Month: February 2014

5 must know rules before Opening PPF Account for minor child

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

PPF account is one of the most favorite investment product in India and every person wants to open a PPF account for minor child. However, there are lots of myths about the rules on opening PPF account for minor kids.

In this article, we will look at some of the important points you should know if you want to open a PPF account for your children. We will discuss about tax exemption, limit on the amount you can invest and PPF maturity rules. Here they are

UPDATE: The limit was 1 Lac when this article was written. Now it has increased to 1.5 Lacs.

rules ppf account for minor children

1. Who can open PPF account for minor Child ?

As per PPF rules, a guardian can open Public Provident Fund account for minor child, where guardian is

  • Either Father or Mother
  • Or incase of Parents are not alive, then any other guardian under the law can open PPF account for minor children, like Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother, Grandfather etc.
  • Incase a surviving parent is incapable of acting, then also some other guardian (as mentioned above) can open PPF minor account

2. How much can I invest in PPF account of Minor Child ?

There is a very big confusion around this topic. The most common question is – “Can I invest more than 1 lac in PPF account ?”

As per my understanding and all the readings I did on this topic, I came to know that One can invest maximum of Rs 1 lac in all the combined PPF (Public Provident Fund) account a person has which is self , and for minor children. Example – Imagine there is a Father (F) and Mother (M) and there are two minor children – C1 and C2 . Now follow scenario’s are possible

  • Father (F) can open PPF account for himself, C1, and C2
  • Wife (W) can open PPF account for herself, C1 and C2
  • Father can open PPF account for himself and C1 (or C2) , Wife can open PPF account for herself and C2 (or C1)

Here are these 3 scenarios possible

PPF account for minor

3. Can I deposit more than 1 lac in PPF account even if I don’t need income tax exemption ?

This is one question which really needs clarity, because a lot of people open PPF accounts for minor children and invest Rs 1 lac in all the Public Provident Fund accounts (Here are articles on opening PPF account with ICICI Bank and with SBI Bank).

You don’t get income tax exemption under 80C for more than total Rs 1 lac, which is fine for many people, but are you eligible to get benefits on more than 1 lac invested or not ?

As per PPF rules, you are just not allowed to invest more than Rs 1 lac in your own PPF account or any other PPF account where you are guardian. So if you have 2 kids and you have opened PPF account in their names, you might be thinking that you can invest 1 lac in your own PPF and 1 lac in each kid PPF account so that you can enjoy tax free maturity income later for your kids PPF account .

But I dont think its allowed, because as per PPF rules, the 1 lac limit is for an individual , not on per account basis .

But I have been investing more than 1 lac each year, already from many years !

I know, a lot of investors who have been investing more than 1 lac in PPF each year. Due to technological challenges, it might be possible that no one stopped you from doing it, but in future if govt comes to know that you have been avoiding the rules, you might not get any interest on the excess amount, so you might get back only the principal amount at the time of maturity.

A lot of Bank staff are also not clear on these rules , here is an incident which was shared by one of our readers 

Today I met manager of the branch of bank (State Bank of India) where I have all these three accounts. I narrated the whole scenario. He does not see any problem with the situation.

I am really confused as to continue this mode of financial plan or to change it in the light of your clarification regarding the total ppf investment limit.

4. Do I need to declare about my personal PPF accounts at the time of opening minor PPF ?

A person can not have more than 1 PPF account on self name, but they can have it as a guardian for his children , but you need to declare about all your PPF (Public Provident Fund) account as self and for other children at the time of opening a new PPF account with other kids.

Because when you fill up the PPF opening form, there is a declaration you need to give about it , here is a snapshot of how it looks like

self declaration ppf form

Which means that legally you need to declare about your other PPF accounts , if you don’t do so, you are breaking the law and if in future its detected that you have been doing what is not allowed, all the money you have deposited in PPF account in excess to the limit allowed will just be returned to you without any interest, and that might be a big blow to your overall planning.

So, a small change you can do in your overall planning is that, you can ask your spouse to open PPF account as guardian for the child, this way, one husband can avail upto 1 lac benefit and wife can also avail upto 1 lac benefit.

5. What happens when the minor kid becomes a major ?

Case 1 : If PPF account matures before the child attains 18 yrs –

In this case the guardian can either withdraw the money from PPF or extend it for another 5 yrs block . In this case, the money withdrawn will be treated as guardian income and now when this money is invested somewhere else and any interest income is earned (learn how PPF interest is calculated), then it will be treated as guardian income only.

