Month: November 2016

Duplicate UAN? Here is step by step process to solve it!

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today we will talk about the issue of duplicate UAN, which has confused a lot of employees. A lot of people have contacted us that 2 UAN were generated for them by their past employer and current employer and now they have no idea what is to be done in this case.

duplicate uan

You can see following question which was posted by one of the reader of this blog.

Hello Manish,

I left my previous company on 1st April 2014 and joined new company on 7th April 2014. Now problem is I have been allotted UAN no. from both employer. I want to withdraw whole amount of EPF (Employees’ Provident Fund) of previous employer.

So kindly guide me what to do in this situation?

Why does multiple UAN get allotted?

UAN (Universal Account Number) as you all know, is a single unique number for each EPF member for all this EPF accounts under them. You can see the UAN as the folder (UAN) which has various files under it (EPF accounts)

Before we discuss how to solve the duplicate UAN problem, I want you to know how two UAN are generated and why does it happen?

Reason #1 – Not disclosing old UAN number

A lot of employees do not want to disclose about their past employment, hence they do not quote their old UAN number to new employer. In that case, the new employer will generate a fresh UAN for the employee. This is one of the reasons for having duplicate UAN number.

Reason #2 – Past employer did not furnish ‘the date of exit’ details in the ECR

ECR or Electronic Challan cum Return is an electronic return filed by employers to EPFO to submit your EPF payments and other things. In this, they mention “the date of exit” for those employees who have left the job. So incase due to some issue the employer does not mention this date of exit.

This is another reason why another UAN gets generated by new employer. I have no idea why that happens, but this is the reason which is mentioned by the EPFO in their recent circular which talks about the issue of multiple UAN allotment

duplicate uan issue

How to solve the two UAN problem?

Note that each person should have only one UAN number (like PAN), hence if you have multiple UAN, it’s not allowed and creates problem in the EPF system, because is no proper track. Hence, as soon as you come to know that there are multiple UAN assigned to you, you should cancel one of the UAN (mostly the old UAN) or should try to deactivate one of them

Process to deactivate old UAN

Step #1 – The first step if that you should start the EPF transfer for all the EPF’s which are not under the latest UAN generated. This can be done using the OTCP portal of EPFO . I am not going in details here, but first you need to make sure all the old EPF’s are transferred and linked to the new UAN.

Step #2 – In the next step, the EPFO system will automatically identify those UAN for which the EPF transfers have happened and completed. Once they find the idle UAN, they will automatically deactivate that UAN. You don’t have to do anything here. This deactivation process will take place from time to time as per decision taken by EPFO. Once the deactivation happens, your old member id (your old EPF accounts) will be linked to new UAN.

So, from your side all you need to make sure is that all your old EPF’s are transferred to the recent EPF account.

How to solve two UAN problem

If you are already sure that your past UAN does not have the EPF linked to them, then you can mail your old UAN number along with recent UAN to your employer and to [email protected] . They will verify your UAN’s status and deactivate the old UAN.

Let us know if you have more clarity on this subject or if you have already completed the process for the benefit of other readers.

Should you invest in ESPP plan? Here are 2 critical points everyone should know

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today we will talk about various aspects of ESPP Plan? We will also see if it really makes sense to invest in your employers ESPP plan or not, and what are the pros and cons of that.

For those who have no idea about ESPP, its full form is Employee Stock Purchase Plans and It’s mainly an offer from your employer to buy the stocks of the company at some discounted price.

How does ESPP Plan look like?

Let me give you a rough idea of how an ESPP plan looks like. Under this plan, your employer might offer the discount of 15% of the stock price, and you can contribute some part of your salary for purchase of ESPP.

espp example

This might run for 3 or 6 months and then at the end of the period, all the money which you have paid, will be used to purchase the stocks at a discounted price (It might be the current market value or the lowest of the period, it all depends on your companies offer plan)

  • So you get the stock at a discounted value
  • You invest the money for X number of months
  • The stocks are purchased at the end of 3/6 months period
  • You get the stocks on your name

Is ESPP Plan worth?

