TDS on Employee Provident Fund withdrawals Definition of Recognized Provident Fund
Best Payroll Management Company base ESI PF Consultant in Ahmedabad, and India. Certain designated employers must adhere to the Employees Provident Fund Scheme, 1952 (EPFS) in accordance with the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (EPF & MP Act, 1952). However, if certain requirements are met, these employers are also allowed to create and run their own private provident fund (PF) program.
Best Payroll Management Company base ESI PF Consultant in Ahmedabad, and India. The term Recognized Provident Fund (RPF) under the Act refers to provident funds created under a plan structured under the EPF & MP Act, 1952, or provident funds exempted under section 17 of the aforementioned Act and recognized under the Income-tax Act.
The RPF taxation system
An employee's withdrawal of their accrued amount from their RPF is tax-free under the current income tax act rules.
However, the employee's withdrawal is taxable if it occurs before five years of continuous service (except from terminations for reasons like illness or business closure) and they choose not to transfer the accrued balance to a new employer.
Income calculation for TDS
According to rule 10 of Schedule IV-A, the trustees of the RPF must deduct tax as calculated in rule 9 of Schedule IV-A at the time of payment in order to guarantee tax collection for these withdrawals.
According to Rule 9 of Schedule IV-A of the Act, the tax on the amount that has been withdrawn must be computed by recalculating the tax liability for the years that the RPF contribution was made, treating it as if it had been contributed to an unrecognized provident fund.
Current challenge
For the purpose of calculating the amount of tax liability under rule 9 of Schedule-IV-A of the Act, the trustees of EPFS may occasionally be unable to obtain information about the employee's taxability, such as the amount of taxable income and tax payable for each year.
Highlights of the amendment: The legislation provides a threshold limit of Rs. 30,000/-for the applicability of this proposed provision for helping employees whose taxable income is below the taxable limit.
The ability to self-declare for non-deduction of tax under section 197A of the Act will be made available to employees who receive premature withdrawal in order to further lessen the compliance load on them.
An employee may declare on Form No. 15G that his total income, including taxable pre-mature withdrawals from EPFS, does not exceed the maximum amount exempt from taxation. If the employee provides this declaration, the EPFS trustee will not deduct any taxes when paying the employee.
Senior citizen employees who receive premature withdrawal will also have the same opportunity to file a self-declaration in Form No. 15H for non-deduction of tax under section 197A of the Act.
On the other hand, certain workers who take early withdrawals might be paying tax at higher slab rates (20% or 30%). Therefore, these employees must either request their new employer or pay advance tax or self-assessment tax to make up the difference between their real tax burden and TDS.
It is necessary for these employees to provide the EPFS with a valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) in order to guarantee that they pay the remaining taxes.Â