The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) allows its members to fully withdraw the amount from their accounts at retirement or before retirement due to unemployment. They also have the option to withdraw partial PF contributions for reasons such as medical treatment, education, marriage, purchase/reconstruction of a new house, etc., given they meet certain conditions regarding service period, age, and ownership.

“Partial or full withdrawal of PF after completing a 5-year service period will be tax-exempt. Withdrawal of PF contribution before 5 years of service is taxable in the hands of the PF member, except for the conditions of termination of employment due to reasons like lay-off, discontinuation of service due to illness, discontinuance of business, and other reasons which are beyond the control of the PF member,” says Shefali Mundra, CA and tax expert, ClearTax. 

Recently, several updates were introduced to simplify withdrawals, including auto-claim processing and Aadhaar-based verification. “The EPFO has come up with an online withdrawal facility, which has made the entire process more comfortable and less time-consuming. It has reduced the validation steps from the current 27 to 18. It further plans to reduce it to 16 steps in the coming years,” Mundra adds.

For Aadhaar-verified UANs with complete KYC, employer attestation is not required for online PF transfers and claims, according to EPFO’s current guidelines. Now, Aadhaar-verified UAN holders can update details such as name, DOB, gender, and marital status online without the employer's approval. However, certain complex errors may still require EPFO office intervention.

Prerequisites 

To apply for online withdrawal of PF, one should ensure that the following conditions are met:

● The Universal Account Number (UAN) is activated, and the mobile number linked to the UAN is in working condition.

● The UAN is linked with your KYC, i.e., Aadhaar, PAN, bank details, and the IFSC code.

If the above conditions are met, there is no need for the previous employer to attest to your withdrawal application.

Swapnil Aggarwal, director, VSRK Capital, says, “An EPF member can take out their PF money online through the EPFO member website or the UMANG app. This works if their UAN has KYC approval and links to Aadhaar, PAN, and bank information.”

As part of the EPFO 3.0 scheme, the government is now planning to enable subscribers to withdraw the amount from their EPFO account using ATMs.