Crew share, EI fishing benefits and tax

This is general information, not tax advice. It explains what CRA and Service Canada publish about crew share income and EI fishing benefits so you know what to ask about -- it does not tell you what to claim, and it does not calculate anything for your own return. Confirm your own situation with the CRA, Service Canada, or an accountant before filing or applying. Last checked against canada.ca on 2026-09-08.

Are you an employee, or self-employed?

This is the first fork in the road, and it's different from a salaried camp job. Per CRA's own guidance, "The CRA considers crew members who receive a share of the catch, commonly known as sharespeople, to be self-employed" -- regardless of what a boat owner calls the arrangement, and regardless of any paperwork you receive (see below). If instead you're paid a flat wage with no link to the catch, you may genuinely be an employee. See our pay hub for how the share system itself actually works.

Why you might get a T4 slip and still be self-employed (this is the part most guides skip)

Yes, both things can be true at once, and it's the single most important fact on this page. CRA's "Payments to fishers" guidance has the boat owner or buyer report your gross catch value on a T4 slip using code 78, and your calculated share of it using code 80 and box 24 (EI insurable earnings). That T4 exists only so Service Canada can calculate your EI insurable earnings and issue your Record of Employment (ROE) -- which the employer must give you within 5 calendar days of the end of the season, or within 5 days of you asking for one.

For your actual income tax return, CRA's separate guidance on reporting income and loss for farmers and fishers says plainly that a sharesperson's income "will not be shown on a T4 slip" for tax-return purposes -- it's reported as self-employment income on Form T2121, Statement of Fishing Activities, instead. Two different CRA/Service Canada systems, answering two different questions, both genuinely correct -- not a contradiction, even though it looks like one at first glance.

How EI fishing benefits actually work

EI fishing benefits are a real, separate federal program, not a fishing-flavoured version of regular EI. Per Service Canada's own page, eligibility "is based on earnings, not insurable hours of employment" -- the opposite of regular EI, which is built around hours worked. As of 2026-09-08, the qualifying threshold (per Employment and Social Development Canada's own Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles) is $2,500 to $4,200 in insurable fishing earnings over your qualifying period, depending on the unemployment rate in your EI region. You have to apply within 4 weeks of your last day of work, the end of the fishing trip, or the date you sold the catch to a buyer -- whichever applies to you -- and there's a 1-week unpaid waiting period before payments start, with a first payment typically arriving about 28 days after a complete, eligible application. Self-employed fishers can also access sickness, maternity, parental, compassionate care, or family caregiver benefits through this same program, not just regular fishing benefits.

The maximum insurable earnings figure that feeds into the benefit calculation is $68,900, effective January 1, 2026 -- this is a published federal figure, not a statement of what any individual fisher would actually receive.

What you can deduct

Form T2121 is built around real fishing business expenses -- bait, fuel, gear, insurance, repairs, moorage, capital cost allowance on your own equipment, and a portion of vehicle or home-office costs where they genuinely relate to your fishing income. Reasonable travel connected to earning that income can also be part of the picture. What you can actually claim, and how much, depends on your specific circumstances and CRA's detailed rules for each expense category -- we're not summarizing that expense-by-expense here, the same way the mining site's camp-tax page declines to summarize CRA's remote-work-site benefit test in detail. Read Form T2121's own instructions, or talk to an accountant who works with fishers.

GST/HST registration

Because sharespeople are self-employed, the standard GST/HST registration threshold applies to fishing income the same way it applies to any other self-employment income -- broadly, once revenue crosses $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters, registration becomes mandatory. Confirm your own situation with CRA or an accountant.

Is fishing gear tax exempt? GST/HST zero-rating on equipment and vessels

Added 2026-09-13. The question people usually type is about farm equipment, but CRA has a separate, fishing-specific version of the same rule. Per CRA's Info Sheet GI-049, "Fishing Equipment and Products" (January 2009), most core commercial fishing gear -- fishing nets and their components (gill-nets, seines, trawl-nets, webbing, floats), net drums and doors, automatic baiters, jiggers, mechanical net washers, netpen feeders, and pescalators -- is unconditionally zero-rated for GST/HST: any purchaser can buy these items GST/HST-free, with no registration or licence needed at the point of sale.

Fishing vessels are treated differently -- zero-rating is conditional on the vessel being for use in commercial fishing (a recreational fishing vessel is fully taxable). To buy a fishing vessel zero-rated, the purchaser has to give the vendor a GST/HST registration number, a signed declaration of commercial use, and a valid commercial fishing licence number, plus (for the Atlantic coast specifically) a vessel registration card number. Accessories are normally taxable on their own but become zero-rated when they're physically attached to zero-rated fishing equipment and installed before the sale. One limitation worth knowing: repair services are never zero-rated under this rule, even on equipment that itself qualifies -- CRA's info sheet says outright there's no provision to zero-rate a supply of a repair service to a fisher.

Sources

• CRA -- Farming and fishing income — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for sharespeople being treated as self-employed.
• CRA -- Reporting income and loss, farmers and fishers — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for sharesperson income not appearing on a T4 for tax-return purposes, and the Form T2121 requirement.
• CRA -- Form T2121, Statement of Fishing Activities — accessed 2026-09-08.
• CRA -- Payments to fishers (EI) — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for the T4 code 78/80/box 24 mechanics and the ROE timing rule.
• Service Canada -- EI fishing benefits, overview — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for eligibility being earnings-based, not hours-based.
• ESDC -- Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles, Chapter 15, section 2 — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for the $2,500-$4,200 qualifying-earnings range.
• Service Canada -- EI fishing benefits, after you've applied — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for the 4-week application deadline, 1-week waiting period, and ~28-day first payment.
• ESDC -- 2026 maximum insurable earnings notice — accessed 2026-09-08. Source for the $68,900 figure effective January 1, 2026.
• CRA -- GST/HST Info Sheet GI-049, Fishing Equipment and Products — accessed 2026-09-13. Source for which fishing equipment is unconditionally zero-rated, and the conditions for zero-rating a fishing vessel.