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EPF came into effect with the purpose of building a retirement corpus for the employees. Thus, there are many restrictions against its withdrawal before maturity. Though there are certain situations where partial withdrawal your EPF amount is allowed. These situations are: 1. In case his or her marriage or marriage of their children or real siblings up to 50% of the member’s contribution. 2. If the organization is closed and an employee is without compensation for over 15 days or when no wages are paid. 3. For higher education of their children 50% of the member’s contribution. 4. In case member is unemployed for 6 months or more because of the factory operations been closed. 5. In case of natural calamity Rs. 5000 or 50% of the member’s contribution. 6. In case the employee gets sick due to T.B, cancer, paralysis, mental or heart ailment. 7. When the employee challenges dismissal or retrenchment in the court of law. 8. At age of 57 which is a year before retireme...

Employee’s Provident Fund ( EPF ) is a benefit offered to an employee which they can enjoy after their retirement. If you are planning to withdraw your provident fund any sooner, then you must know the rules for the same. EPF withdrawal does follow a procedure with certain rules and regulations. There are different tax implications for different cases, and one can only withdraw the 75% funds at a time. If you remain unemployed for continuous two more months, then you can withdraw the remaining 25%. If you have a record of consecutive five years of service, then you are not eligible to pay any tax and thus can enjoy the tax-free withdrawal. If in case you are quitting your job before five years of service or planning to withdraw the funds before five years, then your amount will be taxable as per the rules. A TDS of 10% is deducted if you have submitted a PAN to the EPFO authorities, while if not then 34.6% TDS is deducted. But this is applicable only in case o...

EPF withdrawal on its maturity is tax-free. But to savor the primary objective of EPF which is to provide social security during retirement by monthly savings in work term certain provisions are in place when TDS is deducted. These provisions are: TDS is deducted when the withdrawal is before 5 years of service and more than Rs. 50,000. In case the amount is transferred from one EPF to another EPF account, no TDS is deducted. In case of termination of employee’s service, discontinuation of business by the employer, or discontinuation due to ill health along with PAN, Form 15G/15H and Form 19 is to be submitted in order to avoid TDS deduction. In case of Form 15G/15H is submitted when more than Rs. 50,000 is withdrawn before 5 years of service then TDS will not be deducted.  In case no PAN is furnished then TDS @ 34.608% is levied. When PAN is furnished but not Form 15G/15H then TDS is deducted @10%. In specified circumstances after 5 years of service where EPF withdrawal...

EPFO governs Employee's Provident Fund , and every salaried employee is eligible to enjoy this scheme. If your company is having more than 20 employees, then the EPF Act is applicable, and even if the number falls later, then the provident fund will continue to be deducted from your salary. The interest rate of the provident is declared by EPFO every year. You and your employer are equally involved in the contribution, and the percentage of the amount that gets deducted from your salary is the same contribution that your employer will make. The lock-in period of Employee’s Provident Fund is five years which means if you can enjoy the tax benefit only if you are in the service for consecutive 5 years. In case you switch your job, you can transfer your existing Employee’s Provident Fund account to your new employer to enjoy tax-free fund. Premature withdrawal is tax-free only after the lock-in period. SOURCE

The old Provident Fund has now grown very old, 67 years old, to be precise. Times have changed now. The needs of the workforce today are different from what used to be then. Today, the youth is not running after stability but risks. To such a working professional, the EPF is not very suitable. When they have to take a break from their current job through which they have subscribed in the EPF, problems start to begin. The EPF interest becomes taxable. When this unemployment is prolonged, it even stops drawing interest. As such, the amount loses value due to inflation each year. The EPF also does not give the freedom of decision of investment to the employee. On top of that, a tiny share of the EPF amount is invested in equity, that too by ETFs. Therefore, it does not create room for good returns. Thus, once you unsubscribe in the EPF, you should withdraw all your money from the EPF as soon as possible.

In order to meet the requirements of post-retirement, one needs to start planning decades before. The safest way to create funds for retirement is provident fund. Though there are 3 kinds of PF Employee's Provident Fund , Public Provident Fund, and General Provident Fund each one being very different from the other although not many people understand their difference. The basic difference between the three are: 1. In EPF investment is made by both employee and employer. In PPF investment is open and can be opened by any individual and in GPF it is only for government employee and only the employee makes a contribution. 2. 12% of basic salary and D.A contributed by employee and employer in EPF. In PPF from Rs. 500-1.5 lac. In GPF minimum 6 % of emoluments up to basic salary. 3. The interest rate for 2017-18 for EPF is 8.55%, for PPF and GPF is 8%. 4. EPF and PPF have a lock-in period of 5 and 15 years respectively. In GPF contribution continue till 3 months prior to ...