Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
Form 990-N (the e-Postcard) is the annual IRS filing for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts of $50,000 or less. It's due the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends, filed free at irs.gov, and takes about 10 minutes. Miss it three years running and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status.
What is Form 990-N (the e-Postcard)?
Form 990-N is the shortest, simplest version of the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. The IRS calls it the "e-Postcard," and that's not marketing spin, it really is that small. You're confirming eight pieces of information: your EIN, tax year, legal name and address, any other names you use, your website if you have one, the name and address of a principal officer, and confirmation that your gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less [1]. There's no financial statement, no line-by-line budget, no attachments. If your booster club or PTO brought in less than $50,000 this year (averaged over your last three years, more on that below), this is almost certainly your filing. Compare that to the Form 990 and Form 990-EZ, which require actual financial statements and are for bigger organizations. Most small booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues fall into 990-N territory. If your group runs a big annual gala, a car wash empire, or has a paid coach on staff pulling in real money, you may have crossed into 990-EZ or full 990 territory instead. Check your last three years of gross receipts before assuming 990-N applies to you.
What does a treasurer do (and why does 990-N filing fall on them)?
A treasurer is the person responsible for an organization's money: tracking it, reporting it, and making sure the group stays compliant with tax and state rules. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer usually handles the bank account, reimbursements, fundraising deposits, and the annual IRS filing. It's a volunteer job in the vast majority of these groups, and it's often handed off from one parent to another with a shoebox of receipts and not much else. What does a treasurer do in a club, day to day? Reconcile the bank statement monthly, approve or process reimbursements, keep a running ledger of income and expenses, and prepare (or hand off to the board) financial reports for meetings. What does a club treasurer do that's specific to nonprofits? File the annual 990-series return, track whether the group still qualifies as tax-exempt, and flag any state raffle or charitable solicitation registration that's coming due. So what does a treasurer of a club do that a regular bookkeeper wouldn't? The nonprofit compliance layer. A for-profit business bookkeeper doesn't worry about IRS auto-revocation or state charity registration. A booster club treasurer does, because the group's tax-exempt status and its ability to accept tax-deductible donations depend on it. If you just inherited this role, the 990-N filing should be one of the first things you check on your calendar, right alongside your bank reconciliation.
Who has to file Form 990-N?
Most tax-exempt organizations recognized under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c) must file some version of Form 990 every year, and 990-N is the version for the smallest ones. The IRS threshold is gross receipts "normally $50,000 or less" [1]. "Normally" is a specific IRS term, not a vague guideline: it means the average of your gross receipts over the current year and the two years before it. A few groups don't file 990-N at all. Churches and certain church-affiliated organizations are generally exempt from the annual filing requirement altogether [2]. Private foundations file a different form (990-PF) regardless of size. And organizations included in a group return filed by a parent organization (some national booster or PTA/PTO affiliates work this way) may be covered under that umbrella instead of filing separately, though local chapters should confirm this with their national organization and the IRS. One trap for new treasurers: gross receipts means gross, not net. If your fall fundraiser brought in $60,000 in ticket and merchandise sales but you only netted $15,000 after expenses, your gross receipts for this test are $60,000, not $15,000. That single event could push you out of 990-N eligibility and into 990-EZ territory. Pull your last three years of bank deposits before you assume you're safe.
What is the 990 tax form, and how is 990-N different?
| 990-N (e-Postcard) | Smallest orgs | Normally $50,000 or less [1] | 8 data fields, online only, ~10 minutes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 990-EZ | Small/mid orgs | Under $200,000 AND total assets under $500,000 [3] | Financial summary, several schedules | |
| 990 (full) | Larger orgs | $200,000+ or assets $500,000+ [3] | Full financial statements, governance disclosures | |
| 990-PF | Private foundations | Any amount | Full form regardless of size | See the full breakdown of thresholds and schedules on our 990 tax form page and the general irs form 990 overview. If you're not sure which bucket you're in, look at your last three years of gross receipts (not net) and your current total assets. When in doubt, many small-org treasurers file the next form up rather than risk guessing wrong, since 990-EZ isn't dramatically harder than 990-N and gives you a paper trail with more detail. |
"Form 990" is the umbrella name for a family of annual information returns tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. There isn't one single "990 tax form," there are four main variants sized to the organization's revenue and assets, and choosing the wrong one is a common new-treasurer mistake. | Form | Who files it | Gross receipts | Filing complexity |
When is the 990-N deadline, and what happens if I miss it?
