General Partnership

General Partnership is a business entity formed by at least 2 partners. The partners will be jointly managing the business as well as sharing the risk and reward from the General Partnership.

Features of General Partnership

1. It must be formed by at least 2 partners and up to a maximum of 20 partners.
2. An individual or a company can be a partner of General Partnership.
3. A General Partnership is not a separate legal entity, therefore:
   • The partner is personally liable for all debts and liabilities incurred by the business;
   • It is not allowed to acquire or hold any property in its name.
4. The business income will be taxed at the partner’s level, which is to say, if the partner is:
   • An individual: income to be taxed at personal income tax rate;
   • A company: income to be taxed at the prevailing corporate income tax rate.
5. It has to be registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and renew its licence annually.
6. No statutory obligations such as filing of audited accounts and annual return.
7. It can be converted to a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), provided the existing partners will be the partners of the new LLP.

Requirements of setting-up a General Partnership

1. The individual partner must be at least 18 years of age.
2. A General Partnership must have a business address in Singapore; while using a residential address as the business address will be subject to Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) approval.
3. If the partner is a foreigner or a foreign company, a local resident manager has to be appointed for discharging all obligations of the General Partnership.

Back to business registration for Singapore residents.