EPF Compliance Guide - Registration, UAN, Contributions & Withdrawals

The Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) is India's mandatory retirement savings scheme, administered by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). It is designed to build a retirement corpus for salaried employees through regular, disciplined monthly contributions made throughout their working life.

EPF registration is mandatory for establishments with 20 or more employees. Below that threshold, registration is voluntary - an employer can choose to opt in even with a smaller headcount. Once registered, both the employer and the employee contribute 12% of the employee's basic wages plus Dearness Allowance (DA) each month into the scheme.

An establishment registers for EPF through the EPFO Unified Portal, which generates a unique establishment code used for all future filings and contribution deposits.

Every covered employee is then issued a Universal Account Number (UAN) - a single, lifelong number that stays with the employee across every job change, unlike the older member ID system where a new ID was generated for each employer. The UAN acts as an umbrella: each employer-specific member ID gets linked underneath it, so an employee's entire EPF history stays connected to one number.

To unlock online services, employees must complete KYC on their UAN - linking Aadhaar, PAN and bank account details. A KYC-verified UAN enables passbook access, claim withdrawal, and profile updates through the EPFO member portal or the UMANG app, without needing to route every request through the employer.

Both employer and employee contribute 12% of basic wages plus DA each month. While the employee's full 12% is credited to their EPF account, the employer's 12% is split between two schemes.

Of the employer's contribution, 8.33% is diverted to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) - capped at ₹1,250 per month, based on the ₹15,000 wage ceiling used for EPS calculations. The remainder of the employer's 12% flows into the employee's EPF account alongside the employee's own contribution.

Employers also separately fund the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme at 0.5% of wages, capped at the ₹15,000 wage ceiling. EDLI is a life insurance benefit for the employee's nominee, funded entirely by the employer - the employee makes no contribution toward it.

Employees can access their EPF corpus in specific circumstances rather than at will. Full withdrawal of the accumulated balance is generally associated with retirement or an extended period of unemployment.

Partial withdrawal - commonly called an "advance" - is permitted earlier for specific, defined purposes such as home purchase or construction, medical treatment for self or family, marriage, or education. Each purpose carries its own eligibility conditions, including minimum years of service and limits on how much of the balance can be withdrawn.

Because these conditions and limits are periodically revised by EPFO circular, treat any specific number you've seen elsewhere as a starting point, not a guarantee - always verify current rules on the EPFO portal before applying for an advance or final settlement.

Depositing employee and employer EPF contributions late doesn't just delay crediting to the employee's account - it exposes the employer to statutory penalties. Late deposits attract interest under Section 7Q, charged at 12% per annum for the entire period of delay, from the due date to the actual payment date.

On top of interest, delayed deposits can attract damages under Section 14B - a separate, punitive charge assessed on a staggered scale depending on how long the default lasted, on top of the Section 7Q interest already owed.

For a detailed breakdown of how interest and damages are calculated, and to estimate what a specific delay could cost, see the EPFO Penalty Calculator on this site.