# Mat leave passive income question



## Neha (Dec 22, 2014)

Hi. I have two maternity leave related questions, I would appreciate your input on:

1-I'm an older mom-to-be and in the happy position of having a non-trivial amount of passive income (interest from GICs, bonds etc). This is ordinarily taxed as 'income' but obviously I am not working for this per se during my mat leave period. it's just deposited every month.

Do you know if my mat leave benefits from the government will be reduced because this? I looked here:

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/types/maternity_parental.shtml#maternity

but it is not clear how passive income is treated. I would hate to see my EI benefit reduced dollar for dollar due to this.

2-Secondary question - my employer offers a small 'top up' amount after a baby is born. Will this be treated like I worked for it? 

Thanks.

Neha.


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## Cdnwife (Sep 10, 2013)

Interest is passive income and therefore will not impact what you receive from EI. We have a rental and this income did not affect what I received.

As for top up I have no experience with this so I do not know how this works. My sister is a teacher in ON and I know she was topped up for a few weeks and this did not impact other weeks.

Congrats on your new addition. Enjoy the experience!


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## Neha (Dec 22, 2014)

Thanks a lot Cdnwife. Both for the good wishes and also the reassurance. The new addition hopefully arrives next spring!

If you get a chance, please do ask your sister about how the top up thing works and any tax gotchas I need to be careful of. Thanks.

Neha.


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## joncnca (Jul 12, 2009)

Congratulations! 

My wife and I had a daughter last January. From what I've read, and from pay stubs and such, top up counts as income. They should deduct taxes before you received top up. 

Keep in mind that the feds don't usually deduct enough in taxes because they won't account for other income, so be prepared with extra money to pay taxes or Rrsp Contribution or something


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