Now let’s come to the main point. Is investing in ESPP plan worth? Should you do it? Is there any catch?

Below is an example of Salesforce ESPP plan, where they are offering 15% discount and the offering tenure is 12 months (employee will pay for 12 months), while the purchase will happen every 6 months.

salesforce espp plan

Now the main question is – “IS IT WORTH?”

and the Answer is ALMOST ALL THE TIMES.

Yes, most of the times, it makes sense to invest in ESPP plan because you get the stocks at a good discount and if you sell it off after they are allotted to you, you will make a good enough profit (15-20%) in most of the cases, unless things go really bad.

In some cases, you might want to think hard before you invest in ESPP plan offered by your employer.

Point #1 – At the end of the day, you are buying a Stock

ESPP is nothing but a plan where you buy a STOCK. Hence the price of the stock will move up or down. So if the stock does not do well, you will not be able to make good profit and your hard earned money will not give you the desired returns.

Imagine a stock which is on decline or not doing well. Your ESPP plan will give you the stock at 15% discount of the lowest price (mostly the latest price) . Not every time, people sell it off immediately, and keep holding it. Now if the stock price does not come above your purchase price and you kept on holding it, you might suffer good amount of loss.

Look at Yahoo, as an example (I worked there for more than 3 yrs). Imagine people who bought ESPP of Yahoo and kept on holding it? Even if they got it for discount, does not mean that they will make profits.

So don’t get emotional and look at your company stock and see if as an outsider. Check out what are the future prospects, Is it promising? Does your company find its place in most of the mutual funds portfolio?

Point #2 – Your Income and Profits come from same company

You earn your income from your company, and now your portfolio is also linked to same company. If the company is doing very well, your income will rise and so will your portfolio value. But what happens if things go bad?

  • What happened to Satyam?
  • What happened to Enron?
  • What happened to Yahoo?

If someone worked in companies above, they lost their jobs. And at the same time, their stock prices were either worthless or reached the lowest value and they suffered huge losses. The snapshot below was taken from this website, which talks about Enron collapse.

enron espp plan

The point is, when you invest in an ESPP plan, all your eggs are in same basket. If things work out and your company does well (Google, Facebook), you will enjoy the benefits of promotions, income rise and your stocks value rise, but in the other case, it will be the opposite and it’s not going to be the best situation.

Conclusion

At the end, you need to ask yourself about the prospects of your current company where you work? Do you think it’s going to be great in coming times? If Yes, then not just ESPP, you can even go for ESOP’s and other plans from your employer.

Rs 500/1000 notes banned – Here are 5 critical facts to know

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Last night, it was a historic moment when our Prime Minister informed the whole nation that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes will not be eligible currency notes from midnight at the end of 8th Nov, 2016. Here is the RBI notification

old currency notes ban

PM Modi had also explained all the points very well in his speech and shared how people should not worry about this if they have money with them and it can be exchanged with new notes in next 50 days, however seems like a lot of confusion is there around this topic and many myths are floating around.

5 important facts about the old notes bank

Below are some of the most important facts which you should know after this Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes bank. There are lots of myths around and I wanted to clear them. These points which I have mentioned below are taken out of the RBI notification itself.

Fact #1 – You can deposit any amount of old notes in your bank/Post Office account

You can “deposit” your old currency in your bank account till 30st Dec, 2016. There is no limit on this amount and if you have Rs 50 lacs with you in Cash, you can just walk into your bank branch (expect a lot of rush) and just deposit the amount in your bank account. The limit which is there is on the “exchange” which is the next point. Please find below the exact wording from the RBI notification.

rbi notification note ban

Also note that there is no limit of deposit for account whose KYC is complete. If KYC is not yet complete, the limit is Rs 50,000.

