Fishers and employment insurance

This page will help to determine if you are a designated employer of fishers under the Employment Insurance (Fishing) Regulations. It will also explain your responsibilities as a designated employer, and how to calculate the insurable earnings of a fisher.

If you hire workers as employees in the fishing industry, see calculate payroll deductions and contributions and T4032, Payroll Deductions Tables.

On this page

• Are you a designated employer?
• What is a self-employed fisher?
• What are your responsibilities as a designated employer?
• Calculating the insurable earnings of a fisher
• Deducting and remitting EI premiums
• Filing a T4 information return
• Keeping records
• Examples
• Definitions

Are you a designated employer?

You are a designated employer if any of the following conditions applies to you:

Buyer of a catch

You are the designated employer of all the self-employed fishers who make the catch if you buy the catch and both of the following conditions are met:

• it is bought for resale and not for your own use as bait, feed, or food
• it is delivered in Canada to either you or your agent

If you do not operate under these conditions, for example, if the delivery is made to an American buyer in the United States, you are not the designated employer.

Head fisher of a crew

You are the designated employer if you are the head fisher of a crew and:

• the buyer of the catch is not the designated employer
• the gross returns from the sale of the catch are paid to you

You are the designated employer of all other fishers who are members of the crew, but not yourself.

Agent

You are the designated employer if you are an agent acting either for the buyer or for the crew and:

• the buyer of the catch is not the designated employer
• the catch is delivered by a member of the crew
• the gross returns from the sale of the catch are paid to you

If you are a member of the crew, you are the designated employer of all the other fishers who are members of the crew, but not yourself.

Common agent

You are the designated employer if you are a common agent acting for both the buyer and the crew at the same time. If you are a member of the crew, you are the designated employer of all the other fishers who are members of the crew, but not yourself. If you are not a member of the crew, you are the designated employer of all the fishers who are members of the crew.

What is a self-employed fisher?

To be a fisher as defined under the Employment Insurance (Fishing) Regulations, an individual has to be all of the following:

• self-employed person
• participate in making a catch
• not be fishing for their own or another person's sport; and
• an individual has to meet all the following conditions:
  • own or lease the boat used to make the catch
  • own or lease specialized fishing gear (not including hand tools or clothing) used to make the catch
  • hold a species licence, issued under the authority of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, necessary to make the catch
  • have a right of ownership to all or part of the proceeds from the sale of the catch and be responsible for all or part of the expenses incurred to make the catch

Learn more: Fishers

If a worker in the fishing industry does not meet any of the above conditions but you believe that he or she is a self-employed individual, you can request a ruling to have the status determined by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). If you have a payroll program account and are registered on My Business Account, you can use the "Request a CPP/EI ruling" service.

A designated employer or a worker can request a ruling by sending a letter or a completed Form CPT1, Request for a CPP/EI Ruling – Employee or Self Employed?, to their tax services office.

It is important to determine a person's employment status as it affects your responsibilities and it could affect the processing of the person's file under the Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance Act, and the Income Tax Act.

Learn more about the employment status of workers: Guide RC4110, Employee or Self-employed?.

What are your responsibilities as a designated employer?

If you are a designated employer of self-employed fishers, including self-employed Indian fishers whose earnings are tax-exempt, you are responsible for:

• calculating the insurable earnings of each fisher
• deducting employment insurance (EI) premiums from each fisher and remitting the EI premiums, including the employer portion, to the CRA
• filing a T4 information return
• keeping records

Calculating the insurable earnings of a fisher

The insurable earnings of a fisher are the amounts paid or payable to the fisher from the sale of a catch. These earnings do not include amounts paid for a catch or part of a catch made by other persons who were not members of the crew.

Calculating the insurable earnings of a fisher depends on the circumstances of the particular fisher. To help illustrate the calculation of earnings, the CRA has categorized the fishers as either Type 1 or Type 2. This labelling is done for the purposes of this page only to help explain the calculation process.

