Little known facts about EPF & EPS

EPF withdrawal is not permitted if you are still working. But there are occasions when EPF withdrawal is allowed

Employees’ Provident Fund—commonly called PF—is a retirement benefit scheme that is available to all salaried employees. It is a very important tool of retirement planning. The tax-free interest (compounding) and the maturity ensures a good growth of our money. Both employees and the employer contribute to PF at the ‘rate of 12%’ of the basic wages and dearness allowance (if any) per month. Thus, the total contribution to PF is 24% per month. PF provides retirement benefit to us to secure a better standard of living at retirement. However, there are many things about EPF which most of us are unaware of. The below article provides you more information about EPF such as how the contributions are calculated based on basic salary and DA, what are the EPF interest rates, what is pension scheme, etc. EPF & EPS Most organisations today offer the facility of PF. EPF (Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme 1952) and EPS (Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995) are the two different retirement saving schemes under Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, meant for salaried employees. It is mandatory for every employee drawing a basic pay of up to Rs. 6,500 per month to make contribution towards EPF & EPS. However, employees drawing basic salary over Rs. 6,501per month have an option to get PF deducted from their salary. Normally, both the employer and employee contribute 12% each of the ‘basic salary’ of the employee plus DA (if any). The entire 12% of employee’s contribution is added towards EPF, while 8.33% out of the total 12% of the employer’s contribution is diverted to the EPS or pension scheme and the balance 3.67% is invested in EPF. However, if the basic pay of an employee exceeds Rs. 6,500 per month, the contribution towards pension scheme is restricted to 8.33% of Rs. 6,500 (i.e. Rs. 541 per month) and the balance of employer’s contribution goes into EPF. Thus, the employer contributes only up to Rs. 541 per month (8.33% of Rs. 6,500 in the employee’s pension scheme account. Contribution to EPF & EPS Scheme Employee’s contribution of basic pay Employer’s contribution EPF 12% 3.67% EPS — 8.33% Let’s assume, your basic pay is Rs. 10,000 per month and your basic rises 5% each year. Interest rate on EPF is credited annually at the end of financial year. Your contribution to EPF is 12% of basic pay, and the employer’s contribution to EPF is 3.67%. The rate of interest for the financial year 2012-13 is 8.6% per annum. The accounting period of PF is from March to February every year. The government credits the interest compounded on PF balance in April every year. Understanding EPF calculation Yrs Monthly basic (Rs.) Yearly basic (Rs.) Employee PF (Rs.) Employer PF (Rs.) Total EPF (Rs.) Interest rate EPS (Rs.) Total amount (Rs.) 1 10,000 1,20,000 14,400 7,908 22,308 8.6% 6,492 24,226 2 10,500 1,26,000 15,120 8,628 23,748 8.6% 6,492 25,790 3 11,025 1,32,300 15,876 9,384 25,260 8.6% 6,492 27,432 Interest on EPF The EPF interest rate is decided by the central government with the consultation of Central Board of Trustees. The EPF interest rate notification is available on the official website of EPF India on an annual basis. For FY12-13, the interest calculated on EPF is 8.6%. The contribution is made to EPF on monthly basis, while interest is calculated at the end of the financial year. At the beginning of the each fiscal, there would be an opening balance, the amount accumulated till then. Thus, for next fiscal the new opening balance would be: Old opening balance + monthly contribution throughout the year + interest (old opening balance + contribution). For EPF, compound interest is paid on the amount standing to the credit of an employee as on 1 April every year. However, EPS being a pension scheme, interest is not applicable. Hence, no interest is earned on the amount accumulated in EPS. Nomination EPF also has nomination facility. You can nominate your mother, father, spouse or children. However you can’t nominate your brother or sister for EPF. The nominee will be contacted at the time of death of the employee and handed over the EPF money. If a member has a family at the time of making a nomination, the nomination should be in favour of one or more persons belonging to his family. Any nnomination made by such member in favour of a person not belonging to his family shall be invalid. A fresh nomination should be made by the member on his marriage and any nomination made before such marriage will be deemed to be invalid. Nomination is essential. The purpose of appointing a nominee is to have someone who is trustworthy and responsible to handle the nominator’s assets after his death. Tax benefits The employer contribution is exempt from tax, while an employee’s contribution is taxable but eligible for deduction under Section 80C of Income tax Act. The money which you initially invest in EPF, the interest you earn and, finally the money you withdraw after a specified period (5 years), are all exempt from income tax. Transfer of EPF & EPS You can apply for withdrawing EPF only if you are not employed for two months after leaving the previous job. It is recommended to transfer EPF account at the time of joining a new company instead of withdrawing it as EPF forms the debt part of your portfolio and gives good tax-free returns. According to Suresh Sadagopan, Founder, Ladder7 Financial Advisories, employees changing their jobs should transfer their EPF corpus