Provident Fund (PF) Registration

Entities with more than 20 employees in the organization are obliged to have the PF Registration.

Understanding the PF Registration

In the year 1952, Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and Miscellaneous Provisions act introduced a scheme named Employees Provident Fund (EPF) with an objective to promote an employee to save a segment of his income for future needs. The program is controlled under the EPFO which bounds an entity with more than 20-employees to obtain PF Registration. An institute with a lesser number can also opt for PF Registration on its own free will.

In Private sector, the PF amount is calculated on the sum of basic salary, dearness allowance and retaining allowance of an employee, where 12% is contributed by the employer and remaining 12% by the employee itself. Whereas, in the case of an organization with a lesser number of employees, or organization matching other criteria of EPFO guidelines, the contributed percentage is restricted to 10% of the basic salary.

As per EPFO instructions, an employee with less than INR 15,000 of monthly salary is obliged to be a part of EPFO whereas an employee drawing more salary is not bound to register for PF but can voluntarily do it with employer’s permission

User-Friendly Portal

To promote ease of functioning, EPFO has introduced a Unified Portal, where an individual can process registration, file returns, and payments, and much more on the same portal.

PF Payment Due Date

An employer must deposit 12% or 10% of Basic Allowance of an employee on or before, 15th of each month. As per EPFO guidelines, for normal organizations, 12% is applicable where the equal share is contributed by the employer and an employee.

PF Return Due Date

All organizations holding PF Registration are obliged to file PF Return on 25th of every month and the final PF is filed on 25th April of the financial year ending on 31st March.

PF Withdrawal

The Unified Portal makes it easy for an employee contributing in PF to conduct drawings by following a simple procedure. An employee needs to visit the portal and apply for withdrawal with a valid reason which can be – house purchase, marriage, education, medical, or other personal reasons.