Quote Originally Posted by Toregone View Post
...Anyone contribute to EI for self employed? I don't know how much it is but as my hubby and I are thinking of maybe adding to the family sometime soon I was thinking I should start contributing.
Nope I do not ~ personally I do not think it is a viable resource for long term home childcare providers ... my understanding from reading about it is that once you opt IN you are not allowed to opt OUT you have to continue paying into it until the day you retire and when / if you make a claim you are only going to get 55% of your 'taxable income' from the previous tax year .... so theoretically speaking if your revenue for your business is $40,000 and you have over $20,000 in expenses that means your 'net income' is $20,000 - $11,995 tax free base we are not 'taxed on' so $8005 is your 'taxable income' ... so you would only get 55% of the $8005 or a whopping $4400 for your mat leave and for that PERK you are going to have to pay EI contributions for the next however many years until you retire? Not to mention that if your previous tax year for your claim was a BAD year where you were not full or something and your income was low than your going to get even LESS but future years when higher income than you are paying EI premium based on that

Now if home childcare is a short term option for you and you are going back into the 'employee' workforce anyway and are going to have to being paying into this mandatory anyway than sure go ahead ... personally I plan to stay self employed until I retire cause I cannot imagine having to work for someone again so for ME it is best to just invest into a strong savings account ~ if I need to take time off work than I can draw on my savings to cover bills and if I never have a health emergency than I have that $$$ in my own savings account it is not going into some social service pot for the government to waste on me on high administration costs

Also another option for maternity leave for home childcare providers is to keep your daycare open and hire someone to come in and work for you ... this way you still get all the tax advantages that year of the home based business and 'some' income coming in after your expenses of paying an employee and you do not have to start your daycare over again when your mat leave is over ... many providers find this a win win situation?