How to search 990-N filings for any nonprofit

Last updated 2026-07-25

where do you search 990-N filings for a nonprofit

You search 990-N filings using the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) tool, found at apps.irs.gov/app/eos ^[1]. This is the only official, free way to check whether a small nonprofit filed its e-Postcard. You don't need an account, and you don't pay anything. Type in the organization's legal name or its EIN (Employer Identification Number). If you only have a partial name, TEOS will return a list of close matches, which is helpful if you're not sure exactly how the group registered with the IRS. EIN search is faster and more reliable if you have it, because names can be spelled a dozen different ways across filings. Once you find the organization, TEOS shows several data sets: eligibility for tax-deductible donations, copies of 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF filings (as PDFs, when available), and a separate list for organizations that filed a 990-N. The 990-N itself doesn't show up as a downloadable PDF the way a full 990 does. Instead, TEOS confirms the filing happened and gives you the tax year and date filed. If you're trying to verify your own organization's filing history before a board handoff, this is the first stop, before you call the IRS or dig through old email confirmations.

what is form 990

Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires most tax-exempt organizations to file, reporting revenue, expenses, program activities, and governance details ^[2]. It's not a tax bill. Most 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations owe no income tax, but they still have to report what they took in and spent, and who ran the show. There are several versions scaled to organization size. Form 990-N (the e-Postcard) is for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less ^[3]. Form 990-EZ is for organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000. The full Form 990 is required above those thresholds, and Form 990-PF is a separate version for private foundations regardless of size. Every version, including the 990-N, exists mainly so the IRS and the public can see that a tax-exempt group is still operating, still eligible for its exemption, and roughly how much money moved through it that year. Miss it three years running and the exemption gets pulled automatically, which is the single most common crisis new booster and PTO treasurers walk into. If you want the full breakdown of which version applies to your group, see form 990 and 990 tax form.

what is the 990-N and how is it different from other 990s

The 990-N, officially the Electronic Notice for Tax-Exempt Organizations Not Required to File Form 990 or 990-EZ, is an eight-question online form for the smallest nonprofits ^[3]. It asks for the organization's legal name, EIN, tax year, current mailing address, name and address of a principal officer, website (if any), and confirmation that gross receipts are $50,000 or less. That's the entire filing. No revenue detail, no expense breakdown, no board list beyond the one principal officer. Compare that to a full Form 990, which can run 12 pages plus schedules covering compensation, related-party transactions, and program service accomplishments. Because the 990-N carries so little financial data, it's also the reason it doesn't show up as a searchable PDF in TEOS the same way. TEOS confirms filing status (filed, not filed, or organization not found), but there's no financial statement to click into. If you need to actually see dollar figures for a small nonprofit, the 990-N won't give you that; you'd need whatever internal financial records the organization itself shares. For context, see 990-n and form 990-n for filing thresholds and deadlines.

what is a treasurer

A treasurer is the officer responsible for an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping bank accounts reconciled, and making sure required filings like the 990-N happen on time. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, this is usually a volunteer parent, not an accountant, which is exactly why filing deadlines get missed. The treasurer isn't the person who decides how much the group spends on uniforms or field trips. That's typically a board or membership vote. The treasurer executes those decisions, keeps the books straight, and reports back so everyone else can see where the money went. Most bylaws describe the treasurer's duties in a paragraph or two, but in practice the job is heavier than that paragraph suggests, especially the first year after a handoff from a treasurer who kept things in a shoebox or a personal Venmo account.

what does a treasurer do (day to day and year to year)

Day to day, a treasurer deposits checks and cash, pays bills, tracks reimbursements, and keeps a running ledger of every transaction. Year to year, the job adds recurring deadlines: renewing the state charitable registration if required, filing the 990-N or appropriate 990 variant by the deadline (the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's tax year ends) ^[3], and preparing a financial report for the annual meeting or handoff. A reasonably complete list of recurring treasurer tasks looks like this: - Reconcile the bank statement every month, more than at year end

• Log every deposit and expense with a date, amount, and purpose
• Keep receipts and invoices, ideally scanned, for at least three years
• File the IRS annual return (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990) by the deadline
• Renew any required state charitable solicitation registration
• Prepare a budget-to-actual report for board meetings
• Hand off a clean set of records to the next treasurer A lot of new treasurers underestimate the filing piece specifically because the 990-N looks so simple. Eight questions, five minutes, done. The catch is remembering it exists every single year with no paper reminder mailed to you, which is how three-year revocation streaks happen.

what does a club treasurer do differently from a corporate treasurer

A club treasurer (booster club, PTO, youth sports league) handles a much smaller, cash-heavier operation than a corporate treasurer, and usually does it alone with no finance staff, no software budget, and no professional training. The core job is the same in concept, tracking money in, money out, and reporting accurately, but the tools and stakes differ. A corporate treasurer manages cash flow forecasting, banking relationships, debt, and investment policy, often with a team and audited financials. A club treasurer manages a checking account, a concession stand's cash box, and maybe a PayPal account for registration fees. The dollar amounts are smaller, but the informality is actually the bigger risk. No corporate treasurer is handling six figures in cash with a spiral notebook, but plenty of booster treasurers are. The filing burden also looks different in scale but not in seriousness. A small club risks losing its entire tax-exempt status over a missed 990-N, the same as a large nonprofit risks over a missed full Form 990. The consequence (automatic revocation after three consecutive missed years under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j)) applies regardless of size ^[4].

