Many salaried employees have an Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) account in which they mandatorily contribute 12% of their basic salary every month. Further, the interest earned is tax free (up to a certain extent) and maturity amount is also tax free (subject to certain conditions).However, not many understand the finer working details of the scheme. For instance, how long can you keep the money in an EPF account after retirement or after quitting your job -which means there will be no monthly contribution to the account? Will the EPF account balance continue to earn interest if there are no monthly contributions? If yes, then how long it will work and what would be the applicable interest rate on such EPF balance? If you continue to work after retirement, either with the same or a different company, can you continue with the EPF and EPS account contributions?An EPF account remains active when an individual continues to make the monthly contributions from salary. However, if you have quit working or have retired, how long can you keep the money untouched in the EPF account? One should note that the EPF schemeallows an individual to withdraw 100% of their EPF balance and close the account if they do not join another job within two months. Or else, the EPF account can be closed at the time of retirement.It may happen that an individual has quit working before reaching the retirement age. In such a case, how long the EPF account will remain operative. Bhardwaj says, "If an individual has stopped working before the retirement, the EPF account will remain operative for three years from the month in which EPF account contributions have stopped. Post that, the EPF account will become inoperative irrespective of the retirement age.Here is an example to understand this. Suppose an individual has stopped working at the age of 40 years. His last contribution to the EPF account was in July 2023. The EPF account will remain operative until July 2026. Post that the account will become inoperative.Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Partner Deloitte says that the provisions of the EPF Scheme indicate that the account will be inoperative where the member has retired from service after attaining 55 years of age or migrated abroad permanently and no application for withdrawal has been received preferred within 36 months from the date it becomes payable. The account will continue to be operative during the 36-month period.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
texasalmonds true almonds without any preservatives