So imagine PPF (Public Provident Fund) account is matured and the kid is still minor (assume you opened the PPF when he/she was 1 yr old) and you get Rs 10 lacs from PPF account, now when you invest this 10 lacs into FD , you get Rs 1 lac as interest in a year, this interest income will be treated as your income (guardian income) and will be added into income and taxed accordingly.

Case 2 : If PPF account matures after the child attains 18 yrs (become’s major) –

In this case, the account will then be operated by the child (who has become major) and there will be no guardian. The child will then take his/her own independent decision.

In this case, because the PPF account has matured after the child has attained maturity age, all the maturity amount will be income of the child itself, Now any interest income earned on this amount in future will be kid income.

Conclusion

PPF account for minor children is a good idea if you want to build a long term corpus for their education or other requirement. However if you are already exhausting your own limit for PPF (Public Provident Fund), then it might not be that useful because their a limit on the investment amount.

You need to see how you want to divide the amount between your own and your kid and whom do you want to make guardian, yourself or your spouse ?

Can you share about your case ? Do you have PPF account for your minor child ?

6 reasons for which you can withdraw from your EPF – like Buying House, Medical treatment, Marriage etc !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Yes, you read it right ! . Most of the people do not know that they can withdrawal partially from their EPF account even when they are in the job for some specific and important reasons in life like buying house, marriage and paying for education fees.

Today I am going to share with you this very hidden and not so known information about EPF partial withdrawal. EPF is an important part of most of the salaried individuals, but there is lack of awareness of how it can help you at times when you are pressed for money in life.

If you have worked for several years like 5-20 yrs already, you have accumulated a good amount in your EPF (Employee Provident Fund), but most of the people feel that its locked in and they will only be able to get it only at the time of retirement or will be able to withdraw/transfer it when they leave their job.

EPF withdrawal for house purchase, marriage or medical emergencies

6 situations when you can withdraw money from EPF account while you are working

Here are those 6 major milestones in life or reasons for which you can take out the money from EPF account

  • For Marriage Purpose of Self, Sibling and Children
  • For Education of Self + Children
  • Purchase/Construction of House or Flat
  • Repayment of Existing Home Loan
  • Repairs/Alteration of Existing House
  • For Medical Treatment

Different rules for different situations

Para 68 of Employee Provident Fund Act 1952, defines how much you can withdraw, under which condition, after how many years of service and finally how many number of times. But before you move forward, its important to understand two important terms – which are “wages” and “years in service”.

You should know these two terms because how much you can withdraw for some reason has some restrictions and defined like this  – “You can withdraw maximum 36 times your monthly wages, only after 5 yrs of service”. So you will get confused on the terms like wages and years of service .

Most of the people confuse “wages” with the monthly take home salary or gross salary and do not understand how to calculate “yrs of service” because they have changed their jobs and keep moving from one company to another and have not transferred their old EPF account to new one.

So lets understand these two critical points

What is the meaning of “Wages” ?

Wages means Basic Salary + DA (if any) . So if you are earning Rs 80,000 per month take home,. but your Basic Salary + DA is only Rs.25,000 per month and rest 55,000 is other components, then for calculation purpose – “wages” will be Rs.25,000 only and not Rs.80,000 which is generally confused with.

What is the meaning of “X yrs of Completed Service” ?

How old is EPF account is the sum total of how many years you have worked. Do not confuse it with how long are you are employed in current job.

Because Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a centralized pension system, if you ave worked for 3 yrs , 4 yrs and 2 yrs in 3 different companies, then your EPF account would be considered as 9 yrs old, provided you have transferred your old EPF accounts to the current one.

So in this example which I just gave, even if your current job is 2 yrs old, if you have transferred your old EPF to your current one, your “yrs of service” will be 9 yrs, and then you will be eligible for many benefits which we are going to talk in this article.

Incase you have not transferred your old EPF account to current EPF account, then in that case you will be at loss, because there is no data of your past employment in the current EPF account and you suddenly might not be eligible for various withdrawal benefits, because many of them require atleast 5 or 7 yrs of service.

So the first step you should do is transfer your old EPF to your new EPF account. Incase you have been facing issues while transferring your EPF account, file a RTI now and get it done !

What is Form 31 ?

Form 31 is the main form which one has to fill and submit to employer inorder to withdraw money for various important situations mentioned above. Along with form 31, you also need to provide specific documents depending on the case. You can either ask for Form 31 from your employer or download Form 31 from EPF website.

Fill this form and submit it to your employer who will then verify it and process it. Note that you should not send it directly to EPFO office, because it has to go through your employer only. Below is the form 31 attached if you want to have a look at it.

