Has Missouri opted out of the federal exemption list, and what does that leave?

Yes, Missouri has opted out of the federal § 522(d) list (RSMo § 513.427). That controls where Missouri law is the exemption law that applies under the domicile rule in 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), described in the next question, rather than for everyone who files here. It also leaves plenty standing: § 522(b)(3) reaches property exempt under federal law other than § 522(d), certain tenancy-by-the-entirety or joint-tenancy interests, and qualifying retirement funds.

What if I moved to Missouri recently?

Under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), the applicable exemption law is that of the place where your domicile was located for the 730 days immediately preceding filing. If it was not in a single state for that period, it is the place of domicile for the 180 days immediately preceding those 730 days, or for a longer portion of that 180-day period than in any other place. If that requirement would leave a debtor ineligible for any exemption, § 522 permits electing the federal list.

What if one earlier bankruptcy case of mine was dismissed in the past year?

Under § 362(c)(3), if a later single or joint case is filed by or against an individual under chapter 7, 11 or 13, and a single or joint case of that debtor was pending within the preceding 1-year period but was dismissed — other than a case refiled under a chapter other than 7 after a § 707(b) dismissal — the stay ends as to the debtor on the 30th day after filing, for any action regarding a debt, property securing it, or a lease. Ask a lawyer about your own assets.

What if two or more of my cases were dismissed in the past year?

Under § 362(c)(4), if a later single or joint case is filed by or against an individual and two or more of their single or joint cases were pending within the previous year but were dismissed — excepting a case refiled under a chapter other than 7 after a § 707(b) dismissal — the stay does not go into effect at all upon the later filing, and on request of a party in interest the court shall promptly confirm that none is in effect. Any later stay comes only by court order.

How does a court extend or impose a stay in a repeat filing?

Both require a party in interest to ask, notice and a hearing, and a showing that the later filing is in good faith as to the creditors to be stayed. On a motion under § 362(c)(3)(B), the hearing must be completed before the 30-day period expires, and the court may extend it as to any or all creditors. Under § 362(c)(4)(B) the request comes within 30 days after the later filing, and the court may impose a stay as to any or all creditors, effective when entered. Neither is automatic.

How long does an automatic stay last, and can a creditor end it early?

The stay of an act against property of the estate continues while that property remains property of the estate; the stay of other acts continues until the earliest of the case closing, dismissal, or — in an individual chapter 7 or a chapter 9, 11, 12 or 13 case — discharge granted or denied (11 U.S.C. § 362(c)). On a party in interest's request, after notice and a hearing, a court shall grant relief from the stay for cause (§ 362(d)). Repeat filings and § 362(b) exceptions can cut it shorter.

Wages & debt

Wage Garnishment in Missouri: What the Law Says and What Bankruptcy Changes

Missouri caps ordinary wage garnishment at the least of 25% of weekly earnings after legally required withholding, the amount exceeding thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage, or 10% for a head of a family who resides in Missouri (RSMo § 525.030). Support orders, chapter XIII bankruptcy orders and state or federal tax debts are excepted. Filing generally operates as an automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362(a), which commonly halts collection of a prepetition judgment, subject to statutory exceptions, court-ordered relief and repeat-filing limits.

Key points

RSMo § 525.030 limits an ordinary judgment garnishment to the least of three figures, and the 10% figure applies only to an employee who is both the head of a family and a Missouri resident.
Those caps do not apply to an order of any court for the support of any person, an order of a court of bankruptcy under chapter XIII of the Bankruptcy Act, or a debt due for any state or federal tax (RSMo § 525.030).
A continuous wage garnishment can reach earnings until the judgment is paid in full or until the employment relationship is terminated, whichever occurs first (RSMo § 525.040).
An employer may not discharge an employee because earnings have been garnished for any one indebtedness, and a willful violation is a misdemeanor (RSMo § 525.030).
Missouri has opted out of the federal § 522(d) list (RSMo § 513.427), so that opt-out governs whenever Missouri exemption law is what applies under the federal domicile rule in 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A) — not simply because someone files in Missouri or lives there now — and federal exemptions outside § 522(d), including qualifying retirement funds, remain separate.

If money is already coming out of your paycheck, the first useful thing is knowing what Missouri's statutes actually cap and what they leave to other rules. This page walks through the state's wage limits and garnishee duties, the federal ceiling that runs alongside them, and what filing a bankruptcy petition changes. It is general information about statutes, not advice about your situation.

How much of your pay can be garnished in Missouri?

