EPF withdrawal rules 2026

EPF is the Employees' Provident Fund. You and your employer pay in while you are in a covered job. The 2026 scheme, G.S.R. G.S.R. 525(E) of 29 June 2026, replaced the 1952 scheme on publication. This page follows that scheme, and the tax rules in Schedule XI of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

A partial withdrawal, paragraph 46, leaves a minimum balance. A full withdrawal, paragraph 49, pays the entire credit, including that minimum. Money sent to the pension scheme is a third pot. It is not part of the provident-fund balance.

Your own contribution can be claimed under Section 123 (this was Section 80C) in the old regime. Section 202 (this was Section 115BAC) does not allow it. The new regime does not, by itself, make a withdrawal taxable. Tax on the way out is the five-year rule below.

What sits in the EPF account

The usual contribution is 12% of wages from the employer and 12% from you. Some notified establishments use 10%. In a pandemic or a national disaster the Centre can defer or reduce either share for up to three months at a time. Fifty paise or more rounds up to the next rupee.

The wage ceiling is whatever the Centre notifies. From 2026-09-17 it is ₹25,000 a month. It was ₹15,000 before that. Statutory contributions use the ceiling when your wage is higher. The ceiling is not a ban on paying more. Paragraph 19 lets you add a voluntary contribution above it, at the statutory rate or higher. The employer may match it and does not have to. A joint option already allowed on higher pension wages is an older, separate path.

Of the employer’s 12%, 8.33% of wages up to the ceiling goes to the pension fund. The Centre adds 1.16%, also limited to the ceiling. Neither amount is part of the provident fund you withdraw here.

The in-hand salary calculator uses this ceiling and the 12% rate. It shows the deduction. It does not file a claim.

Interest goes on the monthly running balance, at the rate the Central Government fixes with the Central Board. Last year’s closing balance, minus this year’s withdrawals, earns twelve months. A withdrawal earns interest only up to the previous month. A credit earns interest from the first day of the next month. The total rounds to the nearest rupee.

The Central Board recommended 8.25% for FY 2025-26, to be notified before credit. That is the figure this site already uses. It is not a notified rate for a withdrawal in FY 2026-27. A full claim earns interest up to the day payment is authorised. If this year’s rate is not out yet, the last declared rate is used, and the member keeps it if the later rate is lower.

If you retire after 55, migrate, or die, and nobody claims for 36 months after the money is payable, it can move to an inoperative account. It can still be paid from there.

A partial withdrawal

Paragraph 46 is the partial withdrawal. The smallest claim is ₹1,000, and the minimum balance has to remain.

The minimum is 25% of both shares of contributions, plus interest, up to the withdrawal date. The eligible balance is what remains, and you may take all of it. With nothing already withdrawn, 75% can come out and 25% stays. The October 2025 notes say the same: 12 months, employer share included, and no extra reason for special circumstances.

Housing is a flat or house, a site, construction, repayment of a loan taken for those, and additions or repairs. Special circumstances have no reason-list in the scheme. You do not have to invent one.

Those caps started again when this scheme began. Earlier service, including an exempted fund, can count towards the 12 months if you did not withdraw in between. Breaks are left out.

If you leave before 12 months, you may still take a partial withdrawal, up to the eligible balance. That is the one case that does not wait out the year.

If only the minimum is left, a later partial claim does not unlock it. New contributions build a fresh eligible balance. Payment goes to a scheduled bank, a co-operative bank, or a post office, in your name.

A full withdrawal

Paragraph 49 pays everything to your credit, including the 25% a partial claim would leave behind.

• Retirement after 55. If you leave earlier but turn 55 before payment is authorised, the full amount is still payable.
• Permanent and total incapacity, certified by the establishment’s doctor or a registered doctor it designates.
• Immediately before migration from India, for permanent settlement or for a job abroad.
• Mass or individual retrenchment.
• A voluntary retirement scheme you and the employer agreed.
• Closure and transfer cases: you are moved to an establishment the Code does not cover, or you are discharged with retrenchment compensation. Payment waits until 2 continuous months have passed before the application.

Any other exit uses paragraph 49(2). The full balance is allowed only after 12 continuous months without a job in a covered establishment. Read with the ministry’s note, it is a wait of 12 months. A woman who resigns to get married does not wait.

