Key Information and How to Fill the Form for PF Withdrawal

Employee Provident Fund (EPF) or Provident Fund (PF) as it is commonly referred to as is a mandatory savings scheme available to eligible employees of organizations registered under the EPF Act, 1952. The main objective is to help employees build a retirement corpus through the EPF scheme. It comes with a decent interest rate. Each member is given a UAN (Universal Account Number) linked to their EPF account. An employee can make a full withdrawal upon retirement, quitting his job, superannuation, or termination. Apart from that partial withdrawals are also allowed under exceptional circumstances. In case of PF withdrawal before the completion of five years of the PF account, the amount is subject to income tax and TDS deduction. Form 15G has to be submitted during PF withdrawal to avoid deduction of TDS on the interest.

What Form 15G and its Key Eligibility Criteria?

Individuals whose annual income falls within the non-taxable limit of ₹2.5 lakhs can save Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) by furnishing Form 15G/ 15H.

Form 15G is a declaration that you fall under the non-taxable income bracket and no TDS should be deducted from the interest amount. However, only the following entities are eligible for submitting Form 15G:

You are a resident individual of India or a Hindu-Undivided Family (HUF).
Your computed tax amount in a financial year is nil.
Your age is less than 60 yrs.
The total interest you have accumulated on your deposits is less than the basic exemption limit, i.e., ₹2.5 lakh.

If you are eligible, you need to furnish your Form 15 G at the start of every financial year.

Key Difference between Form 15G and Form 15H

Form 15G:

Citizens must be below 60 yrs to use this form.
HUFs are eligible.
The total interest income should not exceed the threshold limit of ₹2.5 lakh.
The interest income must be more than ₹40,000.

Form 15 H:

Citizens must be above 60 yrs to use this form.
HUFs are not eligible
No threshold limit
The interest income must be more than ₹50,000.

How to Submit Form 15G for PF Withdrawal?

If your EPF withdrawal is more than Rs. 50,000, you might be liable to pay TDS on it or if the PF withdrawal is done before the completion of five years of the PF account. To avoid this TDS, you need to submit Form 15H or Form 15 G during the EPF withdrawal process. Form 15G can be downloaded from any bank’s website or the EPFO Portal.

There are two ways of submitting Form 15G for EPF withdrawal:

Offline Method: In this, the applicant has to download and print Form 15G for PF withdrawal (can be done from the EPFO portal). Fill out the details and submit them to the EPFO office along with the EPF withdrawal form and requisite documents.
Online Method: Form 15G can be filled out online as well through the EPFO Portal. The online process of PF withdrawal entails the following steps:
- You have to log in to EPFO unified portal through your UAN.
- Fill in the captcha code provided.
- Click on the ‘online services section’.
- Go to ‘Claim (Form-31, 19, 10C & 10D)’ available in the drop-down menu.
- After filling in all the required details, one must verify the last 4 digits of their phone number for the EPF withdrawal form to be visible.
- Download the Form 15G through this section on the EPFO portal.
- The user must fill out Part 1 of Form 15G and verify all the details.
- Convert the filled form into PDF.
- Upload the PDF format of the form to complete the process.

Conclusion

PF is a tax-efficient way of building a retirement corpus. To avail of the full benefits upon PF withdrawal, you must be aware of the taxation on the principal as well as the interest. To avoid the deduction of TDS on the interest on the balance of PF, Form 15G/ 15H has to be submitted. You can easily submit Form 15G online during the withdrawal of the provident fund.