Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt nonprofits file with the IRS. Which version (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990) depends on gross receipts and assets. Miss three straight years and the IRS auto-revokes your exemption. Deadline is the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends, usually May 15 for calendar-year groups.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most organizations recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501(c), including the 501(c)(3) status most booster clubs and PTOs hold. It's not an income tax return in the traditional sense. Nonprofits generally don't owe federal income tax on money raised for their exempt purpose, so the 990 exists to show the IRS (and the public) how much money came in, where it went, and who's running the show. Think of it as a transparency document more than a tax bill. The IRS uses it to confirm you're still operating within your exempt purpose. Donors, grant makers, and state charity regulators use it too, often pulling it straight off GuideStar/Candid or the IRS's own Tax Exempt Organization Search tool. There isn't one single "990 tax form." There's a family of them, sized to your organization's revenue and assets, and picking the wrong one (or skipping it entirely) is the single most common mistake new booster treasurers make. For a plain breakdown of each version, see our form 990 explainer.
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer is the volunteer or elected officer responsible for a nonprofit's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping the bank accounts reconciled, reporting the financial picture to the board, and making sure the group files whatever the IRS and state require. In a booster club or PTO, that almost always includes the annual Form 990 in some version. Day to day, what does a treasurer do? Deposit checks and cash from concessions, fundraisers, and dues. Pay vendors and reimburse volunteers. Keep receipts organized enough that someone else could reconstruct the year if you got hit by a bus tomorrow. Present a budget-to-actual report at meetings. File the 990 (or hand clean books to whoever does). What does a treasurer do in a club specifically? Smaller scope than a corporate CFO, but the same discipline: two signers on the bank account, a monthly reconciliation, receipts filed by category, and a clear line between the group's money and any individual's personal account. What does a club treasurer do that's different from a PTO treasurer? Not much, honestly. Booster clubs often handle more cash (gate admissions, concession stands) and may need a state raffle or gaming license if they run raffles, so the controls need to be a notch tighter. See our financial controls guidance for cash-handling specifics. What is a treasurer, boiled down? The person who can answer, at any moment, "how much money do we have and where did it come from?" If you can't answer that in five minutes, that's the first thing to fix, before you worry about the 990 at all.
Which version of the 990 do I file: 990-N, 990-EZ, or the full 990?
| Normally $50,000 or less | any | Form 990-N (e-Postcard) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than $200,000 | Less than $500,000 | Form 990-EZ (or full 990) | |
| $200,000 or more | any | Form 990 | |
| any | $500,000 or more | Form 990 | According to the IRS, "Most tax-exempt organizations that have gross receipts of $50,000 or less are required to submit Form 990-N... unless they choose to file a complete Form 990 or Form 990-EZ instead" [1]. That's the small-nonprofit shortcut most youth sports boosters and small PTOs use. Once you cross $50,000 in gross receipts (measured as an average over the current and two prior years, not a single bad year), you're bumped to at least the 990-EZ. Cross $200,000 in receipts or $500,000 in assets and you're into the full Form 990, which is a genuinely long form with schedules for compensation, related organizations, and more. Private foundations file a different form (990-PF) regardless of size, but that's rare for booster and PTO groups. One wrinkle worth flagging: "gross receipts" for this threshold means total revenue before you subtract expenses. A concession stand that brings in $60,000 and spends $55,000 on inventory is still a $60,000 gross-receipts organization, not a $5,000 one. Treasurers who net things out often miscalculate their filing tier. |
Your organization's gross receipts and total assets determine which form applies, and getting this wrong (usually filing nothing, assuming you're too small) is what triggers auto-revocation down the road. | Annual gross receipts | Total assets | Form required |
What is the 990-N (e-Postcard) and how do I file it?
The 990-N, officially the e-Postcard, is the simplest filing: eight data items, filed online, no paper, no fee. You'll enter your EIN, tax year, legal name and mailing address, any other names the org uses, the name and address of a principal officer, confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, and a statement that the organization isn't going out of business. You file it through the IRS's electronic system at irs.gov [1]. It takes most treasurers under fifteen minutes once you have the EIN and officer info handy. There's no extension available for the 990-N specifically, but missing one year isn't fatal, missing three in a row is (more on that below). A lot of new treasurers assume that because the 990-N is so short, it's optional for tiny clubs. It isn't. If your organization is tax-exempt and doesn't meet a specific exception (churches, for instance), you file something every year, even if that something is just the e-Postcard.
What is Form 990-EZ and when do I need it instead?
Form 990-EZ is the short-form annual return for organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000. It's a few pages covering revenue and expenses by category, a balance sheet, program service accomplishments, and officer/director compensation if any. Most booster clubs that run a real concession operation, sell a meaningful volume of spirit wear, or collect substantial dues land here rather than on the 990-N. The IRS instructions for the 990-EZ walk through each line, and the form itself is publicly posted at irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-990-ez [2]. If your group is close to a threshold, filing the 990-EZ instead of the 990-N even when you technically qualify for the e-Postcard isn't a bad idea. It creates a more detailed public record, which can help with grant applications and school district audits, and it's a lot less form than the full 990 if you're worried about growing into that tier next year.