After a paragraph 49(2) withdrawal, a new covered job means you qualify again as a fresh member.

On death, paragraph 50 pays the nominee, or the family if no nomination survives. If there is no e-nomination, the employer sends the family’s claim within five days of receiving it.

A complete claim is settled within 20 days. A deficiency is communicated within 20 days too. Delay without a good reason can attract penal interest of 12% a year, deducted from the commissioner’s salary. That is a charge on the officer, not interest added to your passbook.

Pension money is a different account

The Employees' Pension Scheme, 2026, is G.S.R. G.S.R. 527(E). The 8.33% and the Centre’s 1.16% are not paid under paragraph 46 or 49.

A monthly pension needs at least 10 of eligible service, at superannuation or as an early pension. The ministry has said the pension age of 58 is unchanged. With the ten years done, an early pension can start from 50. A scheme certificate can carry the service into a later covered job.

The pension is pensionable wages times pensionable service, divided by 70. Wages are the last 60 months, each capped at that period’s ceiling, so this page does not quote a rupee pension from today’s ceiling alone. 20 years at superannuation adds 2 years of weightage.

Under 10 years, the choice is a withdrawal benefit from Table IV, or a scheme certificate. This page does not copy the table. If you leave before superannuation, the withdrawal benefit waits 36 months from the date the last contribution was due, or until superannuation, whichever is earlier. That wait is not the 36-month rule for an unclaimed provident-fund balance.

Disablement during employment, after at least one month of contribution, can bring a pension without the ten years. The floor is ₹250 a month, and it is not the pension at 58. Form 10C is the withdrawal benefit. Form 10D is the monthly pension.

How to file the claim with your UAN

UAN is the Universal Account Number. It is meant to follow you from one employer to the next. Activate it, and seed Aadhaar, PAN, the bank account, and the mobile number, before you claim. The money is paid to that bank. A mismatch is the usual reason a claim comes back.

File on the EPFO member portal. The screen may still say Form 19 or Form 31. Form 19 is the full settlement in paragraph 49. Form 31 is the partial withdrawal in paragraph 46. Confirm the bank account and approve with the Aadhaar OTP.

The buttons can change, so this is not a tour of one screen. What stays put is the seeded KYC, the paragraph you are claiming, and a bank account in your name. If the portal fails for a technical reason, a paper claim can go through the employer, who has five days to send it on. Online is the path the scheme asks for first.

A transfer when you change jobs is not a withdrawal. Leaving the balance in the fund does not start paragraph 49, and it does not reset the five-year count. Earlier membership counts if you did not withdraw.

Tax, the five-year rule and TDS

The contribution and the payout are different tax moments.

Your own contribution is deductible under Section 123, read with Schedule XV (this was Section 80C). The cap is ₹1,50,000, shared with PPF, ELSS, and life insurance. A year of your own EPF at the ceiling is ₹36,000, inside that cap. Section 202 drops the deduction. See the deduction guide and the section-number guide.

The exclusion on the way out is Schedule XI. That used to be section 10(12), read with the old Fourth Schedule. The accumulated balance is excluded in these cases.

Years with a previous employer count if the balance was transferred. A withdrawal in between does not keep the old years.

If none of the cases apply, the assessing officer recomputes tax as if the fund had not been recognised. The extra tax is due in the year the balance becomes payable. Section 191 is that computation. The trustees deduct what the schedule requires.

Section 392(7) (this was Section 192A) is narrower. EPFO deducts 10% when the accumulated balance paid is ₹50,000 or more and the exclusion does not apply. That is a collection, not the final tax. It is the full settlement. It is not a paragraph 46 partial withdrawal.

The Finance Act, 2026 replaced the older line that treated an employer contribution above 12% of salary as your income. The current paragraph taxes interest credited above a rate the Centre notifies. This page does not print that notified rate. The 8.25% recommendation for FY 2025-26 is not that threshold.

Rates on the small-savings page are PPF and the other notified schemes, not EPF. The NPS guide is a different exit. The gratuity calculator does not read a provident-fund passbook.

Checked on 30 October 2026 against both 2026 schemes, the wage-ceiling notification, the ministry’s notes, and Schedule XI. ₹80,000 is an illustration, not an average account.