and do not withdraw it. EPF is currently offering 8.6% annually, which is not taxable. Hence, it is best to stay invested in. If you withdraw the EPF amount before completing five years of service with an employer, the corpus withdrawn is taxed. The amount is added to your salary income and taxed accordingly. On the other hand, if left untouched, it is completely tax-free. For example, you have a PF account for the last five years and change your job and withdraw the PF amount, then all your previous years income gets recomputed from the very beginning and is taxable. This means the tax benefits which you had received for the last five years will get forfeited—and now your withdrawn PF amount is taxable. Further the employer contribution and interest received will be added to your current income subject to relief under Section 89. For EPS, if the service period is less than 10 years, you have an option to either withdraw your corpus or get it transferred by obtaining a ‘scheme certificate’, if there is a break in service. This way the number of years of service that you have put in gets transferred to the new account that you open in the new organisation. For service below 10 years, you usually get 100% of your EPF & EPS amount invested. In case of EPF, you get the accumulated amount plus the interest (which is 8.6% for FY12-13). For EPS, you get your EPS amount invested over the years and the “withdrawal benefit”. The below table D shows the “withdrawal benefit” which an employee will get if he withdraws his EPS amount (from six months to nine years). EPS withdrawal benefit Return of contribution on exit from the employment Year of service Proportion of wages at exit 1 1.02 2 1.99 3 2.98 4 3.99 5 5.02 6 6.07 7 7.13 8 8.22 9 9.33 Note: The above table is based on a flat addition in benefit. For instance: An employee exits from employment after four years of service his wage on exit is Rs. 5,000, (Return of contribution will be Rs. 5,000 x 3.99 of wages on exit) i.e., Rs.19,950. Once, an employee’s service period crosses 10 years, the withdrawal option ceases. Abhishek Bade, Assistant Manager-HR, IIFL, explains, “To withdraw from EPS, an employee needs to contribute at least for six months.  He has to fill Form No. 10 C (E.P.S) to claim withdrawal benefit. However, if the employee completes 10 years of the service, the withdrawal option ends. Thus, after 10 years of completion of the service, the employee cannot withdraw from his EPS.” EPF withdrawals EPF withdrawal is not permitted if you are still working. But there are occasions when EPF withdrawal is allowed. You cannot withdraw it fully, but you can avail non-refundable advance for the purpose of your children’s higher education and their marriage. You can also withdraw for medical treatment for self or family, repaying your home loan, construction of house, purchase of flat, etc. You can avail the non-refundable advance, only after having completed minimum five years PF membership. Receiving pension An employee can start receiving pension under EPS only after rendering a minimum service of 10 years and attaining the age of 58 or 50 years. However, no pension is payable before the age of 50 years. Early pension—that is an employee receiving after completing 50 years of age but before 58 years—is subject to reducing factor @ 4% (from September 2008) for every year falling short of 58 years. In case of death / disablement, the above restriction is not applicable. The pension amount is payable to the eligible subscriber till he survives. On the death of the employee, members of his family—whom he has nominated—are entitled for the pension. Maximum pension Under EPS, the monthly pension is decided on the basis of ‘pensionable service’ and ‘pensionable salary’. The formula to calculate pension is: Monthly pension = (Pensionable salary X Pensionable service) ÷ 70 The amount of pension you get depends upon a fixed formula, which is average monthly salary of the last year of service multiplied by the number of years of service divided by 70. Remember your employer shows your salary as Rs. 6,500 for EPS, so the pension is calculated on a monthly salary of Rs. 6,500. So if you have worked for say 35 years, your monthly pension will come to Rs. 3250 [(Rs. 6,500 X 35 years)] ÷ 70 according to the formula. Thus, the maximum pension per month is subject to maximum of Rs. 3,250 per month. The amount of pension is too less. If you invest Rs. 541 in a recurring deposit (compounded on monthly basis) at 8% interest rate per annum for 35 years, you would get Rs. 12,40,990 as maturity value. If this maturity amount is used to purchase an immediate annuity plan offering over 7% returns p.a., the monthly pension would be Rs. 7,239 which is much more than twice of Rs. 3,250. You can invest more in PF Have you heard of the possibility where you can invest more than the mandatory 12% into your PF account and get returns on it? Yes, you can always invest more than 12% of your basic salary in EPF which is called VPF (Voluntary Provident Fund). Apart from contributing the normal 12% of your basic pay, you may choose to put in an extra, say 10% of your salary into the same account. In this case the excess amount will be invested in EPF and you will get the interest @ 8.6%. EPF contribution is one of the best and least risky ways for salaried people to build their retirement nest. But remember, your employer’s contribution will be limited to the amounts payable on a monthly pay of Rs. 6,500 including basic + DA. It is not compulsory to employer, to match your voluntary contribution.        Courtesy : india infoline

