Form 990-N e-postcard: what it is and how to file it

Last updated 2026-07-24

What is Form 990-N (the e-Postcard)?

Form 990-N is the smallest of the annual information returns the IRS requires from tax-exempt organizations. The IRS calls it the "e-Postcard" because that's basically what it is: eight short questions, filed online, no attachments, no financial statements. It exists for one reason. Congress decided in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that even the tiniest nonprofits needed to check in with the IRS every year, because before that a lot of small groups just disappeared off the rolls with nobody noticing. Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports groups with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less file this instead of a full Form 990 or the mid-size Form 990-EZ. If your group is bigger than that threshold, you'll be filing Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990 instead, not the postcard. The e-Postcard asks for basics: your organization's legal name, any other names it uses, mailing address, EIN, tax year, confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, and a statement that the organization hasn't terminated. That's it. There's no dollar-by-dollar accounting required on the form itself, though the IRS expects you to actually know your gross receipts number, not guess at it. ^[1]

What is Form 990? How does 990-N fit in?

Normally $50,000 or less	Form 990-N (e-Postcard)
Less than $200,000, and total assets less than $500,000	Form 990-EZ (or full 990)
$200,000 or more, or assets $500,000 or more	Form 990 (full return)
Private foundations, any size	Form 990-PF	This threshold table comes straight from the IRS's own filing guidance for exempt organizations. [2] A small booster club with a car wash, a few bake sales, and some concession stand cash almost always lands in the 990-N tier. A larger athletic booster program running $150,000 through the books in a year has moved up to 990-EZ territory, and needs to start tracking revenue and expense categories a lot more carefully. If your group is currently unsure which tier applies, that's a signal your books need attention before filing season, not after. See our overview of Form 990 filing tiers for more on how the thresholds work in practice.

Form 990 is the umbrella name for the whole family of annual information returns tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's not a single form. It's a tier system based on your organization's size. Here's the breakdown the IRS uses to sort organizations into the right version: | Annual gross receipts | Which form to file |

What is a 990 tax form, in plain language?

A 990 tax form isn't actually a tax return in the way a business's income tax form is. Nonprofits that are tax-exempt generally don't owe income tax on money raised for their mission, so the 990 family isn't calculating a tax bill. Instead, it's an information return. The IRS uses it to confirm your organization is still operating, still exempt, and still doing roughly what it said it would do when it applied for exemption. State charity regulators and donors use the public version of full 990s to see how nonprofits spend money, though the 990-N itself doesn't disclose financial details because it doesn't collect any beyond the receipts threshold checkbox. Think of it as an annual proof-of-life filing crossed with a light accountability check. Skip it and nothing happens the first year. Skip it three years running and the consequence is serious: automatic loss of your tax-exempt status, no warning letter required by law. ^[3] More on that below.

Who has to file the 990-N e-postcard?

Small tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less are eligible to file Form 990-N instead of a longer return. The IRS's own instructions state it plainly: organizations "whose annual gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" may file the e-Postcard. ^[1] "Normally" doesn't mean last year only. The IRS averages a few years to smooth out a good fundraising year or a slow one. If your club had a banner car wash season and briefly popped over $50,000, you're probably still fine to file 990-N if your multi-year average stays under the line, but confirm the exact averaging method with the IRS's published guidance or a qualified preparer, because the calculation has specific rules depending on how many years your organization has existed. Organizations that are required to file a different return (like private foundations, which always file 990-PF regardless of size) can't use the e-Postcard even if they're small. And a handful of organizations are exempt from filing any annual return at all, including most churches and certain church-affiliated organizations, per IRS guidance on organizations not required to file. ^[4] Most booster clubs and PTOs with tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) and modest revenue are squarely in e-Postcard territory.

How do you actually file the e-Postcard?

You file Form 990-N electronically, and only electronically. There's no paper version. The IRS's own guidance directs filers to the current electronic filing process for the e-Postcard. ^[4] You'll need your organization's EIN, the tax year you're filing for, your legal name and any doing-business-as name, your mailing address, the name and address of a principal officer, your organization's website if it has one, and confirmation that gross receipts are $50,000 or less. Have your prior year's return handy too, since a lot of the fields carry over. The form itself takes most treasurers five to ten minutes once they have the information gathered. The hard part usually isn't the form, it's finding your EIN if the outgoing treasurer didn't hand off records, or figuring out your organization's exact legal name as the IRS has it on file. If you're stepping into a treasurer role cold, run a quick IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search first to confirm your group's current status and filing history.

When is the Form 990-N deadline?

