Advice appreciated regarding opening a dayhome in Alberta

Hello!

I intend to open a dayhome in about two months and I've been running in circles reading the distinction between self employed vs employee and I don't want to run into tax trouble.

I have one son who is currently almost 10 months. I want to watch one other child his age full time in about two months thereabouts. I'm worried that I won't make a clear enough distinction of being self employed and will run into trouble when tax season comes because I don't have multiple clients. I might be over thinking this, as I do that, and I've never done this before. I've read the "Four questions to determine self employment" thing, and some of the stuff doesn't feel like a distinct yes or no answer.

If anyone could weigh in on this, that'd be much appreciated.

I'd also appreciate tips on creating my contract. I'm thinking about stuff like start/end time, late pickups, meals, payment... anything basic I'm probably missing?

Thank you so much for input!

If you are running the daycare from your home, with you writing the contract of what you expect parents to do - ie you are setting the rules for them to follow and you have the say in what happens then you are self - employed.

Employee is generally when you go to the parents' house as their nanny.

Our support group here in Ottawa has a start up kit that outlines some of the things to include in a contract and information for getting you started. There should be a link on the homepage - think it is in the left hand side.

www.ccprn.com

That start up kit on the website you linked is excellent! Thank you!

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to have two seperating day homes in one house that had a main and basement suite?

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Originally Posted by Mama of 3

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to have two seperating day homes in one house that had a main and basement suite?

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You can only have 5 daycare children per house (or slight variations based on province/rules). You can technically have as many daycares as you want under one roof but no more than 5 kids in total within ALL the programs. Which makes it not feasible to have more than one daycare in one house.

I know of a local private school that housed 2 small home daycare programs within the school. Each run by an individual, each with 5 children. They ran great programs, with huge waitlists for some time the "higher ups" realized that the taxes were being paid from the same address...they swooped in and that day shut down one of the home daycares.

It does not matter the size of the house/building there can only be 5 children under the roof.

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Originally Posted by Mama of 3

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to have two seperating day homes in one house that had a main and basement suite?

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No, you can't do that. One day home per address. Even if you have a legal basement rental, it's counted as one property.