Admin and tax resources for Irish contractors: Revenue Commissioners compliance, RCT scheme, sole trader vs company registration, employer PRSI, and insurance obligations.
The construction Sectoral Employment Order sets Irish minimum rates from €17.28 to €23.74 an hour since 1 August 2026, plus pension, death-in-service and sick pay contributions. Who it covers, which category each worker is in, and what a 39-hour week costs.
The Construction Contracts Act gives a subcontractor on any job over €10,000 a statutory payment cycle, a 21-day response deadline, a right to suspend and a 28-day adjudication. All of it starts with a payment claim notice delivered within five days of the payment claim date. Which jobs the Act covers, what the notice must say, what the Schedule gives you when the contract is silent, and what to do on day 22.
A €14.94 minimum wage, a €600 employer PRSI threshold, bigger tax credits and diesel rising from February. What Budget 2027 changes on a small Irish trade business's payroll, tax and van costs, with a worked example for one helper.
A self-employed tradesperson in Ireland can pay a pension contribution before the 2025 return deadline and have it treated as paid in 2025, at up to 40% income tax relief. The deadlines, the age-related limits and €115,000 cap, what the relief does not reduce, and how to claim it on Form 11.
Year one is generous: preliminary tax on a nil prior year is nil. Here's why the second October then costs twice, and the set-aside habit that stops it hurting.
A €10,000 job can land as €6,500, and a builder can owe €3,500 on a payment he made in full. Here's how the three RCT rates are set, and the ROS step that decides both.
The October rise is €68 a year on a €45,000 wage. The real story is the cost stack around it, and the helper paid every Friday who may already be an employee. Here's the full first-hire arithmetic.
Ireland has no compulsory employers' liability law and no compulsory public liability. Here's the short statutory list, the long list the site demands instead, and the helper who falls between them.
The 12.5% rate only reaches profit you never take out. Here's the myth-by-myth reality of incorporating as an Irish tradesperson, and the one surplus figure that decides it.
