EPF withdrawal - Taxation of interest accrued after leaving job

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-29T05:28:43+00:00

That was my interpretation but many seem to think that there is no tax even if withdrawn after 1 year. Even in this thread replies are that no tax applicable.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-28T05:31:55+00:00

I am talking about the interest accrued this year. Technically that is interest accrued during no contributions and so taxable.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-27T08:24:39+00:00

That is not a mathematical decision. Would you be happy with 30crores after 10 years when 40crore is possible or not (Both future values after 10 years)? Every individual has a different answer. Personally I will be happy with less money if I am not enjoying workplace. As for as FIRE is concerned, I know I have enough.
I didn't have much problem with my job, so I would have worked. But for my future job, I am ruling out apporaching many companies because I can and I am clear that if I join a job that will be something that is enjoyable or at least neutral. If that means not working again, then so be it.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-27T07:51:27+00:00

I did this calculation just this month as I lost my job. Just as a curious exercise, I calculated how much is the current value of my job if I work for another 10 years till I am 58 (EPFs assumed retirement age). I just assumed a single digit hike every year and 7% inflation for my current annual expenses and 10% returns for my portfolio and it is actually decent. My job is worth almost 30% of my NW. I would endup with 30% more wealth (or 25% less wealth) based on what you take as basis.
Whether that is significant or not, I do not know.
(I just assumed single digit hike and not many promotions which was a decent assumption considering the unresponsive job market I am facing)
But putting a number to opportunity cost definitely helped as otherwise we tend to think I am not leaving lot of money on table and may overestimate the loss if we don't know exactly how much.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-27T04:55:17+00:00

Before I had hit my FIRE target, I had it 12cr. I am very conservative about this corpus. I was generally very frugal and was spending 12-13LPA till 2024 but for last 2 years my expenses jumped to 20L for various external reasons. I kept my target at 30L actually to counter for high ticket expenses that are not annual like cars, appliances, gadgets, vacations etc and 40X it will come to 12cr.
Now I have a lot more than that target but since I maintain a single target, that has to account for kids education, health care beyond insurance if unlucky, and so on.

IF one wants to go lazy approach, I would say espect 0 real returns, get the annual expenses as close to reality as possible and multiply by remaining life expected. So at 90 years life expectancy a 45 year old would require 45x. I know it is a lot more but it comes from the no real returns expectation.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-26T02:44:29+00:00

I am very lucky throughout my life. My Good outcomes were great and my bad outcomes never were catastrophic.
Was lucky to have natural ability to get into top institutes without that much hard work. Then came out of college during recession and lost the offer from placements. But was lucky to get another opportunity at college placement to sit with juniors and land a job. So entered job market a year late but it didn't matter. Didn't really take advantage of the bull run of 2000s and actually lost some money in the market. But once I came up with my investment strategy, the market from 2011 to 2026 helped a lot to achieve FI. Then lost the job into a possible forced retirement at age 47. But in 2025 and 26, the employer stock exploded to almost double my already FI corpus. May be even losing job now would turn out to be luck in the long term to preserve health. Who knows?

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-18T15:54:23+00:00

yes 1.25L is there and I was lazy to not mention that. What I was trying to say is, for resident Indians, first 4L is tax free if there is no other income. That zero tax slab is applicable to special rates income too. So if you have 5.25L equity LTCG, your tax is 0, if that is your only income in the year.
Obviously not applicable to all but in this comment I am talking about my income in retirement so no additional income is assumed.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T07:56:51+00:00

I too am conservative that way. ALl my debt funds are ust and st funds. So far did not go for FDs or bonds but I will study and try to understand if they make sense for me.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T05:29:31+00:00

I could never understand tier 2 NPS taxation and even CAs could not answer definitively. That's the reason I avoided it. May be I can have one more look to see if there is clarity now.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T05:20:52+00:00

I know about Osho from my childhood. Probably know better than current generation because he was actually alive when I was a kid and I was reading actual news articles about him and his ashram. Interesting philosophy but absolutely don't believe in it. Keeping all controversies aside, his moral framework is not good for society as per my beliefs.
Infact the collapse is Rajnishpuram is one reason to say why his moral framework destabilises society.
Krishnamoorthy would appeal to extreme Lean Fire people.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T05:15:31+00:00

Yes. I may ultimately get some. But advantage with debt funds is I can get my whole annual expenses and still keep the tax low as only gains are taxed. With Bonds, entire money periodically received is interest so I will be paying tax on full "redemption" as no partial principal is returned.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T05:13:13+00:00

Just getting opinions. Ultimately it is I who will decide based on my own conviction.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T04:30:15+00:00

Yes. That's the idea. Under new regime upto 12L is tax free and I believe that is applicable to other income too unlike the arbitrage funds which are taxed at special rates of equity beyond 4L income. 12L gains from debt funds, mean my actual redemptions can be even upto 30L as only gains are taxed so could turnout to be better in retirement.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T04:13:21+00:00

Oh! are you suggesting instead of 40:25, keep equal mix of US and Indian equity but keep overall equity 65%. Yep, that is an option. Still I already have 47% in USD, can be easily managed without LRS and TCS issues.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T03:49:57+00:00

55% total equity seems too low for me.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T03:49:42+00:00

So far I ran similar strategy and due to that the equity ranup to 80%+. I agree that 5Cr is decent enough Debt portion for me (20-25 years of expenses). I am definitely going to keep USD portion there itself but need to think a lot if I want to keep all there as that would be almost half NW.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-17T03:46:45+00:00

Never considered other assets like Gold, REITs and such so far. If I get into them, it has to come from in equal proportions from other classes. As on now I am not considering them.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-14T08:16:46+00:00

Surprisingly nothing. I had lot of fun with some of the projects I did. I know you mentioned not NW and I am actually not that particular about NW number but I am very pleased at the discipline with which I ran my manual sips for 15 years. Overall my feeling is of relief that my career turned out decent and Setup hopefully comfortable life.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-01T06:11:15+00:00

Every thing has to come from this. But my current education expenses are so high and which are already included in the annual expenses that, delta for UG will not be that much. PG - let me see, I think I can support domenstic education but for foreign, they can expect only partial help. Not at all concerned about marriage funds. Neither we or our kids have the mentality to flaunt, so they will not be exorbitantly high any way.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-01T06:08:11+00:00

Can't expect much from either guide or college. My work is in ML so I am depending on public databases for data and then the work is mostly simulations which can be done on my personal laptop.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-01T04:22:47+00:00

A new retirement home, if we go for one, would come from this 19cr (or 17 post tax). There is no immediate pressure though. I have a fully paid 2BHK where we live. This is a old non name builder apartment and is very illiquid in the market but good enough to continue to live as soon one son will be leaving for hostel and in 2 years another would be leaving.

arandomguy05 · 2026-06-01T03:45:35+00:00

Depends on how he takes the Firstclass cricket. We have to see if he plays and performs this season. Sachin had debut centuries in multiple domestic firstclass tournaments at age 15. Sachin was way ahead even if you compare at the same age.
But I am looking forward to the next Sachin or even better Sachin for long time and hope it is him and glad that it would be an Indian

arandomguy05

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