Texas will protect your twelve head of cattle from a credit card company. Minnesota will protect your snowblower, up to $3,300, and the lawnmower and the power tools have to fit under that same number. The gap is bigger than it sounds.
When a creditor with a judgment comes for your things, as opposed to your paycheck or your house, Texas asks one question: is the whole pile worth more than $100,000? Minnesota asks a separate question about every category, each with its own cap. I counted nineteen separate dollar figures for § 550.37 on the Department of Commerce’s notice for July 1, 2026. Nineteen. The Legislature has one number for your couch and a different one for your dog.
This is another round of the Minnesota-versus-Texas scorecard. Round one, the paycheck, is at /news/minnesota-vs-texas-wage-garnishment-571-922/, and Texas wins it by a mile. This one’s closer than you’d think.
How does Texas protect personal property?
With one number and a list. The number:
(a) Personal property, as described in Section 42.002, is exempt from garnishment, attachment, execution, or other seizure if: (1) the property is provided for a family and has an aggregate fair market value of not more than $100,000, exclusive of the amount of any liens, security interests, or other charges encumbering the property; or (2) the property is owned by a single adult, who is not a member of a family, and has an aggregate fair market value of not more than $50,000, exclusive of the amount of any liens, security interests, or other charges encumbering the property.
— Tex. Prop. Code § 42.001(a)
Notice “exclusive of the amount of any liens”. It’s an equity number. A $30,000 pickup with a $25,000 loan uses up $5,000 of the cap.
And the list is the best paragraph in the Texas code. I’m quoting it whole, because nobody would believe me otherwise:
(1) home furnishings, including family heirlooms; (2) provisions for consumption; (3) farming or ranching vehicles and implements; (4) tools, equipment, books, and apparatus, including boats and motor vehicles used in a trade or profession; (5) wearing apparel; (6) jewelry not to exceed 25 percent of the aggregate limitations prescribed by Section 42.001(a); (7) two firearms; (8) athletic and sporting equipment, including bicycles; (9) a two-wheeled, three-wheeled, or four-wheeled motor vehicle for each member of a family or single adult who holds a driver’s license or who does not hold a driver’s license but who relies on another person to operate the vehicle for the benefit of the nonlicensed person; (10) the following animals and forage on hand for their consumption: (A) two horses, mules, or donkeys and a saddle, blanket, and bridle for each; (B) 12 head of cattle; (C) 60 head of other types of livestock; and (D) 120 fowl; and (11) household pets.
— Tex. Prop. Code § 42.002(a)
A saddle, a blanket, and a bridle for each horse. Somebody in Austin thought that through.
If the pile goes over the cap, the debtor generally gets to pick what the sheriff takes, and the court picks if the debtor won’t or the creditor contests it. § 42.003. A family Bible sits outside the cap entirely. § 42.001(b)(4).
How does Minnesota do it?
Item by item. Minn. Stat. § 550.37 says the property it lists “is not liable to attachment, garnishment, or sale on any final process, issued from any court.” Subd. 1. Then it lists it, each piece with its own ceiling.
The ceilings are printed in the statute, and the Revisor’s 2026 text already prints the July 1, 2026 figure for most of them. Most, not all. Subdivision 4a moves most of them on July 1 of each even-numbered year, in multiples of ten percent, when the inflation index has moved enough. § 550.37, subd. 4a(b). The commissioner of commerce announces the change. Id., subd. 4a(d). I explained why that leaves the statute book and the real number out of sync at /news/minnesota-bankruptcy-exemptions-state-vs-federal/, and I won’t repeat it here.
This year it got messier. Commerce’s own notice, updated June 29, 2026, says that “[o]n May 6, 2026, an Official Notice was published on the Department of Commerce’s website which contained incorrect adjusted amounts”, and that the State Register publication of April 27, 2026 had the wrong numbers too. The corrected amounts “shall be used from July 1, 2026, onward.” So for about two months the official numbers were wrong, and then they weren’t.
It still isn’t perfectly tidy. The Revisor’s online text of subdivision 6 prints $13,500 for tools of the trade; Commerce’s corrected notice says $14,000. For a vehicle used by or for a disabled person, the Revisor and Commerce’s own historic-adjustments table say $27,500, and the corrected notice says $27,000. The statute has a reliance rule for exactly this: a person doesn’t violate the chapter, in a transaction that otherwise complies, if he relies on amounts determined under paragraph (b) “or appearing in the last publication of the commissioner announcing the then current dollar amounts.” § 550.37, subd. 4a(e). If you’re claiming an exemption, start with the Commerce notice and know where it disagrees with the book.
Six things in your garage
Here’s how each state treats six ordinary things. The Minnesota figures are Commerce’s July 1, 2026 amounts. The federal figures are the bankruptcy exemptions in effect since April 1, 2025, and they only matter if you’re in bankruptcy and choose the federal list.
