Form P Goes Digital: What IRAS's New e-Filing Rule Means for Your Partnership

IRAS has updated its guidance for precedent partners. Starting from Year of Assessment 2027, e-Filing of Form P - the Partnership Income Tax Return - becomes compulsory.

If your partnership has been filing on paper, that option is going away.

For most partnerships, this shouldn't be a shock. IRAS has been pushing digital filing across every tax type for years. But if you've been putting off the switch, this is your signal.

Here's what the precedent partner is responsible for:

1. Filing Form P on behalf of the partnership by 18 April each year
2. Informing all partners of their share of income from the partnership
3. Reporting changes in partnership particulars (partners joining, leaving, or changing their shares)

Up to now, you could do this on paper. From YA 2027, it's e-Filing only - through myTax Portal.

The real win isn't just compliance

Here's what I've noticed working with SME partnerships: the ones who struggle most with Form P aren't the ones with complex finances. They're the ones whose records are scattered.

Receipts in shoeboxes. Income tracked in one spreadsheet, expenses in another. Partner allocations calculated manually at year-end. By the time the precedent partner sits down to file, they're reconstructing twelve months of transactions from memory and scraps of paper.

When your accounting software tracks everything throughout the year, filing Form P becomes straightforward. Income and expenses are already categorised. Profit allocation by partner is a report, not a calculation. The precedent partner logs into myTax Portal, transfers the numbers, and submits.

No scrambling in April. No second-guessing whether the figures are right. Just clean records, fast filing, and partners who get their share reported accurately and on time.

What you should do now

If your partnership is already using accounting software, you're in good shape. Make sure your records are current and your partner allocations are set up correctly.

If you're still on paper or spreadsheets, the YA 2027 deadline gives you time - but don't wait. The partnerships that switch early are the ones who find filing season barely registers as a task. The ones who switch late are the ones pulling late nights in April wondering why they didn't do this sooner.

The precedent partner carries the filing responsibility. Make sure they have the tools to do it well.

Source: IRAS
https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/individual-income-tax/self-employed-and-partnerships/tax-obligations-of-partnerships/responsibilities-of-precedent-partners