IWO form.

Proration Medical Support Current Amount

Amount of the current medical support for the child support.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 7a of the IWO form.

Proration Spousal Support Arrears Amount

Amount of arrears for the spousal support. This override can be used for alimony amounts if needed.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 10a of the IWO form.

Proration Spousal Support Current Amount

Amount of the current support for the spousal support. This override can be used for alimony amounts if needed.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 9a of the IWO form.

Proration Other Amount

Amount of any other miscellaneous items for the child support.

Note: For support orders, this value appears on field 11a of the IWO form.

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