New EPF Withdrawal Rules 2021........

The EPF account consists of contributions from the employer and employee. However, the money in an EPF account cannot be withdrawn at whim.

Here are 10 important rules about EPF withdrawal:

1.       Money from the EPF account cannot be withdrawn during employment, unlike a bank account. EPF is a long-term retirement savings scheme. The money can be withdrawn only after retirement.

2.       Partial withdrawal from EPF accounts is permitted in the case of an emergency such as medical emergency, house purchase or construction, and higher education. Partial withdrawal is subject to limits depending on the reason. The account holder can request online for partial withdrawal.

3.       Although the EPF corpus can be withdrawn only after retirement, early retirement is not considered until the person reaches 55 years of age. EPFO allows withdrawal of 90% of the EPF corpus 1 year before retirement, provided the person is not less than 54 years old.

4.       The EPF corpus can be withdrawn if a person faces unemployment before retirement due to lock-down or retrenchment.

5.       The EPF subscriber has to declare unemployment in order to withdraw the EPF amount.

6.       As per the new rule, EPFO allows withdrawal of 75% of the EPF corpus after 1 month of unemployment. The remaining 25% can be transferred to a new EPF account after gaining new employment.

7.       As per the old rule, 100% EPF withdrawal is allowed after 2 months of unemployment.

8.       EPF corpus withdrawal is exempted from tax but under certain conditions. Tax exemption on EPF corpus is permitted only if an employee contributes to the EPF account for 5 continuous years. The EPF amount is taxable if there is a break in the contribution to the account for 5 continuous years. In that case, the entire EPF amount will be considered as taxable income for that financial year.

9.       Tax is deducted at source on premature withdrawal of the EPF corpus. However, if the entire amount is less than Rs.50,000, then TDS is not applicable. Keep in mind, if an employee provides PAN with the application, the applicable TDS rate is 10%. Otherwise, it is 30% plus tax. Form 15H/15G is a declaration form, which states that a person's total income is not taxable and thus, TDS is avoidable.

10.   An employee does not have to await approval from the employer for EPF withdrawal anymore. It can be done directly from the EPFO, provided the employee's UAN and Aadhaar are linked, and the employer has approved it. EPF withdrawal status can be checked online.