The CERB wage program seems to be working...

[femmefan1946]

Two friends - a freelance editor in BC and a writer/artist in ON have applied and been accepted for the program.
Both report it being very easy to access.

Another friend, marginally employable due to being "on the spectrum" (If you hire him he is a good worker, getting past the interview is difficult for him) has found it difficult to connect.

https://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/so-easy-i-thought-it-was-fake-cras-cerb-system-

[femmefan1946]

Basically it seems to be attaching to your tax records, so those who have avoided filing for income taxes are going to be out in the cold.

[retroman_studios]

Yep, I applied April 6, got the payment today.

The only thing that worries me is that the defined "made $5,000" last year isn't properly defined. I made gross over $7,000 last year from casual selling (and that was after cancelling my store and taking a break) but after expenses etc., my income might dip lower as you have to count costs of business like shipping fees and on hand inventory.

I'm hoping they do like credit card companies do, tell us what you made before taxes. Gross vs net. Or if they simply said look at line 000 of your previous return, if it's "x,xxx" you qualify.

[femmefan1946]

This is where record-keeping is so important.

Gross is irrelevant.

You could gross $100,000 annually and still lose money.

Your income is what you had after procurement costs, packaging costs, postage and shipping costs, eBay and Paypal fees.

Assuming that you paid !0% of that $7000 to eBay for FVF on sales, you've just dropped to $6300.

Assuming that you paid 10% to eBay on your shipping costs, you drop again. Even more if that $7K included the shipping you charged to your customer.

Every Paypal payment cost you 30c plus 2.9-3.4(?)% of the total. And don't forget you paid that on the US sales taxes that passed through your account.

And that overlooks the actual procurement costs for your goods and your packaging materials.

A lot of "hobby" sellers would be shocked to learn how little they make here, or that they actually lose money selling.

But a hobby is not meant to make money.  Remember another word for hobby is "pass-time".