I started my new Employee PF account in December 2005 and have been contributing until August 2017. At the age of 53, I moved out of the corporate. I received my PF interest in October 2018 for the financial year 2017-18 and in October 2019 for the financial year 2018-19. I am awaiting the next PF credit. I do not intend to get back to job. Please let me know until which year I will continue to get interest and the best time to withdraw my PF and the taxability of the same.
Ans: Your EPF account is eligible to get interest even if there is no fresh contribution till the retirement age of 58. In case of retirement where PF corpus is not withdrawn, post 36 months, the account becomes inoperative and no interest is paid. The interest earned during this period (36 months) may become taxable in your hands. Hence, you can make small periodic withdrawals so that the account is still operative.
You may choose to hold EPF corpus till the age of 58, and enjoy high interest rate of EPF.