How to Compress a PDF for Tax Filing
Tax portals typically limit document uploads to 2MB–5MB per file. Bank statements, receipts, and payslips scanned at full resolution can easily exceed these limits. This guide covers which documents to compress, which compression level to use to keep financial figures legible, and how to organise everything before submitting.
Balanced vs Maximum — Which Level for Tax Documents?
Tax documents contain critical figures — income amounts, deduction totals, dates, reference numbers — that tax officers must read clearly. Always use Balanced compression for tax submissions. Only use Maximum for identity documents (IC copy) where just the IC number and name need to be readable.
- Payslips: Balanced. Salary figures, EPF contributions, and employer details must be legible.
- Bank statements: Balanced. Transaction amounts and dates are critical evidence.
- Receipts and invoices: Balanced. Item amounts and total figures must be clear.
- Business expense documents: Balanced. GST/SST amounts and reference numbers matter.
- IC / identity copy: Maximum is fine — just name and IC number need to be readable.
- Donation receipts: Balanced. Receipt numbers and amounts are used for deductions.
Step-by-Step: Compress and Submit
Gather All Documents
Collect all documents you need to upload: payslips, bank statements, receipts, donation certificates, medical expense receipts, and any supporting evidence. Export digital statements as PDFs where possible — these are already clean and compress better than scans.
Open ShrinkPDF
Go to shrinkpdf.fyi. Your financial documents are processed locally and never sent to any server.
Compress Each Document
Upload and compress one document at a time using Balanced. Download each compressed file and save it to a dedicated folder (e.g. "Tax 2025 — Compressed").
Verify Before Submitting
Open each compressed PDF and check that all amounts, dates, and reference numbers are clearly readable at 100% zoom. This takes 30 seconds per document and prevents rejection.
Upload to Tax Portal
Submit through your tax authority's online portal. Upload each document in the correct field. If the portal requires a single combined document, use ShrinkPDF's Merge tool to combine them before uploading.
Always retain the original uncompressed scans of all tax documents, ideally stored in cloud backup (Google Drive or iCloud). Tax authorities may request original-quality copies during audit. Compressed versions are for submission convenience only — never delete the originals.
Organising Multiple Documents
If you have many receipts — especially for business expense claims — organising them before compression saves time:
- Group by category: Scan all medical receipts together, all travel receipts together, etc.
- Merge before compressing: Use ShrinkPDF's Merge tool to combine all receipts in one category into a single PDF, then compress the combined file. This reduces the number of uploads and keeps your submission organised.
- Name files clearly: e.g. "Medical-Receipts-2025.pdf", "Donation-Receipts-2025.pdf" — portals don't always let you rename after upload.
Privacy — Your Financial Documents Stay Local
Tax documents contain highly sensitive information — income figures, bank account numbers, employer details. ShrinkPDF processes all files entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to any server. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and compression still works — because it runs on your device's CPU.
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