How will you receive the money from EPFO ?

When you fill up the form 31, you need to you need to fill up your bank details and also give a cancelled cheque and once your employer and EPFO verifies it and process it, you get the money through NEFT or RTGS in your bank account.

Incase the amount is less then Rs 2,000, you also have option to get it via money order.

6 situations when you can withdraw from your EPF

Below are those 6 important reasons for which you can withdraw from your EPF , now I am going to explain each of them in detail. Here they are –

Reason #1 – Marriage for self, children and siblings

You can withdraw from your EPF account for the occasion of marriage if you have completed 7 yrs of service. The interesting part is, you can avail this facility 3 times in life (during your service) and the maximum amount you can withdraw can not be more than 50% of the “Employee share” in EPF account.

You should be clear that even Employer contributes to your EPF account and that is not considered for this withdrawal. So even if your EPF account total balance is Rs 10 lacs, that whole amount is not considered for calculation purpose, only your own contribution and interest on that amount is used for calculation purpose.

This is applicable for the marriage of

  • Self
  • Son or Daughter
  • Brother or Sister

So for an example, lets say you have been working for 10 yrs and your sister’s marriage is coming up, you can withdraw money from your EPF account for this purpose.

You will need to provide the full address of venue, marriage date in form 31, and also attach some proof of wedding like Marriage invitation or the bonafide certificate of the fees payable and give it to your employer for verification and processing.

Reason #2 – For Education of Self + Children

You can also withdraw for education expenses for self and children. This is valid only for post matriculation educational expenses. By post-matriculation, it means after 10th standard .

So if you are admitting your child to any college or university for graduation or post graduation or any other professional course, you can withdraw from your EPF account. But this can be availed only after 7 yrs of service and the maximum amount you can withdraw is 50% of your own contribution.

This can be used for maximum 3 times in your lifetime, but this 3 times also includes the “marriage” as the reason. So the point is , for Marriage or Education purpose, you can withdraw for maximum 3 times in total.

Reason #3 – Purchase/Construction of House/Land

If you are planning to buy or construct a house OR purchase a land, you are eligible to withdraw some limited money from your EPF account once in lifetime. Here are some of the rules which you need to satisfy

  • The house/land should be on your name or your spouse name or jointly in the name of you and your spouse (no other combination is allowed)
  • You should have completed 5 yrs of service.
  • If you are purchasing land, the maximum permissible amount is 24 times monthly wages.
  • If you are purchasing or constructing a house/flat , then the permissible limit is 36 times monthly wages (including the acquisition of land also)

So for example –

If you are buying a flat and your salary per month is Rs.80,000 , but your basic salary + DA (wages) is only Rs.25,000 per month, then for calculation sake, your wages is Rs 25,000. So as per rule, you can withdraw upto 36 times your monthly wage, which is 36 x Rs.25,000 = Rs.9 lacs from your EPF account.

If you do not have that much money, then you will get less than 9 lacs. This is not a small amount if you think about it. When you take the home, there are so many costs involved and one is so hard pressed for money that time, Even few lacs is a big enough help.

The property in question should be free from any dispute or emcumbrances to avail this facility (here are 20+ terms you should know about real estate). Also the property should be registered and a proof of registration must be given to get this facility.

Reason #4 – Repayment of Existing Home Loan

This one is surely going to move a lot of you readers I know :). If you have a home loan, you can even withdraw some part of your EPF money to prepay your current home loan, but for that you need to have 10 yrs of service. However you can avail this only once in your lifetime, and this one time limit is clubbed with the last reason (3rd) above.

So one can either withdraw money from EPF account for purchase/construction of house or repayment of house loan, not both !

The property must be in the name of self, spouse or jointly registered with spouse.

A lot of people have a joint home loan with father, mother, siblings – but in those cases, you wont get this benefit. The amount you can withdraw will be 36 times of your monthly wages.

The money you will get under this clause, can be taken from self contribution and employer contribution in EPF. You will need to provide the proof for house agreement, sanction of house loan and some other documents as asked by the EPFO office.

Also the money will be issued directly to the lender bank, not to you (incase you thought you can trick the EPFO and enjoy the money for some other purpose). Next, you can use the money from your self + employer contribution.

Reason #5 – Repairs/Alteration of Existing House

At times, when your house is little old (after many years), there comes a time when you want to make some alterations and changes in current house and it burns your pocket. You might want to do some construction work, or lets say change your home tiles, or add a new room in existing house.

