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As an employee, you are entitled to provident fund, which is also known as Employee Provident Fund. But there are several questions that revolve around this concept, like what exactly it means, who contributes to it, and most importantly, what happens to the fund when you change your employment. If you are looking for answers to the questions above, then this is the right place for you. We have briefly covered the basics of EPF and EPFO in this blog. You will also find a detailed guide on how you can transfer your EPF fund via the EPFO portal.
You must be wondering what happens to an EPF account in case the employee wants to switch his/her job. This PF account created with your first employer can either be transferred to the current employer ot the employee can choose to withdraw his contribution with interest if the employee is continuously on a break for more than 60 days.
If you are consistent with your employment, you do not have to worry about transferring your PF. You and your employer will keep contributing to your PF account until you leave that job. You either take a new job or take a break. Once you take up a new job, your new employer will register you in the EPFO and you will be allotted a new PF account where you will again contribute to PF. Now that you have got a new PF account, what happens to your previous account? Under these circumstances, you get two options:
Experts suggest that you transfer your PF instead of withdrawing as it offers attractive returns and is an ideal saving scheme for retirement.
You can now transfer your PF account using the unified portal, unlike earlier. However, you must keep the following in mind before transferring your online PF transfer -
Since the advent of UAN, the transfer of PF has been shited under ‘Unified portal’. In the beginning, this facility was available under ‘Online Transfer Claim Portal’.
To transfer PF, follow the steps mentioned below in an orderly manner:
Once you have submitted your claim, you will be taken back to the personal details and employment history page. At the end of the page, you will find your transfer claim along with tracking Id, previous account number, attestation information, and PF transfer Form 13. You need to download this form and sign. Submit this signed form to the selected employer within 10 days of filing the claim.
Your transfer claim will be forwarded to your employer, and he/she can approve of your claim digitally. You will also receive an SMS when your transfer claim has been approved by the employer or EPFO.
The waiting period after filing your transfer claim can be long. You keep wondering when your money will get credited to your account. To avoid such a situation, EPFO has come up with three different ways of tracking your transfer claim. Continue reading below, as tracking your transfer claim status has never been easier.
1st way: Track your claim status via member claim status link
To Track via this mode, follow the steps mentioned below:
2nd way: Track via the unified portal of EPFO
To track via this mode, follow the guide mentioned below:
3rd way: track your claim directly from the EPFO website
To track your claim status via the EPFO website, you need to have these things handy:
You can find all this information on the PF statement provided to you by your employer. And if you don’t have your PF statement, you can click on this link to find your company code and your employer’s regional provident fund office.
Step-by-step process:
Now that you know how to transfer your PF account balance to your current employer, you can easily do it yourself by following the steps mentioned in the article.
The contributions made towards EPF are eligible for deduction under the Income Tax Act. Since the ITR filing for FY 23-24 has started, you can claim the benefit of this deduction now by filing an ITR. And, if you find taxes complicated, you can also connect with our tax experts who can help maximize your tax savings and help you ensure accurate filing. Hire an online CA now!
EPF stands for Employees Provident Fund which was introduced in the year 1952 as a social security scheme. This scheme was launched to protect employees across the organized sector. The major objective of this scheme was to provide a comfortable retirement period to the citizens. It also helps people in saving money as it comes in handy in dire situations.
The contributions towards EPF are made equally by the employer and the employee. Some portion of the employee’s salary goes towards the EPF fund every month. Investments in EPF is a profitable venture for salaried employees because of its exempt-exempt-exempt model. Under E-E-E model, investments, interests, withdrawals after 5 years are exempted from taxes.
EPF scheme is managed by the Employee’s Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) which falls under the Ministry of Labor and Employment. It is mandatory for organizations with a minimum of 20 employees to register themselves with the EPFO. EPFO extends several services to its members, like UAN, facility of withdrawing PF online, transferring PF, registration of establishment via online mode, and several other facilities.
UAN stands for ‘Universal Account Number’, which acts as an umbrella for all the PF/member IDs. As soon as you start working at an EPFO-registered organization, your employer registers you with EPFO. Then EPFO allots you a PF account. If you change your job, you will be given a new PF account. All these PF accounts are linked to UAN. Your UAN doesn’t change with your job and remains stable throughout your employment period. UAN is a combination of 12 alpha-numeric characters which is connected to several different accounts of the employee. Through UAN, the process of transferring EPF and withdrawing PF has been made easier.
Now, let’s study on how you can transfer your EPF via EPFO portal and why do you need to transfer your provident funds.
From the date of submission, the transfer request might take up to 20 days. But according to EPFO, the online process will take less time to review the transfer claim.
To check if you are eligible to file for a transfer claim, follow the steps mentioned below:
In this PDF, you will find all the details related to eligibility for Online Claim Settlement (OCS).
If you are withdrawing EPF before 5 years, then tax will be levied on your withdrawals. It is important that you are in service for 5 consecutive years to avail tax exemptions.
There is no limit on PF withdrawals, and you can withdraw whenever you need the money. However, there is a limit on the withdrawal amount. You can either withdraw your contribution from the PF or six times your wage, whichever option has a lower number.
EPFO has a prescribed list of reasons which allows partial PF withdrawals. If your reason for withdrawal is amongst the reasons stated by the EPFO, then you are eligible for early PF withdrawals. The amount which can be withdrawn is decided after taking reason into consideration.
Yes, it is possible that your member ID is missing from the EPFO database. It could be because of:
If you fail to submit physically signed form to the employer, then the employer has the right to reject your transfer claim. In case the submission is delayed further, it is advisable that you contact either the employer or the authorized signatory.