Form 990-N is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's fiscal year ends. That means for a nonprofit running on a calendar year (ending December 31), the deadline is May 15 of the following year. ^[4] Many school-affiliated booster clubs and PTOs actually run on a fiscal year that matches the school year, often ending June 30. If that's you, your 990-N is due by November 15. There's no extension form for 990-N specifically, and honestly, you don't need one. If you miss the date, file late. There's no monetary penalty for a late 990-N the way there is for a late 990 or 990-EZ. The real penalty is structural, not financial: miss it enough times and you lose your exemption automatically, covered next.

What happens if you don't file for three years?

This is the part every new treasurer needs to hear clearly. Federal law requires the IRS to automatically revoke the tax-exempt status of any organization that fails to file its required annual return or notice for three consecutive years. This isn't discretionary and it isn't a warning system. The IRS states it directly: "Automatic revocation occurs when an exempt organization that is required to file an annual return or notice fails to do so for three consecutive years." ^[3] The revocation date is the filing deadline of the third missed year, not the date the IRS notices. So a group that quietly skips filings for three years running has already lost its exempt status before anyone realizes it, sometimes years before. This happens constantly with volunteer-run booster clubs and PTOs, because treasurer turnover is high and outgoing treasurers don't always hand off filing history. If you're a new treasurer and you're not sure if the last person filed anything, stop and check the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search or Automatic Revocation of Exemption List before you do anything else. It takes five minutes and it tells you immediately whether you're dealing with routine annual filing or a reinstatement project. Organizations that lose exemption this way have to apply for reinstatement, which for small organizations that filed on time historically can often use a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process, but for others means a full new exemption application. Either path costs real time and, depending on which application, a real filing fee to the IRS. This is exactly the situation a lot of booster treasurers walk into mid-year without warning, and it's a big part of why we built the $99 State-Personalized Treasurer Kit, which walks new treasurers through checking filing status, gathering EIN and prior-year records, and building a repeatable filing calendar so this doesn't happen on your watch.

What is a treasurer? What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer is the person responsible for an organization's money: tracking what comes in, what goes out, keeping records straight, and making sure required filings like Form 990-N happen on time. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer is usually a volunteer parent, not a professional accountant, which is exactly why clear, simple systems matter more than fancy ones. What does a treasurer do in practice, day to day and year to year? The job usually breaks into a few buckets: - Recording income and expenses as they happen, not months later from memory

• Reconciling the bank account against the books every month
• Handling cash from fundraisers (concessions, car washes, raffles) with basic dual-control procedures
• Preparing a budget or financial report for board meetings
• Filing the annual IRS return (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990 depending on size)
• Renewing any required state charity registration
• Keeping a paper or digital trail so the next treasurer isn't starting from zero What does a club treasurer do that's different from a corporate bookkeeper? Mostly scale and volunteer turnover. A club treasurer of a youth sports team is often handling a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars a year, with a one-year term, handing everything off to a new volunteer who may have zero accounting background. The job isn't complicated math. It's discipline: record everything, reconcile monthly, file on time, and document enough that a stranger could pick up the binder and understand what happened.

What does a treasurer of a club do differently from a PTO or booster club treasurer?

The core job is the same everywhere: track money, keep records, file required paperwork. But the specifics shift by organization type. A PTO treasurer usually deals with book fairs, membership dues, and school-approved fundraisers, often coordinating closely with a school's front office and sometimes routing funds through a school district account, which changes who can sign checks and what documentation the district requires. A booster club treasurer (athletic boosters, band boosters, etc.) more often runs its own separate bank account and its own 501(c)(3) status, handles concession stand cash and equipment purchases, and sometimes deals with raffle or gaming licenses that require separate state paperwork. A youth sports league treasurer typically handles registration fees, uniform and equipment costs, referee or umpire payments, and tournament travel funds, often with much larger cash flows than a single-team booster group. All three types generally answer to the IRS the same way once they're recognized as tax-exempt: file the 990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990 depending on gross receipts, and keep clean books in case a parent, school, or state charity office ever asks to see them.

What information do you need before you sit down to file?

Gather this before you start the e-Postcard, not while you're mid-form: - Your organization's EIN (Employer Identification Number, not a bank account number)

• Legal name exactly as filed with the IRS, plus any DBA name
• Current mailing address
• Tax year start and end dates
• Name and address of a principal officer (often the current president or treasurer)
• Organization's website URL, if it has one
• Confirmation gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less
• Confirmation the organization hasn't terminated or gone out of business If you don't have the EIN and nobody handed you records, look up the organization by name using the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool. It'll also tell you whether prior 990-N filings show up, which answers the "did anyone file this before me" question fast.

