employment insurance eligibility

[moncton golden flames]

i am employed full-time. i also own my own company that does small amounts of work throughout the year. if i were to be let go from my full-time employment, does my owning of a company have any bearing on my employment insurance eligibility?

[CaptainCrunch]

I would guess it depends on your income from your own business. If you make enough, no EI for you.

[moncton golden flames]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I would guess it depends on your income from your own business. If you make enough, no EI for you.

right now, i don't pay myself from my company, i just collect and let it sit in the company account, hoping that maybe a shareholder withdrawl will allow me to make better use of the money at some point.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

right now, i don't pay myself from my company, i just collect and let it sit in the company account, hoping that maybe a shareholder withdrawl will allow me to make better use of the money at some point.

That is where it gets tricky. I never actually did this, so I might be off base, but I investigated something similar when my wife was on mat leave.

Normally, you would just take the income from your work and be allowed to keep a certain amount of it (like $160 a week maybe?) and then everything above that is taken from your EI benefits.

If you don't do work on the other job for a time, because like you said you do small amounts of work throughout the year, and hence don't earn any money, then they won't deduct anything for that time period, because you have not earned anything. I am pretty sure this applies to money your company earns, especially if it is a sole proprietorship, but I don't think it applies to money or assets your company already has.