Missouri's ceiling is in RSMo § 525.030. For any workweek, the maximum part of your aggregate earnings subject to garnishment — measured after deducting any amounts required by law to be withheld — may not exceed the least of three figures: 25%; the amount by which those earnings exceed thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 in effect when the earnings are payable; or 10%, but only if the employee is both the head of a family and a resident of Missouri. "Earnings" means compensation paid or payable for personal services, whether called wages, salary, commission or bonus, and includes periodic payments under a pension or retirement program. For pay periods longer than one week, the percentage figures apply to the maximum earnings subject to garnishment for all workweeks compensated, and the wage-floor figure is the number of workweeks or fractions of workweeks times thirty times the applicable federal minimum wage. A calendar month counts as 4 1/3 workweeks and a semimonthly period as 2 1/6 weeks. These caps are the ordinary judgment garnishment rule; support orders, chapter XIII bankruptcy court orders and state or federal tax debts are separately excepted.

How do federal wage-garnishment limits interact with Missouri's?

Federal law sets its own ceiling, and the two operate together. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1673(a), the maximum part of an individual's aggregate disposable earnings subject to garnishment in a workweek may not exceed 25% of disposable earnings for that week, or the amount by which they exceed thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage, whichever is less. "Disposable earnings" means what is left after deducting amounts required by law to be withheld (15 U.S.C. § 1672). Section 1673(b) excepts support orders issued by a court of competent jurisdiction or under a qualifying state administrative procedure, orders of a United States court with jurisdiction over chapter 13 cases, and any debt due for any state or federal tax; support orders carry their own higher percentage caps. Section 1673(c) bars any court or state from making, executing or enforcing an order in violation of the section, and 15 U.S.C. § 1677 leaves state laws that limit garnishment more tightly intact.

What do Missouri statutes require of creditors, employers and courts?

Missouri's garnishment chapter is a set of duties rather than a single form. RSMo § 525.010 makes persons named as garnishees, people holding the defendant's goods, money or effects, and the defendant's debtors subject to garnishment on attachment or execution. When a writ of execution is in an officer's hands for collection, RSMo § 525.020 makes it the officer's duty, when directed by the plaintiff or the plaintiff's attorney, to summon garnishees. Every notice, summons or writ must clearly and legibly reproduce the text of subsections 2, 5 and 6 of RSMo § 525.030, and may not purport to attach wages above that cap. The notice or writ carries only the last four digits of the judgment debtor's federal taxpayer identification number (RSMo § 525.233). Writs that would otherwise have equal priority rank by the date of service on the garnishee (RSMo § 525.040). Under RSMo § 525.170, a default judgment against a garnishee cannot become final before judgment against the defendant; it cannot exceed the plaintiff's sworn amount with interest and costs, or the garnishee's apparent liability to the defendant.

Which income does Missouri law place outside an ordinary garnishment?

RSMo § 525.080 recognizes that some property need not be delivered: where it is protected from garnishment by state or federal law — the statute names federal restrictions on the garnishment of earnings in Title 15 and Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance benefits — the garnishee need not hand it to the court or anyone else, to the extent that protection or preemption applies. Missouri's wage cap reaches sequestration of the wages of political-subdivision employees (RSMo § 525.030), and a public employer served with a garnishment carries a private employer's duties (RSMo § 525.310). Wages earned and payable outside Missouri are exempt from garnishment in aid of attachment where the cause of action arose out of state and the defendant was not personally served (RSMo § 525.300). RSMo § 513.440 lets a head of a family hold other property, including debts and wages, exempt from execution up to a statutory value, expressly excepting ten percent of any debt, income, salary or wages due that head of a family.

What do the statutes say about contesting a Missouri garnishment?

Garnishment deadlines belong to the parties in the lawsuit, and the current ones come from court rule: Missouri statutes let the court having jurisdiction prescribe the time and manner of steps the statutes do not fix (RSMo § 525.120). A creditor may put written interrogatories to the garnishee (RSMo § 525.130), and under Mo. Sup. Ct. R. 90.07 they are served simultaneously with the summons and writ of garnishment. The garnishee answers on oath (RSMo § 525.140), filing and serving verified answers during the ten days immediately after the return date of the writ, or, in a continuous wage garnishment, within 20 days from the date it is served with the writ. The creditor's exceptions to those answers are due the later of 20 days after service of the answers or 20 days after the return date, and in a continuous wage garnishment not later than 20 days after service of the answers; the garnishee may respond within 20 days after service of the exceptions. The creditor may also except for insufficiency (RSMo § 525.180) or deny the answer, with a reply allowed (RSMo § 525.190); an answer neither excepted to nor denied in time is taken as true (RSMo § 525.210). None of those is your own deadline to claim an exemption; ask a lawyer or your court clerk about that. Separately, a person claiming money or property in the garnishee's hands may interplead, and no judgment runs against the garnishee until that claim is decided (RSMo § 525.090).

