A partnership is a business structure in which two or more persons trade together without incorporating as a limited liability company.
It is common in accounting, legal and other professional practices whose regulators license individuals rather than corporate entities. In Kenya, partnerships are governed by the Partnership Act and the Limited Liability Partnership Act.
The Finance Act 2026, assented to by President William Ruto on June 23, amends Section 52B of the Income Tax Act to phase out the single June 30 filing deadline that has applied to all taxpayers for years.
From the 2026 year of income (returns due from January 2027), individuals must file by the last day of the fourth month following year-end — April 30 — while nil filers have just one month. “Every person other than an individual” retains the sixth-month deadline, June 30.
Returns for the 2025 year of income are unaffected and remain due by June 30, 2026.
This creates a structural tension for partnerships. A partnership is not itself subject to income tax; its profits are allocated to partners in their agreed ratios, who then declare and pay tax individually. Value-added tax and pay-as-you-earn obligations, however, remain the partnership’s own.
Because a partnership falls within “every person other than an individual,” it nominally retains until June 30 to file.
Yet its partners, as individuals, must file by April 30 — two months earlier — and cannot do so without their finalised share of profit. The partnership’s accounts must therefore effectively be ready by April, not June.
Firms operating as partnerships should bring forward their year-end accounting closure and audit timetables to meet this accelerated effective deadline.
It is reassuring that the Treasury dropped its earlier proposal to compress the timeline for all taxpayers; companies retain the existing June deadline and need not adjust their preparation calendars.