what does a treasurer of a club do at handoff time

At handoff, an outgoing club treasurer should hand the incoming treasurer the EIN, online banking access, the last three years of filed 990s or 990-N confirmations, current bank statements, and a written list of any outstanding bills or reimbursements owed. Skipping this step is the single biggest reason new treasurers spend their first month in a panic. Before handing off, pull up the organization in TEOS ^[1] and confirm the filing history matches what you think it is. If TEOS shows "Auto-Revoked" or shows gaps in filing years, flag it now, not six months from now when someone tries to open a new bank account and the bank asks for a determination letter that no longer exists. A good handoff packet includes: the EIN, a copy of the IRS determination letter (or reinstatement letter, if the group was ever revoked and reinstated), the last three 990-N confirmations or 990/990-EZ PDFs, current bank statements, any state charity registration numbers, and login credentials for banking and any accounting software. If your organization doesn't have this compiled, building it is worth doing before you need it, not after. A State-Personalized Treasurer Kit ($99 one-time) walks through assembling exactly this packet for your state, though a shoebox and an afternoon works too if you're patient.

what do treasurers do when the organization gets auto-revoked

When TEOS shows an organization as auto-revoked, the treasurer's job is to confirm the revocation date, figure out which reinstatement path applies, and file the required forms and fee with the IRS. Auto-revocation happens automatically after three consecutive years of missing the required annual filing, under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j)(1) ^[4]. The IRS publishes retroactive reinstatement procedures in Revenue Procedure 2014-11, which lays out four streamlined and full paths depending on which form the organization should have filed and how quickly it applies after revocation ^[5]. Small organizations eligible to file 990-N or 990-EZ that apply for reinstatement within 15 months of the revocation notice can generally use the streamlined process. Organizations applying later, or those that should have filed a full 990, face fuller documentation requirements. Reinstatement requires filing Form 1023 or Form 1023-EZ (for 501(c)(3) organizations) along with the applicable user fee, which the IRS updates periodically; confirm the current fee schedule with the IRS before filing. This is also the point where many small clubs decide it's worth paying a bookkeeper or CPA for a few hours of help, even though nothing about the reinstatement process legally requires professional help.

how do you know your organization needs to file a 990-N versus a full 990

$50,000 or less	any	990-N
Under $200,000	Under $500,000	990-EZ (or full 990)
$200,000 or more, OR	$500,000 or more	Full Form 990
Private foundation	any	Form 990-PF	Source: IRS, "Annual Exempt Organization Returns: Who Must File" . One wrinkle new treasurers miss: "normally" means averaged over multiple years, so a single big fundraising year doesn't automatically bump you into a higher filing tier, and a single lean year doesn't drop you down either. If you're near a threshold, check the IRS guidance directly or ask an accountant, since misfiling the wrong form can create its own cleanup headache later. See 990 tax form and irs form 990 for more on picking the right version.

You know which form to file based on average annual gross receipts over the most recent three years. Organizations normally averaging $50,000 or less file the 990-N. Organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000 can file the simpler 990-EZ instead of the full 990. Everyone above that files the full Form 990, and private foundations file 990-PF regardless of size . Here's the threshold table: | Gross receipts (normally) | Total assets | Form required |

can the public see 990-N filings, and what shows up in a search

The public can confirm that a 990-N was filed and for which tax year, but they can't see financial figures, because the 990-N form itself doesn't collect that data. TEOS search results for a 990-N filer typically show the organization's name, EIN, tax year, and filing status only ^[1]. This is different from full Form 990 and 990-EZ filings, which TEOS makes available as actual PDFs going back several years, and which sites like ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer also mirror with searchable financial detail pulled from those filings . If a nonprofit files a 990-N, there's simply no equivalent document with dollar amounts to display publicly, because none was ever required. So if a parent or reporter asks "how much money does this booster club actually have," and the club only files a 990-N, the honest answer is that the public record won't tell them. Only the organization's own internal books (or a full 990/990-EZ, if they file one voluntarily above the 990-N threshold) would show that.

what if the organization's name doesn't show up in a 990-N search at all

If a name search in TEOS turns up nothing, first try the EIN instead of the name, since name variations (abbreviations, "Inc." vs no suffix, old DBA names) cause more missed matches than actual missing filings. If the EIN also comes up empty, the organization may never have applied for tax-exempt status in the first place, may be too newly formed for the filing to have processed yet, or may have been revoked and removed from active-status lists. TEOS updates on a lag; the IRS states data is refreshed periodically and filings can take time to appear after submission ^[1]. Don't panic over a filing that was submitted last month and still isn't showing. Give it a filing cycle before assuming something's wrong. If you genuinely can't find any EIN or exemption record for an organization that's been operating for years collecting dues or donations, that's worth investigating separately; it may mean the group has been operating as an unincorporated association without ever securing federal tax-exempt recognition, which has its own set of state and federal implications outside the scope of a filing search.

