As an employee, CPP is 5.95% — quietly split with your employer. Go self-employed and you are both the employee and the employer: 11.9%, on top of income tax and GST/HST. Here is the whole picture, side by side.
2026 parameters: first earnings ceiling (YMPE) $74,600, second ceiling (YAMPE) $85,000, basic exemption $3,500. Employees split each rate with their employer; the self-employed pay both halves. Source: canada.ca CPP contribution rates, maximums and exemptions.
You earn the same pension benefits as an employee with identical earnings — you’re just remitting the half an employer would have paid. The problem is that no one withholds it during the year, so the full amount lands at filing time unless you set it aside as you earn.
The full 2026 breakdown, with sourcesEnter your expected net self-employment income and see your exact 2026 CPP — base and CPP2, with the tax-treatment split. Free, no account, and embeddable on your own site.
CPP calculatorSelf-employed people pay both the employee and employer halves: 11.9% of net self-employment income between the $3,500 basic exemption and the $74,600 ceiling (YMPE), to a maximum of $8,460.90. Earnings between $74,600 and $85,000 attract CPP2 at 8%, up to another $832 — a combined self-employed maximum of $9,292.90 for 2026.
An employee pays 5.95% and their employer matches it with another 5.95%. When you are self-employed you are both the employee and the employer, so you remit both halves yourself — 11.9%. You still earn the same CPP pension benefits as an employee with the same earnings.
CPP2 is the second additional contribution introduced by the CPP enhancement. It applies only to earnings between the first ceiling ($74,600 in 2026) and the second ceiling ($85,000 in 2026). Employees pay 4% on that band (max $416 in 2026); self-employed people pay both halves — 8%, max $832.
Partly. The employer half of your contribution is a deduction from income, and the employee half earns a non-refundable tax credit — the same treatment an employee-plus-employer pair would get. Tax software and the T1 return apply the split automatically.
General information, not tax advice. Figures verified against canada.ca, August 2026.