What is the full Form 990 and who actually needs it?
The full Form 990 is a long-form annual return, roughly a dozen pages plus schedules, required once gross receipts hit $200,000 or total assets hit $500,000 [1]. It asks for governance details (does the board review the 990 before filing, are there conflict-of-interest policies), compensation for officers and highest-paid employees, a detailed statement of functional expenses, and program accomplishments in narrative form. Few grassroots booster clubs or PTOs get this large, but regional or multi-school athletic foundations, and any group that manages significant capital campaigns, sometimes do. If you're suddenly staring at this form because a big donation or building fund pushed you over $500,000 in assets, budget real time (or a paid preparer) for it. It is not a fifteen-minute job like the 990-N. Our [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) and irs form 990 pages break down the schedules in more depth if you're at this tier.
When is Form 990 due, and can I get an extension?
Form 990, in any version, is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's accounting period ends. For a calendar-year group (fiscal year ending December 31), that's May 15 of the following year [3]. Many school-affiliated boosters run a fiscal year matching the school year, June 30 to June 30, which puts their deadline at November 15. A six-month extension is available using Form 8868, filed by the original due date, which pushes a calendar-year filer's deadline to November 15 [4]. The extension applies to the 990-EZ and full 990. The 990-N (e-Postcard) doesn't have a formal extension process because there's genuinely nothing to extend, it takes minutes to file, but there's also no penalty for filing it late in a given year, only for not filing at all across three years. Mark the deadline on a shared calendar the day you take over as treasurer. Handoffs are exactly when this slips, because the outgoing treasurer assumed someone else had it and the incoming one didn't know the fiscal year end.
What happens if I don't file for three years?
Automatic revocation. Section 6033(j) of the tax code requires the IRS to revoke tax-exempt status for any organization that fails to file its required 990 for three consecutive years, and the revocation is automatic, effective as of the filing due date of the third year [5]. There's no warning letter that says "last chance," and there's no appeal for the revocation itself, it's a statutory mechanism, not a discretionary IRS decision. The IRS states plainly: "An organization that fails to file required Form 990 series returns for three consecutive years will automatically lose its tax-exempt status" [5]. Once that happens, your organization is treated as a taxable entity going forward, and donations made to it are no longer tax-deductible for the donor, which is a real problem if you're relying on parent donations or corporate sponsor matching programs. Recovery is possible but it's a project, not a form. You typically apply for reinstatement using Form 1023 (or 1023-EZ if you qualify) and request retroactive reinstatement to the date of revocation, which requires showing reasonable cause for the filing failures. The IRS lays out the streamlined and standard reinstatement procedures in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 [6]. Expect a real application fee (currently $275 for the 1023-EZ or $600 for the full 1023, per the IRS fee schedule [7]) and weeks to months of processing, not days. Check your organization's status right now, for free, at the Tax Exempt Organization Search tool. Search your EIN. If it shows "Auto-Revoked," that's your answer, and it's worth checking even if you're confident, because a lot of booster clubs got auto-revoked years ago and nobody noticed because nobody was checking.
Does my club even need to file, or are we exempt?
Almost every organization holding federal tax-exempt status has to file something in the 990 family every year. There are narrow exceptions, mainly churches, church-affiliated organizations, and some government-affiliated entities, but a typical booster club, PTO, or youth sports league doesn't fall into those categories just because it's small or run entirely by volunteers. A common misconception: "we've never applied for 501(c)(3) status, so we don't have to file." If your group has an EIN and has ever represented itself as tax-exempt, or if a parent organization's exemption doesn't clearly cover you, that's a separate problem worth sorting out, possibly by confirming your status with the IRS directly, before you worry about which 990 to file. A group operating without recognized exemption isn't off the hook for reporting, it's potentially on the hook for corporate income tax instead. If you're not sure your organization has exempt status at all, or you inherited a group that was "always just kind of tax-exempt," that's worth resolving with the IRS or a qualified preparer before anything else on this list.
What records do I need to actually complete the 990?
Whichever version applies, you'll need: a full accounting of income by source (dues, concessions, sponsorships, fundraiser proceeds, grants), expenses by category, a bank reconciliation showing your year-end balance matches your books, and basic governance info (current officers, meeting frequency, whether the board reviewed the return). Good monthly habits make this trivial. Bad habits (a shoebox of receipts, a Venmo account nobody reconciles, three different people with debit cards) make it a multi-week scramble every spring. If you're setting up systems from scratch, our financial controls and handoff-and-audits guidance covers the monthly reconciliation habits that make the 990 a non-event instead of a crisis. This is genuinely where the $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit earns its keep for a lot of new treasurers: it gives you the category structure and monthly checklist so that by the time your fiscal year ends, the 990 inputs are already sitting in a spreadsheet instead of a shoebox.
Do I need a preparer, or can I file it myself?