• Type 1 fisher: Option 1

  a member of the crew who either:

  • owns or leases the boat or specialized fishing gear used to make a catch
  • employs other persons under a contract of service to make a catch

  Calculation

  To calculate the insurable earnings of a type 1 fisher:

  • gross value of the catch (not including the value of any part of a catch the crew did not make)
  • minus 25% of the gross value of the catch
  • minus the amounts paid or payable to other members of the crew according to the share arrangement
  • minus the total amount of wages paid to others employed, as employees, to make a catch
  • equals Insurable earnings of a type 1 fisher

• Type 2 fisher: Option 2

  any self-employed fisher who is not considered a type 1 fisher. This includes a single fisher who borrows a boat and specialized fishing gear and has no employees. In this situation, you should ask for the details of ownership or leasing from the person who makes the delivery.

  Calculation

  To calculate the insurable earnings of a type 2 fisher use the amount paid or payable to the fisher from the proceeds of a catch based on the sharing arrangement agreed to prior to embarking on the fishing trip.

  • Do not include any amount paid for a catch or any part of a catch made by other persons who were not members of the fisher's crew.

Deducting and remitting EI premiums

When you pay self-employed fishers, you have to deduct EI premiums from the first $61,500 of insurable earnings for 2023. There is no minimum amount of insurable earnings. You start deducting EI premiums on the first dollar of insurable earnings, and you only stop when you have deducted the maximum of $1,002.45 for 2023 (the maximum for workers in Quebec is $781.05 for 2023). At that point, the worker can continue to earn income without having any additional EI premiums deducted by the designated employer.

You have to remit the premiums you deduct, plus the employer portion, to the CRA on a regular basis. The due date of your remittance depends on the date the CRA considers you to have paid your employee or employees.

Learn more on how to deduct and remit EI premiums: Calculate payroll deductions and contributions

Learn more on how to calculate the amounts you have to deduct from the remuneration of your employees: Guide T4032, Payroll Deductions Tables.

Earnings of a fisher may be subject to employee and employers premiums for the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP).

Learn more: Publication TP-1015.G-V, Guide for Employers – Source Deductions and Contributions.

Filing a T4 information return

You have to file a T4 information return if:

• you are a designated employer and make EI premium deductions for a self-employed fisher or self-employed Indian fisher
• a fisher gives you a completed Form TD3F, Fisher's Election to Have Tax Deducted at Source, in a calendar year

A T4 information return includes the T4 slips and the related T4 summary. You have to give each of the fishers and crew members their T4 slips each year on or before the last day of February following the calendar year to which the information return applies.

Learn more on how to fill out T4 slips and summary: Guide RC4120, Employers' Guide – Filing the T4 Slip and Summary.

Keeping records

You have to keep records to support the following:

• the earnings of the fishers
• the EI premiums you have to remit
• the dates on which the EI premiums are payable

Your records should include:

• the name, address, and social insurance number of each crew member and the member's share of proceeds from the sale of a catch
• the amount and date of each fisher's insurable earnings for the period
• the amount and date the EI premiums are payable

Your records have to accurately reflect all transactions and contain supporting documents to prove your claims. Do not send your records with your T4 information return, but keep them in case the CRA asks to see them. If the CRA determines that your records do not support the insurable earnings you report, it may estimate the insurable earnings. Your premiums payable in 2023 would be calculated as 5% of the estimate.

You have to keep your records for six years. If you want to destroy them before the six-year period is over, you have to get permission from your tax services office. To do this, either use Form T137, Request for Destruction of Records, or prepare your own written request.

Learn more: Keeping records.

Examples

The following are examples that explain the various types of earnings of a fisher and how to calculate insurable earnings. Learn more about calculating EI premiums: go to Calculate payroll deductions and contributions.

Definitions

Forms and publications

• Form TD3F, Fisher's Election to Have Tax Deducted at Source
• Guide T4002, Self-employed Business, Professional, Commission, Farming, and Fishing Income

Related links

• Fishers
• Farmers and fishers