How does filing bankruptcy affect a Missouri garnishment?

A voluntary case begins when the petition is filed with the bankruptcy court, and that commencement is itself an order for relief (11 U.S.C. § 301). Filing a petition operates as a stay applicable to all entities — by operation of the statute, not by a separate order or a notice to the garnishing creditor — of the commencement or continuation of a judicial action that could have been begun before the case, the enforcement of a prepetition judgment against the debtor or property of the estate, and any act to collect a prepetition claim (11 U.S.C. § 362(a)). Notice still matters operationally, because an employer and a creditor act on what they know, but it is not what creates the stay. The filing does not, however, stay the withholding of income that is property of the estate or of the debtor for payment of a domestic support obligation under a judicial or administrative order or a statute (11 U.S.C. § 362(b)(2)(C)).

What should you ask a lawyer about a Missouri garnishment?

Nothing here is a determination about your own paycheck, and the questions that actually decide a garnishment are factual. Useful ones to put to a lawyer or a legal aid office: which of the three figures in RSMo § 525.030 produces the lowest amount for my pay period, and am I both the head of a family and a Missouri resident? Is this an ordinary judgment garnishment, or a support withholding order, a tax collection, or a federal administrative collection, each of which follows different rules? Is a continuing wage garnishment running under RSMo § 525.040, and what would end it? Have I had a bankruptcy case dismissed within the past year? Which exemptions would be available to me given where I have been domiciled, under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A)? Missouri has opted out of the federal § 522(d) list (RSMo § 513.427), and that opt-out governs whenever Missouri exemption law is what applies under that domicile rule — not simply because someone files in Missouri or lives here now. Where it governs, exemptions generally come from Missouri law and from federal law other than § 522(d), and protections like qualifying retirement funds stand separately (11 U.S.C. § 522).

Frequently asked questions

Has Missouri opted out of the federal exemption list, and what does that leave?: Yes, Missouri has opted out of the federal § 522(d) list (RSMo § 513.427). That controls where Missouri law is the exemption law that applies under the domicile rule in 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), described in the next question, rather than for everyone who files here. It also leaves plenty standing: § 522(b)(3) reaches property exempt under federal law other than § 522(d), certain tenancy-by-the-entirety or joint-tenancy interests, and qualifying retirement funds.
What if I moved to Missouri recently?: Under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), the applicable exemption law is that of the place where your domicile was located for the 730 days immediately preceding filing. If it was not in a single state for that period, it is the place of domicile for the 180 days immediately preceding those 730 days, or for a longer portion of that 180-day period than in any other place. If that requirement would leave a debtor ineligible for any exemption, § 522 permits electing the federal list.
What if one earlier bankruptcy case of mine was dismissed in the past year?: Under § 362(c)(3), if a later single or joint case is filed by or against an individual under chapter 7, 11 or 13, and a single or joint case of that debtor was pending within the preceding 1-year period but was dismissed — other than a case refiled under a chapter other than 7 after a § 707(b) dismissal — the stay ends as to the debtor on the 30th day after filing, for any action regarding a debt, property securing it, or a lease. Ask a lawyer about your own assets.
What if two or more of my cases were dismissed in the past year?: Under § 362(c)(4), if a later single or joint case is filed by or against an individual and two or more of their single or joint cases were pending within the previous year but were dismissed — excepting a case refiled under a chapter other than 7 after a § 707(b) dismissal — the stay does not go into effect at all upon the later filing, and on request of a party in interest the court shall promptly confirm that none is in effect. Any later stay comes only by court order.
How does a court extend or impose a stay in a repeat filing?: Both require a party in interest to ask, notice and a hearing, and a showing that the later filing is in good faith as to the creditors to be stayed. On a motion under § 362(c)(3)(B), the hearing must be completed before the 30-day period expires, and the court may extend it as to any or all creditors. Under § 362(c)(4)(B) the request comes within 30 days after the later filing, and the court may impose a stay as to any or all creditors, effective when entered. Neither is automatic.
How long does an automatic stay last, and can a creditor end it early?: The stay of an act against property of the estate continues while that property remains property of the estate; the stay of other acts continues until the earliest of the case closing, dismissal, or — in an individual chapter 7 or a chapter 9, 11, 12 or 13 case — discharge granted or denied (11 U.S.C. § 362(c)). On a party in interest's request, after notice and a hearing, a court shall grant relief from the stay for cause (§ 362(d)). Repeat filings and § 362(b) exceptions can cut it shorter.

By Antonio G. Jimenez, Esq. · Florida Bar No. 21022

Sources verified October 9, 2026 · How we verify

Every figure on this page is drawn from a primary legal source and checked against our canonical legal database before publication. Bankruptcy.law is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

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