Transfer EPF, don't withdraw it

The money you initially put into EPF, the interest you earn and, finally the money you withdraw after a specified period, is all exempt from income tax.

When you change jobs, don't withdraw the money from your Employees' Provident Fund (EPF).

Instead, transfer it to the account with your new employer. Here are five reasons why you should do so.

Legal block

You can apply for withdrawing EPF only if you are not employed for two months after leaving the previous job.

So, if you take up a new job in this period, the law requires you to transfer the EPF balance. This is because the EPF is meant to contribute to your retirement corpus.

Corpus for later years

EPF contribution is one of the best and least risky ways for salaried people to build their retirement nest.

You compulsorily save a minimum 12 per cent of the Basic and Dearness Allowance (DA) of your salary every year for the long-term. In most cases, the employer makes an equal contribution, a part (upto Rs 541 per month) of which is allocated to the Employee Pension Scheme and the rest towards EPF.

Both the employer's and your contribution to the EPF earns interest at rates declared each year.

When you retire, you get the balance in the EPF account along with the accumulated interest. Say you start working at the age of 25, earn Rs 15,000 a month as Basic and DA, and contribute 12 per cent to the EPF.

Also, your employer contributes an equal amount, a portion of which goes to the EPF.

If your Basic and DA grow by 5 per cent each year, EPF contributions continue, and the balance in the account earns interest at 8.25 per cent annually (rate for 2011-12), you will have a corpus of around Rs 1.4 crore at the age of 60.

Besides, the employer's contribution towards the pension scheme, accumulated over the years, will enable you to draw monthly pensions later in life.

Tax benefits

Contributing and continuing with EPF offers several tax advantages. The money you initially put into EPF, the interest you earn and, finally the money you withdraw after a specified period, are all exempt from income tax.

This contributes to healthy effective returns on your investments.

Your contribution each year up to Rs 1,00,000 is eligible for tax deduction. If you are in the 20 per cent tax slab and the contribution earns 8.25 per cent annually, the effective return you earn is 10.31 per cent (8.25*100/80). The higher your tax slab, the more the effective return.

Tax hit on withdrawal

If you withdraw your EPF balance before completing five years of service, whether with the same employer or with different employers, you stand to pay much on taxes.

In such cases, you will have to pay tax on the employer's contributions to the EPF during the earlier years. Tax benefits claimed earlier on your own contributions will also be lost.

Besides, you will have to pay tax on the interest earned on both your and the employer's contribution to the EPF. All this can erode your returns.