#2 – You can exchange up to Rs 4,000 notes in ANY bank branch in first 15 days

You can walk to ANY bank branch and exchange up to Rs 4,000 of old notes along with your identity proof (PAN, Aadhaar card, Passport etc). You don’t need a bank account in the same bank. After 15 days, this limit of Rs 4,000 will be reviewed and raised. I am sure this small limit is kept so that most of the middle class and poor people are handled before other privileged class 🙂 . Apart from the bank branches, you can also visit RBI centers for this exchange.

#3 – You can deposit the money in 3rd party account also

It is also possible to deposit the money to 3rd party account also if you follow the full procedure and produce a valid ID proof (your own)

#4 – Cash withdrawal Limit from ATM and Bank Branch

There is following withdrawal limit set by the govt.

  • ATM – Withdrawal from ATMs would be restricted to Rs.2,000 per day per card up
    to November 18, 2016. The limit will be raised to Rs.4,000 per day per card
    from November 19, 2016 onwards.
  • Bank Branch – Till 24th Nov, 2016, you can walk to your bank branch and withdraw up to Rs 10,000 in a go, but the overall limit is Rs 20,000 per week.

You can walk to ANY bank branch and exchange up to Rs 4,000 of old notes along with your identity proof (PAN, Aadhaar card, Passport etc). You don’t need a bank account in the same bank. After 15 days, this limit of Rs 4,000 will be reviewed and raised. I am sure this small limit is kept so that most of the middle class and poor people are handled before other privileged class 🙂 . Apart from the bank branches, you can also visit RBI centers for this exchange.

#5 – You can deposit the old notes till 31st Mar, 2017 in worst case

In worst case, if you are not able to deposit the cash in your bank account or exchange those till 30st Dec, 2016, Still you will get another change to deposit the amount at RBI designated branched till 31st Mar, 2017 with proper documentation. One of my close friend parents are coming back to India from US after Jan, and they were worried after this news. I told them about this 31st Mar, 2017 deadline which calmed them!

Below is the speech by our Prime minister in case you want to hear it.

The big confusion and the Panic

This whole news which came out last night has created a big confusion among people and I can see many of them in panic situation. A lot of people who know clearly that their money is still safe and can be deposited back in bank account are also acting like the world has come to the end.

On the lighter note, social media went crazy and there were some really hilarious tweets which started circulating across various platforms.

tweet on note ban

There was news of people rushing to buying gold, doing shopping last night (till midnight) and what not. Understand that if your money is legally earned and you are paying the taxes, you need not panic and just keep calm, you can deposit it with bank and your money is 100% safe.

Only those who have black money will be facing problem as now all the money they have is worthless.

Discomfort because of the BAN

While there is surely some level of discomfort, but that’s very obvious and it’s bound to happen when things change at this level. This bank of old bank notes is for good and our countries future. This will really help curb black money and corruption in a big way.

notes ban image

Will update more on this topic in coming days. New notes of Rs 500, and Rs 2,000 will get started from Nov 11th .

Let us know your views around this topic in comments section below

Inactive EPF accounts to get interest from now onwards at 8.8%

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Good news, the inactive EPF accounts will now start getting interest. Also the interest will be paid since Mar month of this year. This will start once the govt issues the notification regarding this. Since 2011, the EPF accounts which were not active for 3 yrs before inoperative EPF accounts and they stopped getting the interest.

Now Inoperative EPF accounts will earn interest

However now the rules are changed and if someone wants to keep the money in EPF account, they can do so. The EPF account will keep earning the interest decided by EPFO from time to time. This year itself the news was out that the inoperative accounts will get interest. However the notification news has come just now yesterday.

As per the EPF officials, Around 42,000 crore has been lying in inoperative EPF accounts and they will get interest @8.8% now.

“The inoperative EPF accounts are not being paid interest since 2011. As per the instructions given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, we decided to start paying interest on those accounts to make them operative,” Mr. Dattatreya said on Monday.

You can now leave your EPF accounts active even after leaving the job

As per this latest development, now after you leave your job, and do not join somewhere else, you can leave the EPF account to keep earning the interest. Given that the EPF interest is upwards of 8%, it’s a good place to park the money.