Article content continued

If you have employees, you are responsible for paying five specific taxes that fund the five government-mandated employment benefits: 50 per cent of your employees’ CPP premiums, 58 per cent of EI premiums, holiday pay, vacation pay and minimum wage. The last three are paid directly to your employees. You won’t receive any of these benefits yourself. The cost of these benefits may be increased at any time. Entirely new benefits may be created at government discretion. Depending on the amount of your payroll and your province, you will pay an employer’s health tax.

These special taxes have first call on your revenue. Only what is left over can be used to pay your other business expenses or to meet the needs of you and your family. Even in years in which you might have zero or negative income, you still must pay these taxes — excepting your personal CPP premiums — by dipping into savings or by borrowing money. If you cannot pay these taxes, you agree that your assets can be seized.

You may be entering self-employment because you want to be “your own boss.” Please understand that you will now have upward of 20 bosses. You might prefer to call them government regulators. They will tell you how to run your business regarding such matters as employment standards, privacy, employment equity, pay equity, health and safety, workers’ compensation, human rights, violence in the workplace, accessibility, consumer protection, payroll tax, GST/HST, retail sales tax, corporate income tax, exporting, importing and municipal bylaws. In addition to this partial list of generic regulation, you agree to any number of industry-specific regulations as well.