Self-employed stylists in a Canadian salon: what the CRA asks, and what Slotora keeps apart
Plenty of Canadian salons are mixed: two employees on your payroll, one stylist renting a chair and running her own book. Three federal rules sit behind that arrangement — her employment status, a special EI rule for barbers and hairdressers, and her own GST/HST registration once she earns enough. Slotora does not decide any of them for you. It keeps her money and yours apart, so the records you need are not tangled.
Try the salon account for 14 daysThree rules from the Canada Revenue Agency
In plain words, from the CRA's own pages. This is a summary, not advice for your salon.
Status is decided by the facts
Calling someone a renter does not make her self-employed. The CRA looks at the working relationship as a whole, and either you or she may ask it for a CPP/EI ruling when you are unsure.
Barbers and hairdressers: EI is yours
A barber or hairdresser who is not the owner or operator, and provides the services your establishment normally offers, is in insurable employment for EI. You, as owner or operator, are considered her employer and pay both shares of the premiums. She pays her own CPP.
GST/HST is hers past C$30,000
A renter is her own business. Once her taxable revenue passes C$30,000 in one calendar quarter, or over four consecutive quarters, she is no longer a small supplier and must register and charge GST/HST. She may register sooner by choice.
The EI rule most owners have not heard of
The barbers-and-hairdressers rule surprises people because it cuts across chair rental. A stylist can be self-employed for income tax and CPP and still be in insurable employment for EI, with the salon's owner or operator treated as the employer for that one purpose.
The CRA page sets out how her insurable earnings are worked out: from her net revenue for the period when you know her earnings and expenses, and from an amount set in the regulations when you do not. The page names barbers and hairdressers; it does not name estheticians, nail technicians or lash artists, and we do not stretch it to them.
Slotora's day-end report shows what her clients paid through your diary. That is useful when you sit down with your bookkeeper, but it is not her net revenue, it knows nothing about her expenses, and it is not a payroll calculation. Ask the CRA or an accountant how the rule applies to your chairs.
Setting a mixed salon up in Slotora
Each step is in the salon account today.
01
Answer one question per person
On the team screen: does she work for you, or rent her place? The answer is per person, never one setting for the whole salon, and leaving it blank never turns anyone into a renter by accident.
02
She links her own Stripe account
From then on, a deposit, an online payment or a card at the chair for her client lands in her account, at Stripe's Canadian rates, with nothing added by Slotora.
03
Your till counts only your money
The cash you count at close is the salon's. Hers is shown beside it, so the day still adds up, and your own takings — the figure behind your GST/HST position — are not inflated by money that was never yours.
04
Rent on a ledger, or from her card
Record what each renter owes per week or month and what she paid. If she saves a card through the link you send her, the rent is charged to it on the due day into your Stripe account, with two retries, and anything unpaid shows as arrears.
One thing to agree with her before she starts
In Canada, Slotora is a subscription counted per bookable person, up to a ceiling. A renter whose clients book her in your diary has her own column, so she counts as one of those people on your plan. Decide with her whether her rent covers that, the same way you would agree who pays for the backbar.
Agree the client list too. While she works with you, her clients are in your salon's client book. If she leaves, the records stay with the salon. Put whatever you agree in writing, because Slotora will follow the setup, not a conversation.
What Slotora does not do
On purpose:
- Decide anyone's status
- The engagement setting records your decision. It is not a test, and it is not the CRA's answer.
- Calculate EI, CPP or tax
- There are no premiums, remittances or T4 slips in the product.
- Add GST/HST to her prices
- The price she sets is the price her client sees. If she is registered, charging and reporting the tax stays with her.
- Book her into a shared visit
- A self-employed stylist takes whole visits only, because one payment cannot land in two accounts.
Sources
The federal rules above are summarised from these Canada Revenue Agency pages, read on the day shown.
- Canada Revenue Agency — Employment status: employee or self-employed — https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/canada-pension-plan-cpp-employment-insurance-ei-rulings/employee-self-employed.html · Read on
- Canada Revenue Agency — CPP/EI explained: barbers and hairdressers — https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/canada-pension-plan-cpp-employment-insurance-ei-rulings/cpp-ei-explained/canada-pension-plan-employment-insurance-explained.html · Read on
- CRA — GST/HST registration: the small-supplier threshold — https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/when-register-charge · Read on
What owners of mixed salons ask
Can one Slotora account hold employed and self-employed stylists?
Yes. You set it per person: employees' card payments go to the salon's Stripe account, a renter's to her own, and the reports keep the two apart.
Does a chair renter have to register for GST/HST?
Only once her own taxable revenue passes C$30,000 in a calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters, by the CRA's small-supplier rule. She may register voluntarily before that.
Do I owe EI for a hairdresser who rents a chair?
The CRA's page on barbers and hairdressers says the owner or operator is considered the employer for EI and pays both shares of the premiums, when its conditions are met. Check your situation with the CRA or an accountant.
Can Slotora collect chair rent?
Yes, if the renter saves a card through the link you send her: the rent is charged on the due day into your own Stripe account, retried twice if it fails. Without a card, you record payments by hand.
Does a renter count on my Slotora plan?
Yes, if clients can book her in your diary — she has a column, and Canadian plans count bookable people up to a ceiling.
Set your team up the way it really works
Add each person, answer the one question about how she works with you, and let each card payment land in the right account. No card needed to start.