what does a treasurer do that isn't about the IRS at all

Most of a treasurer's actual weekly time goes to things TEOS and the IRS never see: reconciling bank statements, tracking concession stand cash, following up on unpaid dues, and keeping receipts organized so nothing gets lost between board meetings. The 990-N is a five-minute annual task; the bookkeeping underneath it is the year-round job. Good internal controls matter more day-to-day than the federal filing does, honestly. Two people counting cash boxes, a second signature on checks above some threshold, monthly bank reconciliation, a simple spreadsheet or ledger anyone could pick up mid-year. None of that shows up on TEOS, but all of it determines whether the 990-N you eventually file is even accurate. For a full breakdown of what belongs in this year-round job description, see ^[990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) for filing basics and check your state charity office's guidance for any separate charitable solicitation registration your organization might owe on top of the federal filing.

Frequently asked questions

What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer manages an organization's money: tracking deposits and expenses, reconciling bank accounts, paying bills, and making sure required filings like the IRS 990-N happen on time. In clubs and PTOs, this is usually a volunteer job with no accounting staff, so the treasurer also does the bookkeeping personally rather than overseeing a team that does it.

What is a treasurer?

A treasurer is the officer of an organization responsible for its finances, typically elected or appointed under the group's bylaws. The role covers custody of funds, financial recordkeeping, and reporting to the board or membership, plus compliance tasks like annual IRS filings and any required state charity registration.

What do treasurers do at a booster club or PTO specifically?

They deposit fundraiser proceeds and dues, pay vendors and reimbursements, keep a monthly reconciled ledger, and file the organization's annual IRS return (usually Form 990-N for groups under $50,000 in gross receipts). Many also manage a concession cash box, track uniform or trip payments per family, and prepare a year-end report for the group.

What is Form 990?

Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, reporting revenue, expenses, and governance. It scales by size: Form 990-N for organizations normally under $50,000 in gross receipts, 990-EZ for mid-size groups, the full Form 990 for larger organizations, and 990-PF for private foundations.

What is a 990 tax form?

A 990 tax form is any version of the IRS annual information return required of most tax-exempt organizations, not an income tax return. It reports financial activity and organizational details so the IRS and public can confirm the group is still operating consistently with its tax-exempt purpose.

What is the 990-N and who has to file it?

The 990-N (e-Postcard) is an eight-question online filing for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's filed electronically through the IRS website and asks for basic identifying information only, no financial detail beyond confirming the receipts threshold.

Where can I search 990-N filings for free?

Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) at apps.irs.gov/app/eos. Search by organization name or EIN. Results show filing status and tax year for 990-N filers; full 990 and 990-EZ filers additionally get a downloadable PDF.

Can I see the dollar amounts in someone's 990-N filing?

No. The 990-N form doesn't collect financial figures, only identifying information and confirmation that gross receipts are under the threshold. If you need dollar amounts for a small nonprofit, the public record won't have them unless the group voluntarily files a fuller 990 or 990-EZ.

What happens if a nonprofit misses three years of 990-N filings?

The IRS automatically revokes its tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j)(1) after three consecutive missed annual filings. Reinstatement requires filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ plus the applicable fee, following procedures in Revenue Procedure 2014-11, and donations made during the revoked period may not be tax-deductible.

How is a 990-N different from a 990-EZ?

The 990-N is an eight-question online notice for organizations normally under $50,000 in gross receipts, with no financial detail collected. The 990-EZ is a fuller paper or e-filed return for organizations under $200,000 in gross receipts and $500,000 in total assets, including actual income and expense figures.

Why doesn't my organization show up when I search TEOS?

Try searching by EIN instead of name, since spelling and suffix variations cause most missed matches. If the EIN still doesn't appear, the filing may not have processed yet (TEOS updates on a lag), the organization may never have secured tax-exempt recognition, or it may have been removed after revocation.

What does a club treasurer do differently from a company treasurer?

A club treasurer runs a much smaller, cash-heavier operation, usually solo with no finance staff or software budget, handling a checking account, cash boxes, and simple dues tracking. The underlying duty, accurate money tracking and required filings, is the same, but the tools, formality, and typical dollar amounts differ sharply.

Is filing a 990-N considered a tax return?

It's technically an information return, not an income tax return, since most 990-N filers owe no income tax on their exempt activities. The filing exists so the IRS can confirm the organization is still active and within the small-organization threshold, not to calculate a tax bill.

Sources

1. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS): free public search tool for organization filing status, EIN and name search, 990-N filing confirmation
2. IRS, About Form 990: Form 990 is the annual information return required of most tax-exempt organizations
3. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): 990-N eligibility threshold of $50,000 or less in gross receipts, eight required data items, filing deadline of 15th day of 5th month after tax year end
4. 26 U.S.C. § 6033(j): automatic revocation of tax-exempt status after three consecutive years of failing to file required annual returns
5. IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: streamlined and standard procedures for retroactive reinstatement of tax-exempt status after automatic revocation