Provident Funds to be Taxed at withdrawal- Budget 2020-21

Introduction

The income tax law proposed in the Finance Bill, 2021, has triggered anxieties for the salaried class: withdrawing tax exemption on interest income accrued into Provident Fund accounts arising out of employee contributions exceeding ?2.5 lakh ‘in a previous year in that fund,’ on or after April 1, 2021.

Reason

Some employees are contributing huge amounts into their PF accounts and getting tax-free incomes.
Subsequently, the Revenue Department has pointed out the tax will only affect a small group of ‘high net-worth individuals’ (HNIs); the 100 largest employees’ PF (EPF) accounts had a combined balance of over ?2,000 crore.
- A social security scheme for formal sector workers should become an investment haven for the well-heeled corporate top brass.

Issue

Low threshold: However, the threshold proposed to exclude the so-called HNIs appears low, as it would end up partially taxing PF income for even those putting away ?21,000 a month towards their retirement — hardly a typical HNI given it may take the saver decades to attain a one crore rupee PF balance.
- The threshold also does not tie in with the ?7.5 lakh limit set in last year’s Budget for employers’ contributions into the EPF, National Pension System (NPS) or other superannuation funds (rules for which are yet to be notified).
- In the 2016-17 Budget, it proposed to tax 60% of EPF balances at the time of withdrawal, but backtracked after a backlash.
Only NPS investments: It has covered even government employees’ contributions into the GPF, but left NPS investments over ?2.5 lakh a year untouched.
Unequal tax treatment: Tax treatment inequity between India’s limited retirement savings instruments.
Retro-active taxation: The words ‘in a previous year’, for one, suggest this will be a type of retro-active tax — taxing future income even on past years’ contributions of over ?2.5 lakh.

Conclusion

This may not be smart timing for a government looking to lean on huge borrowings to dent large inflows into EPF — most of its corpus is captively deployed in government bonds.
While the goal of targeting HNIs using the PF savings to avoid taxation is laudable, the Centre should consider recalibrating the arithmetic and operational details of this tax.

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