In all these cases, you can use EPF money for this purpose. However there are few rules

  • The maximum money you can take is 12 times your monthly wages
  • The house should be more than 5 yrs old after construction completion date.
  • You should have completed 10 yrs of service
  • You can avail this facility only once
  • The house should be in the name of self, spouse or jointly with spouse

Note that this money can only come out of your own contribution, not employer’s contribution

Reason #6 – For Medical Treatments

If you have health insurance, then well and good, but if you don’t have it and if you are hospitalized or have to undergo some major surgery, you might have to shell out a lot of money, but your EPF account can be of some help to you partially.

You can withdraw money from your EPF (Provident Fund) for a medical treatment for self or anyone is family in following 3 situations (any one, not all)

(a) The hospitalization is for more than 1 month (for any reason), or
(b) major surgical operation in a hospital, or
(c) if one is suffering from T.B., leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental derangement or heart ailment and having been granted leave by his employer for treatment of the said illness.

The best part is that you can withdraw the money anytime in your service.

There is no requirement that, you must have completed X number of years in service. Even if you have been in service for just 1 yr or 2 yrs, you can still withdraw money for medical treatment – But at the same time, the maximum money you can take is limited to 6 months wages, which is not a very big amount, but still atleast you get some help and this option is there.

This benefit can be taken anytime you want and for any number of times during your life time. So in a way, your EPF will come to your rescue in times of need, at least partially if not fully!.

But, there are few documents you will have to produce and give along with Form 31 and those are

  • A certificate from your employer which states that the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme facility and benefits thereunder are not actually available to the member or the member produces a certificate from the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation to the effect that he has ceased to be eligible for cash benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme
  • A certificate from eligible doctor stating the fact that hospitalization of one month is required or there is a requirement of a major surgical operation or certifying that one is suffering from the mentioned illness – i.e T.B, leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental derangement or heart ailment.

All the rules mentioned in a single chart

So that was all the rules I wanted to tell you, I also want to give you a single chart which has all the above points at one place.

epf withdrawal chart for house purchase, marriage or education expenses

An example of someone with 10+ yrs of experience

To give you a more clear picture, here is a simple example which will help you understand how much a person is eligible to withdraw in money terms. I have assumed that a person has completed 10 yrs of service and his wages per month is Rs 20,000 and his current EPF balance is Rs.10 lacs.

epf withdrawal example house purchase

Conclusion

Your EPF account is primarily for your long term wealth creation, Do not use it only because the money is available through that because its a place where your money gets accumulated each month without your intervention.

However in case of crisis situations and when you are not able to arrange for money from anywhere, its a good place to chip in and withdraw the money.

Let me know if you want to share any new information or have any doubts. I would be happy to answer them incase I know more

4 kind of exclusions in your health insurance policy which are NOT covered

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

When health insurance claims are rejected, it disappoints the customer more than anything else. Its a disappointing moment for the policy holder, when his trust is lost in company and he starts feeling that he was a fool to buy the health insurance policy at the first place and waste his premium, because companies are just fraud, who wants to loot the customers, by giving silly reasons for not settling the claim.

They feel companies are coming up with unreasonable reasons to reject their claims. This situation is a big blow to customer financially, because now they have to bear all the expenses from their own pocket. This is exactly what happens with many customers who have no idea of what their health insurance policy covers and does not cover.

What does a Health Insurance Policy does not Cover ?

In almost all the cases where claims are rejected and customers are disappointed, its seen that it happens because companies reject claims based on the policy document rules and what is covered or not covered into the policy, however the customer disappointment is always there, because there was a lack of understanding of what is covered and what is not covered. There various clauses like waiting period concept or exlusion of pre-existing illness, which customers do not try to understand fully and see health insurance policy as something which will just pay their bills in any medical case. However thats not true.

In this article I want to make you aware about the 4 major clauses in almost all the health insurance policies which will help you understand how exclusions work in case of health insurance policies and when you will not be paid. This will help you and companies both to make sure you are on the same page.

What is not covered in health insurance policies

Exclusion #1 – Permanent Exclusions

Permanent exclusions are listed category of treatments, which are never covered in health insurance policy for whole life. They are excluded permanently from the ambit of the health insurance scope. These permanent exclusions are clearly mentioned in the policy document of the health insurance product under section “Permanent Exclusions”.

Even before buying the policy, you can look at the PDF document of the policy which must be there on the health insurance company website. Almost all the companies have the same list of illnesses listed under this section, however you should anyways look at it.

