You know that with changing companies, your EPF accounts are also opened separately, which you have to merge by visiting the EPFO website. If you do not merge the accounts then you may have to suffer big losses. Know about it here-
People working in private sector keep changing jobs from time to time. When changing jobs, a new EPF account is opened for the employee by his employer. However, while opening it, only the old UAN number is used. In such a situation, many employees have this misconception that if the UAN is the old one, then their EPF account running from that UAN number will be the same. Whereas this does not happen.
These are the disadvantages of not merging accounts –
The first disadvantage of not merging the accounts is that due to the opening of a new EPF account, your money lying in the old account is not visible together. Apart from this, merging them is also important from the point of view of tax saving. Actually, when you withdraw money from an EPF account, this limit of five years is observed. There is no tax to be paid on withdrawal of deposited amount after five years of contribution.
If you do not merge the accounts then the duration of each of your companies will be counted differently. In such a situation, when you withdraw PF money, you will have to pay TDS according to the duration of each company. But after merging the accounts, your experience also counts together. Understand with an example- Suppose you worked in three companies for 2-2 years. In this situation, you have three EPF accounts. If you get this account merged then your total experience count will be 6 years. But if merger is not done, this experience of 2-2 years will be counted separately.
Method to merge accounts –
- First of all go to EPFO’s Member Service Portal https://unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in.
- Select ‘One Member – One EPF Account (Transfer Request)’ under the Online Services section.
- Verify personal details and account of current employer.
- After this, if you click on Get Details, the list of your old employers will open.
- Here, click on the account you want to transfer.
- Click on ‘Get OTP’. OTP will come on your registered mobile number, enter it and submit.
Your request will be submitted. Your current employer will have to approve it. After which EPFO will merge your old account into the new account. After some time you can check your merger status.
