EPF compliance under the EPF Act historically ran on a set of numbered forms, Form 11, 5, 10, 12A, 3A and 6A, though most of these are now legacy, superseded by EPFO’s online monthly filing system.

What’s actually still filed today

Form 11 remains genuinely active: every new employee joining a covered establishment fills it out as a self-declaration, disclosing prior UAN and PF membership so their previous account can be linked automatically. The others are largely historical. Form 5 (monthly new-member return) and Form 10 (monthly return of employees who left) have had their data absorbed into the monthly Electronic Challan cum Return, or ECR, employers file online rather than as separate paper filings. Form 12A, a monthly consolidated contribution statement from the old paper regime, is superseded the same way. Form 3A and Form 6A, the annual employee-wise and consolidated contribution statements, are no longer separately filed either, that data is now auto-generated from the year’s twelve monthly ECR filings. In practice, day-to-day EPF compliance today comes down to Form 11 at onboarding plus accurate monthly ECR filing, not the full historical list of forms.

Frequently asked questions

Do employers still need to file Form 3A and 6A separately?

No, that annual data is now derived automatically from monthly ECR filings rather than submitted as a standalone form.

Is Form 11 still required for every new hire?

Yes, this one remains a genuinely active, standard part of onboarding for any employee joining a covered establishment.

What replaced Forms 5, 10 and 12A?

The monthly ECR filing, which captures new joiners, exits and consolidated contributions in one online submission instead of separate paper forms.

See ECR for the online filing system that now handles most of what these legacy forms once covered.