Reference
Glossary
RCT terms in plain language, grouped by where you meet them rather than alphabetically.
Who is who
- Principal contractor
- You, when you engage someone to carry out construction work. The obligation to notify Revenue and withhold tax sits with the principal, not the subcontractor.
- Subcontractor
- Someone carrying out construction operations for you under a contract. Payments to them are within RCT. Contrast with a supplier, who sells you goods and is outside it entirely.
- Revenue
- The Irish tax authority. Operates ROS, decides deduction rates and issues the authorisations that make a payment lawful.
The filings
- RCT — Relevant Contracts Tax
- The withholding tax on payments from principal contractors to subcontractors for construction work. Not a tax on you: it is the subcontractor’s tax, collected by you on Revenue’s behalf.
- Contract notification
- Telling Revenue about an engagement before work starts. Done once per contract. Returns a contract ID, a SIN and an indicative rate.
- Payment notification
- Telling Revenue the gross amount you intend to pay, before you pay it. Done before every payment. Returns a Deduction Authorisation.
- Deduction Authorisation (DA)
- Revenue’s answer: the rate for this specific payment, the amount to withhold, and the net to pay. The only rate with any authority behind it. Paying without one makes you liable at 35%.
- Acknowledgement number
- Revenue’s receipt for a submission. What checking against Revenue matches on to confirm a filing really landed.
Identifiers
- Contract ID
- Revenue’s reference for a notified contract. Quoted on every payment notification against it.
- SIN — Site Identifier Number
- Identifies the site on a notified contract. Returned with the contract acknowledgement.
- Indicative rate
- A hint about the subcontractor’s standing, returned when you notify a contract. Not authority to deduct anything. Relying on it is one of the errors Revenue names explicitly.
- Tax reference number
- The subcontractor’s own reference with Revenue. Without one on the contract, Revenue has nobody to look up and authorises every payment at 35%.
Money
- Gross
- Means two different things depending on context. In VAT, the amount including VAT. In RCT, the amount notified to Revenue before any deduction. See Costs for why the distinction matters.
- Net
- Likewise. In VAT, excluding VAT. In RCT, what the subcontractor actually receives after the deduction. The payment file always uses the RCT net.
- Reverse charge
- For construction services in RCT scope, the subcontractor charges no VAT and you self-account for it, normally at 13.5%. VAT on a subcontractor invoice is a signal something is wrong.
- Bulk Rate Review
- Revenue’s periodic reassessment of subcontractor rates. Rates change without anyone telling you, which is why a stored rate goes stale silently and Brickie holds none.
Systems and files
- ROS — Revenue Online Service
- Revenue’s online system. Brickie files to the same service you would use by hand, signed with the same certificate.
- Digital certificate (.p12)
- Your ROS identity as a file. Brickie stores it encrypted in your browser and never receives it. See Your ROS certificate.
- SEPA / pain.001
- The standard European format for instructing bulk payments.
pain.001is a payment instruction file; you upload it to your bank and authorise it there. - IBAN
- An international bank account number, with a checksum that catches typos. Brickie treats an IBAN on an invoice as a claim to be checked against the subcontractor record, never as an instruction.
Where to look next
Revenue publishes its own guidance on RCT, and it is the authority where anything here and anything there disagree. Brickie documents how its filing works; it does not restate tax law, and it is not tax advice.