The 990-N is simple enough that essentially every treasurer can file it solo in one sitting, no accountant needed. The 990-EZ is doable for a careful treasurer with organized books, especially if last year's return is available as a template, though a first-timer might want an experienced volunteer or a low-cost preparer to review it once. The full Form 990 is where I'd bring in a CPA or nonprofit-experienced preparer, particularly if your group has employees, related entities, or complex revenue streams. The governance and compensation schedules have real nuance, and mistakes there are more visible (this form is public) than mistakes on a short form. None of this is a substitute for actual tax or legal advice specific to your organization. If your situation is unusual, get help from a CPA or attorney who works with nonprofits.
How does the 990 connect to state raraffle licenses and charity registration?
Filing Form 990 with the IRS doesn't automatically satisfy your state's requirements. Most states with charitable solicitation registration laws want their own annual report, and if your booster club runs raffles, bingo, or similar games, your state raffle or gaming license is a completely separate filing with its own renewal cycle, often tied to your state attorney general's office or gaming commission. Treasurers sometimes assume the IRS 990 is a one-stop shop for compliance. It isn't. Confirm with your state charity office (usually housed under the attorney general or secretary of state) whether you owe a separate annual charitable registration, and confirm with your state raffle or gaming authority whether your existing license needs renewal alongside your federal filing. Our raffles-by-state hub has state-specific starting points, but always verify current rules directly with your state office since requirements change.
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer manages an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, reconciling bank accounts, reporting to the board, and handling required filings like Form 990. In a booster club or PTO, the treasurer is usually the one person who can say exactly how much cash the group has and where it came from at any given time.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the officer (elected or appointed) responsible for an organization's finances. The role covers bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, budget reporting to the board, and tax filings. In small nonprofits like PTOs and booster clubs, it's almost always a volunteer position with no formal accounting background required, just discipline and organization.
What do treasurers do day to day?
Deposit income from dues, concessions, and fundraisers; pay approved bills and reimburse volunteers; reconcile the bank statement monthly; keep receipts filed by category; and prepare a simple financial report for board meetings. Once a year, they compile the numbers needed to file the appropriate IRS Form 990.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations. It reports income, expenses, assets, and governance details. It exists so the IRS and the public can confirm a nonprofit is still operating within its exempt purpose. Small organizations file a simplified version called the 990-N.
What is a 990 tax form?
It's the informal name for the family of annual returns nonprofits file: Form 990-N, 990-EZ, or the full Form 990, depending on gross receipts and total assets. Despite the name, it's an information return, not a bill; most exempt organizations don't owe federal income tax on the activity it reports.
What is the 990?
"The 990" usually refers to the full-length Form 990, required once an organization's gross receipts hit $200,000 or its total assets hit $500,000, per IRS thresholds. People also use "the 990" loosely to mean whichever version (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) their group files each year.
What does a treasurer do in a club?
Same core job as any nonprofit treasurer, scaled down: manage the bank account, track dues and event income, pay vendors, keep two people with account access, and file the annual IRS return. Clubs handling cash (concessions, gate fees) also need tighter cash-handling controls than a purely check-and-card operation.
What does a club treasurer do differently from a PTO treasurer?
The core duties overlap heavily. Booster clubs more often handle physical cash from concession stands and gate admissions, and are more likely to run raffles requiring a separate state gaming license, so cash controls and state gaming compliance tend to get more attention than in a typical PTO.
What does a treasurer of a club do at tax time?
Pulls together the year's income and expenses by category, confirms the bank reconciliation matches the books, checks which Form 990 version applies based on gross receipts and assets, and files it by the deadline (the 15th day of the 5th month after fiscal year end) or requests an extension using Form 8868.
Do all nonprofits have to file a 990?
Nearly all tax-exempt organizations do, in some version. Narrow exceptions exist mainly for churches and certain government-affiliated entities. A typical booster club or PTO with an EIN and recognized exempt status files a 990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990 every year, based on IRS gross receipts and asset thresholds.
What happens if a booster club never files a 990?
After three consecutive years of not filing, the IRS automatically revokes the organization's tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j). There's no warning notice and no appeal of the revocation itself. Reinstatement requires a new exemption application and, usually, a filing fee and processing time.
How do I check if my organization already lost its tax-exempt status?
Search your organization's EIN or name in the IRS's free Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov. If the status shows as auto-revoked, that confirms it. This is worth checking even if you're confident nothing's wrong, since revocations often go unnoticed for years in volunteer-run groups.
Is the 990-N really free and that fast to file?
Yes. The 990-N (e-Postcard) has no filing fee and asks for only eight basic data points: EIN, tax year, legal name and address, any alternate names, a principal officer's name and address, and confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less. Most treasurers finish it in under fifteen minutes.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Filing Requirements for Small Exempt Organizations: Organizations with gross receipts of $50,000 or less generally file Form 990-N
- IRS, About Form 990-EZ: Form 990-EZ is for organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and assets under $500,000
- IRS, About Form 990: Form 990 is due the 15th day of the 5th month after the accounting period ends
- IRS, About Form 8868: Form 8868 grants a 6-month extension for filing Form 990 series returns
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Organizations that fail to file required 990 returns for 3 consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: IRS reinstatement procedures for organizations that lost exemption for failure to file
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: Free tool to check an organization's current tax-exempt and revocation status