Employee provident fund or EPF is one of the many ideal investment options if you are a salaried professional as the interest gained on it is exempted after five years.
This post will talk about the need to transfer your PF account and some easy steps that will help you complete the process from UAN activation to PF account transfer. Let’s begin.
Why Would You Need to Transfer your PF Account?
After an employee starts to earn a salary, he/she also makes PF contribution by self and by his employer and earns interest on it until withdrawal. It is also seen that people change jobs when in their career mid-years for many reasons. What happens to the PF account of such employees already active with previous companies?
The employee may have two alternatives such as:
-The interest on the employee’s contribution can be pulled off if an employee is on a break from a job for a period of up to 60 days, or
-Simply transfer the PF fund to his/her current/existing employer
If you want to keep the PF account active as an investment to keep earning decent interest income on it, it’s a good idea to transfer it instead of withdrawing the amount.
You should also know that withdrawal of the PF amount within 5 years of its starting date also attracts tax on the accumulated figure.
How to Use UAN to Transfer PF Online?
Keeping with its promise of ensuring smooth functioning of the PF account, the Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has strived to work for the better.
As a part of this promise, the EPFO rolled out Universal Account Number or UAN to act as an umbrella for the multiple Member IDs sanctioned to an employee working for different companies.
The UAN has a provision to link all EPF accounts or member IDs provided to a single member. It also offers many services such as updated UAN Card, PF passbook, and all transfer-in details, link earlier member ID with existing ID facility, SMS service informing about the contribution made and account balance. It also facilitates auto-triggering transfer request on the change/modification of employer.
Steps to Transfer Provident Fund Online
You may know that you can transfer the PF online now. Let’s have a look at the easy methods that will help you transfer your provident fund account online:
Step 1
1) Log in to the Unified portal or member interface by using your details such as UAN number and password. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to generate uan no. You can start logging in at https://Unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in/memberinterface/
Step 2
2)Once you are logged in, go ahead and click on ‘one member – one EPF account (transfer request) under the tab of online services
Step 3
3)Once you are at the page, you will then need to check or verify your personal information and PF account for the existing employment
Step 4
4) Once you have verified your personal information and existing employment’s PF account, the PF credentials of your previous company would show once you click on ‘get details’ button
Step 5
5)Here, you will have the choices – either choose your previous employer or current employer for getting attested the claim-based form as per the availability of designated signatory having the DSC. Opt for any one of the employees and enter your UAN or the member ID
Step 6
6)In the final step. You will need to click on ‘get OTP’ button to receive the One-Time Password or the OTP on your mobile registered with the UAN. Once you get the OTP, enter it on this page and click on ‘submit’ button
The employer will then approve your EPF transfer request digitally by using the employer portal of the member/unified portal interface.
You will also need to fill up the Form 13 with some inputs such as PF number of previous as well as the new employer, and download the transfer claim in PDF format.
Go ahead and submit the signed copies of the online PF transfer claim form to the opted company within 10 day’s period.
The Bottom Line
Now that you are aware of the benefits of UAN number and the ways to transfer your PF account online, you can go ahead, follow the discussed steps and get it done without hassles. All the best!