A used car
Minnesota: one motor vehicle, up to $10,200. § 550.37, subd. 12a(1). The statute gives you “One of the following”, so you pick that or one of the alternatives: a vehicle regularly used by or for a physically disabled person, a vehicle designed or modified for a disability (up to $110,000), or one vehicle “reasonably necessary for use in the trade, business, or profession of the debtor” (up to $13,750). Id., subd. 12a.
Texas: a vehicle for every licensed driver in the family, plus one for a family member who doesn’t drive but relies on someone else to drive for him. § 42.002(a)(9). No separate cap. It counts against the $100,000.
Federal bankruptcy list: $5,025. 11 U.S.C. § 522(d)(2); 90 Fed. Reg. 8941.
A Texas family of four with four licensed drivers can protect four trucks. A Minnesota debtor gets one vehicle.
A laptop
Minnesota: since the 2024 rewrite, subdivision 4(b) covers “[h]ousehold furniture, household appliances, radios, computers, tablets, televisions, printers, cell phones, smart phones, and other consumer electronics of the debtor and the debtor’s family,” all together, up to $12,600. That’s one cap for the couch, the fridge, the TV, and every phone in the house.
Texas: the list doesn’t name computers. A laptop you work on fits clause (4) as equipment “used in a trade or profession”. A laptop you watch movies on has to fit “home furnishings”, and I searched CourtListener’s Texas appellate opinions and found none that answers whether it does.
Federal: a personal laptop most likely goes under household goods, at $800 per item and $16,850 in total. § 522(d)(3); 90 Fed. Reg. 8941.
This round goes to Minnesota, on drafting alone. The Legislature named the thing people actually own.
A wedding ring
Minnesota used to protect only the ring. Before August 1, 2024, subdivision 4(c) reached “wedding rings or other religious or culturally recognized symbols of marriage exchanged between the debtor and spouse at the time of the marriage and in the debtor’s possession”. 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, § 88. Now it covers jewelry generally, up to $3,430 for all of it together. § 550.37, subd. 4(c). Texas lets jewelry run to “25 percent of the aggregate limitations”, § 42.002(a)(6), which is $25,000 for a family and $12,500 for a single adult, inside the overall cap. The federal list allows $2,125. § 522(d)(4); 90 Fed. Reg. 8941.
A modest ring is safe in both states. An anniversary band, a tennis bracelet, and a pair of diamond earrings can blow through Minnesota’s number in one drawer. (One watch is separately exempt, whatever it’s worth. § 550.37, subd. 4(a).)
A shotgun
Minnesota: § 550.37 doesn’t mention firearms. Not as sporting goods, not as household goods, not at all. I searched the section for every word I could think of. Unless the gun is a tool of your trade, the statute that protects your library and your musical instruments has nothing for it.
Texas: “two firearms”. § 42.002(a)(7). Plus “athletic and sporting equipment, including bicycles”. § 42.002(a)(8).
Federal: no firearm category. In bankruptcy, a Minnesotan’s shotgun goes under a wild card, which I’ll get to.
A dog
Minnesota protects family pets up to $1,100 total, under a subdivision the 2024 act created. § 550.37, subd. 2c; 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, § 87. Texas just says “household pets.” § 42.002(a)(11). No dollar figure of their own, and if your household pet is a horse, Texas lists two of those separately. The federal list treats animals as household goods, $800 per item. § 522(d)(3); 90 Fed. Reg. 8941.
For almost everybody’s dog, both states get it right. Nobody’s paying off a credit card judgment by auctioning a beagle.
A plumber’s tools
Minnesota: “The tools, implements, machines, instruments, office furniture, stock in trade, and library reasonably necessary in the trade, business, or profession of the debtor,” up to $14,000 per Commerce. § 550.37, subd. 6. If your van is the trade vehicle under subdivision 12a(4), that’s a separate $13,750, but it uses up your one vehicle.
Texas: “tools, equipment, books, and apparatus, including boats and motor vehicles used in a trade or profession”. § 42.002(a)(4). No separate cap; it’s inside the $100,000.
Federal: $3,175. § 522(d)(6); 90 Fed. Reg. 8941.
Add Minnesota’s six up and a family gets roughly $41,000 of caps, but only if it owns exactly the right things in exactly the right amounts. Texas gives the same family $100,000 to spread across its list however the family’s stuff happens to fall. Texas wins this one going away.
Where Minnesota actually wins
Three places, and the last one matters most in bankruptcy.
Minnesota kills the household-goods lien. “Except for a pawnbroker’s possessory lien, a nonpurchase money security interest in the property exempt under this subdivision is void.” § 550.37, subd. 4. A lender who didn’t finance your couch can’t hold a valid security interest in it, at least up to the cap. Texas goes the other way: a security interest or lien in exempt personal property “may not be avoided on the ground that the property is exempt under this chapter.” Tex. Prop. Code § 42.002(b).
