EI and repayment of benefits at income tax time

On this page

• What you should know
• Examples of repayment of benefits

What you should know

Whatever the type of benefits you receive, Employment Insurance (EI) payments are taxable income, meaning federal and provincial or territorial taxes, where applicable, are deducted when you receive them.

At the time you file your income tax return, depending on your net income and if you were paid regular benefits, including regular fishing benefits, you may be required to repay some of the EI benefits you received. If your 2025 income from all sources exceeds $82,125, you will be required to repay 30% of the lesser of:

• your net income in excess of $82,125
• the total regular benefits, including regular fishing benefits, paid in the tax year

Exemption:

You do not have to repay your EI benefits if one of the following applies:

• your 2025 net income is less than $82,125
• you received less than 1 week of regular or fishing benefits in the preceding 10 tax years
• you were paid special benefits, such as maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care or family caregiver benefits. However, if you received a combination of regular and special benefits within the same tax year, you may still have to repay a percentage of the regular benefits received. Refer to Example 5

If you received EI regular benefits including regular fishing benefits, that overlap 2 calendar years, you may qualify for the exemption in the first tax year. However, in the following tax year you would not qualify for the exemption as there would be at least 1 week of regular benefits paid in the preceding 10 years. Refer to Example 2.

Examples of repayment of benefits

• Example 1

  Tax years 2015 to 2024	Tax year 2025
  No EI regular benefits paid	EI claim 30 weeks of regular benefits paid

  You received regular benefits in tax year 2025. No EI regular benefits were paid in the 10 years prior to the tax year 2025. Therefore, you are exempt from the benefit repayment.

• Example 2

  Tax years 2014 to 2023	Tax years 2024 and 2025
  No EI regular benefits paid	EI claim 30 weeks of regular benefits paid: 2 weeks paid in 2024 28 weeks paid in 2025

  For tax year 2024, you would be exempt from benefit repayment as you did not receive regular benefits in the preceding 10 tax years.

  For tax year 2025, if your net income exceeds $82,125, you would not be exempt from benefit repayment as you received at least 1 week of regular benefits in the 10-year period prior to the tax year under consideration.

• Example 3

  Tax years 2014 to 2023	Tax years 2024 and 2025
  No EI regular benefits paid	EI claim 30 weeks of benefits paid: 2 weeks of sickness benefits paid in 2024 28 weeks of regular benefits paid in 2025

  You received regular benefits in tax year 2025 on a claim that commenced in 2024. There were also 2 weeks sickness benefits paid in tax year 2024. As you received only sickness benefits in the 10-year period prior to the tax year 2025, you are exempt from the benefit repayment provisions for tax year 2025.

• Example 4

  Tax years 2015 to 2024	Tax year 2025
  EI claim 45 weeks of regular benefits paid in 2019	EI claim 20 weeks of special benefits such as maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care or family caregiver benefits paid

  You received maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care or family caregiver benefits in tax year 2025. Regular benefits were paid in 2019. Although your net income exceeds $82,125 in 2025, you are exempt from benefit repayment for tax year 2025 as maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care and family caregiver benefits are exempt from the benefit repayment provisions.

• Example 5

  Tax years 2015 to 2024	Tax year 2025
  EI claim 45 weeks of regular benefits paid in 2019	EI claim 22 weeks of benefits paid: 20 weeks of regular benefits paid 2 weeks of sickness benefits paid

  You received regular and sickness benefits in tax year 2025. Regular benefits were also paid in the 10-year period prior to the tax year 2025. Therefore, if your net income exceeds $82,125, you will have to repay a percentage of the regular benefits received for tax year 2025, but not the sickness benefits.