Does the e-Postcard replace state filing requirements too?

No, and this trips up a lot of new treasurers. Form 990-N only satisfies your federal IRS filing requirement. Most states have a completely separate charity registration or renewal requirement, run through the state Attorney General's office or a Secretary of State charities division, and that filing is usually annual too, with its own deadline and sometimes its own fee. Rules vary a lot by state, so confirm with your specific state charity office what's required for a small booster club or PTO. Some states exempt very small organizations from registration entirely; others require registration regardless of size once you're soliciting donations from the public. Don't assume filing your federal e-Postcard means you're square everywhere. Check your state's charity regulator page directly.

Frequently asked questions

What is Form 990-N?

Form 990-N, called the e-Postcard, is the shortest annual IRS filing for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's eight questions, filed online for free, and confirms basic details like your EIN, address, and that the organization is still active. It's not a tax return since exempt organizations generally don't owe income tax.

What is a 990 tax form used for?

The 990 tax form family is an annual information return, not an income tax bill. The IRS uses it to confirm a tax-exempt organization is still operating and matches the size tier (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) it's reporting under. Full 990s are also public, letting donors and state regulators see nonprofit finances.

What does a treasurer do in a booster club or PTO?

A treasurer records income and expenses, reconciles the bank account monthly, handles fundraiser cash with dual-control procedures, prepares budget reports, files the annual IRS return (usually Form 990-N), and keeps records organized enough for the next volunteer to take over. It's mostly discipline and documentation, not advanced accounting.

Who is required to file Form 990-N?

Tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, and that aren't required to file a different form like the 990-PF for private foundations, generally file the 990-N. Certain organizations, including most churches, aren't required to file an annual return at all under IRS guidance.

When is the 990-N e-Postcard due?

Form 990-N is due the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. For a calendar-year organization, that's May 15. For a group on a school-year fiscal calendar ending June 30, it's November 15. There's no separate extension form, so if you miss it, file late rather than not at all.

What happens if I forget to file Form 990-N for a few years?

Nothing happens after one missed year, and there's no monetary penalty for a late 990-N. But federal law requires the IRS to automatically revoke tax-exempt status if an organization fails to file for three consecutive years, with no separate warning required. Check the IRS Automatic Revocation of Exemption List if you're unsure of your status.

Is there a fee to file Form 990-N?

No. The e-Postcard itself is free to file through an IRS-approved electronic filing process. There's no IRS fee for submitting it, unlike some reinstatement applications, which do carry a filing fee if your organization ever loses exempt status and needs to reapply.

Can I file Form 990-N on paper?

No. Form 990-N is electronic-only. There's no paper version accepted by the IRS. You'll need your EIN, legal organization name, mailing address, tax year, a principal officer's name and address, and confirmation your gross receipts are $50,000 or less to complete it.

How do I know if my organization should file 990-N or 990-EZ instead?

Compare your organization's normal gross receipts against IRS thresholds: $50,000 or less generally means 990-N, under $200,000 in receipts with under $500,000 in assets generally means 990-EZ (or full 990), and above those figures means the full Form 990. Confirm your exact tier with IRS guidance since averaging rules can apply.

What is a treasurer of a club, exactly?

A club treasurer is the volunteer or officer responsible for the organization's finances: tracking income and expenses, reconciling accounts, preparing financial reports, and making sure required filings like the IRS 990-N or state charity renewals happen on schedule. In small clubs it's almost always an unpaid volunteer role with a one- or two-year term.

Does filing Form 990-N cover my state filing requirements too?

No. Form 990-N only satisfies the federal IRS requirement. Most states run a separate charity registration or renewal process through the Attorney General or Secretary of State's charities division, with its own deadline and sometimes a fee. Confirm requirements directly with your state charity office since they vary widely.

What information do I need to file the e-Postcard?

You need your organization's EIN, legal name and any DBA, current mailing address, tax year dates, a principal officer's name and address, your website URL if you have one, and confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less and the organization hasn't terminated.

Sources

1. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations, Form 990-N (e-Postcard): 990-N deadline is the 15th day of the 5th month after fiscal year end
2. IRS, Annual Filing and Forms: gross receipts and asset thresholds determining 990-N vs 990-EZ vs full 990
3. IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: organizations that fail to file for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status
4. IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: certain organizations including most churches are not required to file an annual return
5. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: tool to confirm an organization's exempt status and filing history including prior 990-N filings