Here is a sample list of some of the permanent exclusion taken from Religare Care Health Insurance policy(not the full list)

  • Any condition directly or indirectly caused or associated with any sexually transmitted disease
  • AIDS
  • Any Treatment arising from or traceable to pregnancy, miscarriage, maternity, abortion or complications of any of these.
  • Any Dental treatment or surgery unless necessitated due to an injury
  • Charges incurred in connection with cost of spectacles or contact lenses, routine eye and ear examinations
  • Any treatment related to sleep disorder etc
  • Treatment of mental illness, stress , psychiatric or psychological disorders
  • Any Treatment/surgery for change of sex or gender reassignments including any complication arising out of these treatments
  • All preventive care, vaccination, including inoculation and immunizations
  • Non Allopathic treatments
  • Any Out Patient Treatment
  • Treatment received outside India (unless its part of the policy)
  • Act of self destruction or self inflicted injury , attempted suicide
  • Any Hospitalization primarily for investigation or diagnosis purpose
  • Cosmetic and aesthetic treatments
  • plus, there are many others – which you should read in policy document

Here is an exact snapshot from Bharti Axa Health Insurance page

what is not covered in health insurance policies bharti axa

Exclusion #2 – Waiting Period Concept for selected illness

Each Health insurance policy has the concept of “Waiting Period” for a selected list of illnesses, which means that for first few years(which can be anywhere between 2-3 years) will not be covered under health insurance and only after that period they will be covered. So if waiting period is 2 years in some policy, and you take the policy in year 2014, the illness covered under waiting list will be covered only after 2 yrs are over.

This is one thing which customers do not pay attention to while taking the policy and if they get hospitalized due to some illness which is not covered under waiting period, their claim is rejected and then they feel cheated and complain about the company. Here is a real life case on our forum

Here is the list of some of the illness and diseases which are part of waiting period in most of the policies

  • Arthritis , Osteoarthritis , Osteoporosis , Spinal Disorders, Joint replacement surgery
  • ENT Disorders & surgeries, Deviation, Sinusitis and related disorders
  • Cataract
  • Dilation and Curettage
  • Piles, Gastric Ulcers
  • All types of Hernia , Hydrocele
  • Internal tumors, Skin Tumors , cysts
  • Kidney Stone , Gall Blader Stone

Some policies might have the specific waiting period for senior citizens, like in case of Family First policy by Max Bupa, there are few illness which are under 2 years waiting period for senior citizens, but not for young customers.

Specific Waiting period for senior citizens

Exclusion #3 – Pre-Exisitng Illness

Another exclusion is “Pre-existing illness” in all the policy documents of all the health insurance policies. Pre-existing illness are those illnesses which are already detected for the patient. Most of the companies do not cover these pre-existing illness for starting 2-4 yrs (exact time varies from one company to another). So if someone is suffering from some respiratory illness already, then any treatments or hospitalizations which occurs due to respiratory problems will not be covered for first few yrs (the exact tenure depends on company). This is to prevent situations where a person is detected for some disease and he takes the health insurance so that he is covered for the hospitalization, this is simply not allowed and does not make any business logic. So thats the reason its said that one should take health insurance as soon as possible so that those initial few years are passed and then you are covered for wide range of illness.

Pre-existing illness in case of Senior Citizens

In case of senior citizens, pre-existing illness are excluded for rest of the life in most of the policies, because anyways there is higher probability of senior citizens getting hospitalized due to their existing illness. So if someone has undergone bypass surgery and they are senior citizen, any heart related treatments will not be covered for all life. It will be permanently excluded from the policy. Thats one big reason why I keep on saying that you should take your parents health insurance before they turn 60 yrs. There are some companies like Oriental Insurance, which does not even require medical tests for persons upto age of 60 yrs, just the declarations given in the health insurance form is enough.

Exclusion #4 – First 30-90 days waiting period

Almost all the health insurance companies do not give cover for any medical treatment for the first 30-90 days of taking the policy, except the medical expenses which result from injury (like accident). For example Religare Care have a initial 30 days waiting period, however Max Bupa Family First policy has a 90 day waiting period

Conclusion

Health Insurance is a preventive financial product, not a reactive financial product. You take health insurance to make sure that you are covered from future problems, not to deal with current medical issues. So when you are healthy, you should go for medical policy, so that you are covered for any long term medical issues. Most of the people start the procedure of buying health insurance when some illness is detected, and that’s when health insurance policy will not help you much. Instead of having wrong expectations by assuming things, better analyse and research the health insurance policy properly and deeply by reading the policy document.

Let me know if you have any experiences on this or want to share something ?