Compared to some other business structures, such as trusts and companies, partnerships are subject to a lower degree of regulation.

Partnerships are regulated by the Partnership Act in your relevant state which provides a series of 'default' rules to govern partnerships. There are also certain provisions in the Corporations Act 2001 (Commonwealth) which govern partnerships, for example by limiting the number of partners to 20, though for some professions this can be up to 1000.

Partners can modify some of the default rules in the legislation by putting in place a partnership agreement. In this way, the partnership agreement also regulates the relationships of the partners and the operations of the business.

There are also compliance requirements that are non-exclusive to partnerships such as liability to comply with professional association rules and regulations, licenses and rules relating to specific industries and projects, and regulations governing the employment of workers, superannuation, retail leases, building permits, and others.