EPF vs. PPF

EPF interest rate for 2011-12 was sharply reduced to 8.25 per cent from 9.5 per cent in 2010-11.

This was also lower than the 8.6 per cent available on public provident fund (PPF), which is similar to EPF in terms of risk-profile and tax benefits.

Yet, even in this scenario, it may not make sense to withdraw from EPF and transfer to PPF. In the past, there have been many years when EPF rate has been more than that on PPF.

This could happen again because interest rates on PPF have now been linked to market rates and could head lower in the years ahead. Ideally, there should be room for both EPF and PPF in your retirement portfolio.

Want to withdraw PF ? What about Rules....!

Almost all salaried people contribute a certain percentage of their salary towards their Employee Provident Fund (EPF) account every month. While most of us know that EPF is an effective tool that helps generate a corpus for life after retirement, many of us are unaware that we can withdraw from the EPF account to meet urgent cash requirements.

An EPF account cannot be treated like any other savings bank account. There are certain specified criteria under which withdrawal is permitted from an EPF account. An individual needs to furnish all relevant documents and satisfy the necessary requirements in order to be eligible for premature withdrawal from the account.

Here are the details:

Reason	Conditions	Amount allowed to be withdrawn	No. of times permitted
Education or marriage	The employee should have completed at least seven years of employment or service. Withdrawal allowed for self, siblings or children’s marriage. Withdrawal permitted for self or children’s education only. Proof of the education or wedding required to be submitted, such as a valid copy or a bonafide certificate of the payable fees, or the wedding invitation. In case of education, the individual needs to apply using Form 31 through his/her employer.	50 per cent of the total corpus amount till date	Permitted thrice during a person’s total service tenure
Medical treatment	Withdrawal permitted for medical treatment of self, spouse, parents and children. There is no restriction regarding the number of years of service. The proof of hospitalization for a month or more along with an approved leave certificate from the employer for the corresponding period needs to be produced. The member needs to obtain and deposit a certificate from the employer or ESI stating that ESI facility is not accessible or available to him/her. A certified proof or document of the disease should be submitted in Form 31 while applying for withdrawal.	Six times the monthly salary of an individual or the total corpus amount, whichever is lesser	No limit
Purchase of a plot	Should have completed at least five years of service. The plot or property should be registered in the person’s or his/her spouse’s name or should be owned jointly. The plot should not be entangled in any legal issues, and the agreement registered under the Indian Registration Act with the flat promoter needs to be submitted along with the application form.	Up to 24 times the monthly salary of the individual	Once during entire service tenure
Construction or purchase of a flat or house	Should have completed at least five years of service. The house should be registered in the person’s or his/her spouse’s name or should be owned jointly.	36 times the monthly salary of the individual	Once during entire service tenure
Repayment of home loan	Should have completed at least 10 years of employment. The house should be registered in the person’s or his/her spouse’s name or should be owned jointly.	36 times the monthly salary of the individual	Once during entire service tenure
Alteration or renovation of house	Should have completed at least five years of service. The house should be registered in the person’s or his/her spouse’s name or should be owned jointly.	Up to 12 times the individual’s monthly salary	Once during entire service tenure
Pre-retirement	The individual must be at least 54 years old.	90 per cent of the total corpus amount	Once during entire service tenure

Withdrawal from EPF account after leaving an organization

On switching jobs, an employee can apply for transfer of money from the EPF account through a form that is filled by the employee and attested by the designated authority at the employer.

Grievance related to withdrawal from EPF account

There is a mechanism to address grievances of EPF members under the Consumer Protection Act. To report a grievance, a member needs to:

• Log on to the website www.epfigms.gov.in
• Click on Register Grievance

All grievances related to the following subjects can be addressed to the grievance cell:

• Withdrawal or final settlement of EPF
• Scheme certificate
• Transfer of accumulated PF amount
• Issuance of PF balance or slip
• Return or misplacement of cheque
• Payment of insurance benefit

EPF is the corpus that helps build financial stability post retirement. It is, therefore, advisable to leave the amount undisturbed during employment tenure unless the circumstances are unavoidable.