How much to put aside for taxes, CPP and EI?

[Inspired by Reggio]

I basically put 15-20% away in savings for taxes, vacation/sick time i might take, and rainy day fund ... so I put 1 child's fees into savings each week if I have a time where I am not full than I scale that back accordingly.

How much tax totally depends on how much your income is over your business expenses as well as your household income, dependants and so forth which affect the tax breaks/rebates you might be entitled to ... I know providers I network with who we all make roughly the same revenue and expenses and some pay ZERO in taxes and others pay anywhere from $800 - 2000 in taxes .... all because of their spouses income or number of children they have being different aka if you have no spouse AND children you are going to get the most tax breaks / rebates, if you have a spouse and 4 children you are going to get way more tax breaks and rebates and someone with a spouse but 0 children and so forth ... it really does vary vastly!

I honestly recommend that you either tax a business tax course geared for home childcare if you are going to do them yourself OR hirer an accountant with a good reputation for dealing with home childcare industry to help 'set you up' to do it yourself ... both are tax deductible business expenses and wise investments!

As for the paying into the EI as a self employed person ~ yes this is an option now ~ however I would totally look into the MATH of that for your family to see if it is worth while! As unlike being employed where you pay a 'portion' of it being self employed you have to pay ALL of the premiums both the employer and employee portion ... and than if you need to make a claim you only get 55% of your NET PAY for the previous tax year which if it was a 'slow year' could result in a significant less mat leave than you were hoping for

Plus if for some reason you do not end up 'needing' it you have paid all this money into something that benefited 'others' and not yourself .... if you were to determine how much $$ you would get for a mat leave if you did pay into EI and than put aside that into your OWN savings for a mat leave if you than end up not having another child the money is still YOURS and you would be able to than use that revenue for retirement, vacation, education of your other children and so forth ... you pay into EI and never use it the government says 'thank you for your kind donation'