Minnesota protects what a Minnesotan actually owns. The 2024 act added household tools and equipment, now $3,300, “including but not limited to hand and power tools, snow removal equipment, and lawnmowers.” § 550.37, subd. 27. Texas has a provision for 120 chickens and doesn’t name a snowblower. Different states, different winters.
Minnesota has a wild card. Texas doesn’t. In 2024 the Legislature added this:
In a bankruptcy, a debtor may exempt any property, including funds in a bank account, up to $1,650 in value.
— Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 28
The enacted figure was $1,500, effective August 1, 2024, and it “applies to exemptions claimed on or after that date.” 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, § 94. Commerce raised it to $1,650 on July 1, 2026. Chapter 42 has nothing like it. Every Texas exemption is tied to a category.
Notice the first three words, though: “In a bankruptcy”. Outside bankruptcy, the Minnesota wild card does nothing for you when a creditor levies.
The federal list has a bigger one: “The debtor’s aggregate interest in any property,” § 522(d)(5), at $1,675 plus up to $15,800 of whatever part of the federal homestead exemption you don’t use. 90 Fed. Reg. 8941. A renter with no home equity can carry about $17,475 of wild card on the federal list against $1,650 on Minnesota’s. That’s the comparison that decides a lot of Minnesota bankruptcies, and the bankruptcy piece I linked above walks through it.
Texas has a rule Minnesota doesn’t write down
Texas anticipated the obvious move. If you take money a creditor could reach and buy something Texas protects “with the intent to defraud, delay, or hinder” a creditor, the thing you bought isn’t exempt. Tex. Prop. Code § 42.004(a). The creditor generally gets two years from the transaction to raise it. Id. § 42.004(b).
So no, you can’t cash out a savings account, buy 120 chickens the week before the sheriff comes, and count on keeping them. Section 550.37 doesn’t say anything like that, but don’t take that as an invitation; the question doesn’t go away just because the exemption statute is silent.
If your lawsuit started before August 1, 2024, you may be on the old list
The 2024 changes to § 550.37 weren’t all retroactive. Each of the sections behind the vehicle, jewelry, electronics, pets, and household-tools changes says: “This section is effective August 1, 2024, and applies to causes of action commenced on or after that date.” 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, §§ 84–93. On the words, a garnishment or levy on a lawsuit commenced before that date runs under the old list. Same pattern I flagged for the wage tiers in the first piece of this series. If a judgment against you is old, find out what the list looked like when the lawsuit started.
When the creditor goes after money someone owes you, like a bank balance, instead of your things, the levy may come from the creditor’s lawyer under chapter 551; I covered that tool at /news/minnesota-execution-levy-chapter-551/. The full Minnesota list and how to claim it is at /news/minnesota-garnishment-exemptions-judgment/.
Put the paycheck and the stuff side by side: Texas takes the paycheck and the pile of stuff. Minnesota takes the bank-account wages, the couch lien, and the snowblower.
Madgett Law, LLC
Madgett Law, LLC handles garnishment and exemption fights for Minnesotans facing collection on a judgment, and we help clients take stock of what they own and how exposed it is before anyone comes for it. That planning work is described on our distressed asset protection page. If a creditor has levied on your property or you’ve been told the sheriff is coming, the exemption deadline is short, and the numbers changed on July 1, 2026. Send us a message.
Sources: Tex. Prop. Code § 42.001(a)(1)–(2) (aggregate limits, exclusive of liens), (b)(4) (religious book outside aggregate), § 42.002(a)(1)–(11) (exempt personal property), (b) (security interests and liens not avoided), § 42.003 (designation), § 42.004(a)–(b) (conversion of nonexempt property with intent to defraud, delay, or hinder; two-year limit) (Texas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative Council). Minn. Stat. § 550.37 (2026), subd. 1 (exemption), subd. 2c (family pets), subd. 4(b) (household goods and consumer electronics), subd. 4(c) (jewelry), subd. 4 (nonpurchase money security interests void; pawnbroker exception), subd. 4a(b), (d), (e) (adjustment; publication; reliance), subd. 6 (tools of trade), subd. 12a(1)–(4) (motor vehicles), subd. 27 (household tools and equipment), subd. 28 (wild card exemption in bankruptcy). 2024 Minn. Laws ch. 114, art. 3, §§ 84–94 (amending § 550.37; effective August 1, 2024, for causes of action commenced on or after that date; § 94 effective for exemptions claimed on or after that date). Minnesota Department of Commerce, Adjustments of Dollar Amounts, Official Notice (updated June 29, 2026) (amounts effective July 1, 2026; correction of April 27, 2026 State Register and May 6, 2026 website notices), and Historic Adjustments, Restrictions on Deficiency Judgments and Minnesota Property Exemption (June 25, 2026). 11 U.S.C. § 522(d)(2)–(6) (United States Code, 2024 ed., govinfo); Judicial Conference of the United States, Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases, 90 Fed. Reg. 8941 (Feb. 4, 2025) (amounts effective April 1, 2025). This article is general information about Minnesota law, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship, and no outcome is promised or implied.