EPF Calculator

The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a government-backed retirement savings scheme administered by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), applicable to salaried employees working at establishments covered under the EPF Act. Every month, a fixed percentage of an employee's Basic salary plus Dearness Allowance (DA) is set aside in this account, matched by a contribution from the employer. Over time, these contributions accumulate and earn interest, building a sizeable retirement corpus that can be withdrawn, fully or partly, under specified conditions.

Because contributions are deducted automatically every payday and the fund earns a government-notified interest rate each year, EPF is one of the most disciplined and low-risk long-term savings instruments available to a salaried individual in India.

By default, an employee contributes 12% of Basic salary plus DA to the EPF every month. The employer is required to match this 12%, but that matching amount is not credited entirely to the EPF account — 8.33 percentage points are diverted to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS), which funds a separate monthly pension after retirement, while the remaining 3.67 percentage points are added to the employee's EPF balance. As a result, the combined monthly inflow into the EPF account that this calculator tracks is the employee's 12% plus the employer's 3.67%.

Employees who wish to save more can also contribute beyond 12% through the Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF) facility. VPF contributions earn the same interest rate as regular EPF and enjoy similar tax benefits, making them an attractive top-up for anyone with surplus income.

This calculator follows the same monthly-running-balance method used by EPFO:

Each month, the employee's and employer's contributions are added to the running EPF balance, and one-twelfth of the annual EPFO interest rate is applied to that balance. This process repeats for every month across the chosen tenure, with the salary base growing each year according to the annual increment you specify — since most salaries rise over a career, and so do the contributions linked to them.

EPF enjoys an Exempt-Exempt-Exempt (EEE) tax status for most contributors, making it one of the most tax-efficient instruments available. The employee's own contribution, up to 12% of Basic plus DA, qualifies for a deduction under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, subject to the overall Section 80C ceiling of ₹1.5 lakh per year. This deduction is available only under the old tax regime, since the New Tax Regime — now the default — does not permit Section 80C benefits. The employer's contribution to EPF, however, remains tax-free in the employee's hands even under the New Tax Regime.

Interest earned on an employee's own contributions stays tax-free as long as total annual contributions remain within ₹2.5 lakh; interest on any amount contributed above this limit becomes taxable. Finally, if the EPF account has been maintained for at least five continuous years, withdrawals — including accumulated interest — are completely tax-free. Withdrawing before five years can make previously claimed exemptions, and the interest earned, taxable retrospectively.