Form 990-N is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after the end of your organization's tax (fiscal) year [1]. For a booster club running on a calendar year (January to December), that's May 15 of the following year. For a group on a July-to-June school-year fiscal year, that's November 15. There's technically no monetary penalty for filing 990-N late in a given year, unlike the late-filing penalties attached to the 990 and 990-EZ. But the real danger isn't a fine, it's automatic revocation. The IRS states plainly that organizations failing to file for three consecutive years will lose their exemption automatically. That's not a warning letter and a grace period. It's automatic, and it applies even to 990-N filers who never owed a dime [4]. Here's the part that surprises people: there's no extension available for Form 990-N [1]. You can't file Form 8868 to buy more time the way 990 and 990-EZ filers can. If you're late, you're late; just file it as soon as you remember, and it'll be marked late but at least it stops the revocation clock from advancing toward that third consecutive miss.
How do I actually file Form 990-N?
Filing 990-N is done entirely online through the IRS's Form 990-N Electronic Filing System (e-Postcard), accessible from irs.gov [1]. There's no paper option. You'll need your organization's EIN, confirmation of your tax year, legal name and mailing address, any alternate names ('doing business as'), your website URL if applicable, name and address of a principal officer, and a statement that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less. Most treasurers who've done it before will tell you it takes 10 to 15 minutes if you have your EIN and prior-year info handy. The first-timer trap is not remembering the group's EIN, or discovering the organization was never actually registered with the IRS the way everyone assumed. If you're taking over as treasurer and can't find a copy of a past 990-N confirmation or your EIN, search the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool before you panic, it will show you the organization's filing history and current status [5]. Keep a copy (screenshot or saved confirmation) of every year's submission. The IRS doesn't mail you a stamped receipt the way old paper filings worked, so your own records are what you'll show a new board member, an auditor, or a bank asking to verify your status.
How do I know if my organization already lost its tax-exempt status?
Check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which lists organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years [5]. Search your organization's name or EIN. If it shows up on the Auto-Revocation List, your 501(c)(3) status is gone as of the revocation date shown, even if nobody ever told you directly. This catches a lot of booster clubs and PTOs completely off guard, especially after a treasurer handoff where nobody flagged the filing. The IRS doesn't send a certified letter with red flags on it. Groups often find out the hard way, when a bank asks for a determination letter, a school district asks for proof of nonprofit status before allowing a fundraiser, or a donor asks for a receipt and someone finally checks the IRS database. If you're newly on this list, don't panic, but don't ignore it either. Reinstatement requires filing a new exemption application (Form 1023 or 1023-EZ for many small orgs) and paying the associated user fee, and the IRS has a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process, described in Revenue Procedure 2014-11, for organizations that were eligible to file 990-N or 990-EZ and apply within 15 months of revocation [6]. Fee amounts change from year to year, so confirm the current Form 1023-EZ user fee directly on the IRS's Form 1023-EZ instructions page before you budget for it [7].
What is Form 990, and does a small booster club ever need the full version?
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, and the full version (not 990-N or 990-EZ) is required once an organization's gross receipts reach $200,000 or its total assets reach $500,000 [3]. It requires a full accounting of revenue, expenses, compensation for top employees, and governance details like board composition and conflict-of-interest policies. Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues never get here. But it happens: a district-wide booster association running multiple sports, a PTO managing a large before/after-school program, or a league that owns real property (a clubhouse, equipment trailers, a field lease) can cross the asset threshold even with modest annual revenue. If your total assets, more than your income, are climbing toward $500,000, start planning for a 990 or 990-EZ filing conversation with a qualified preparer, not another 990-N. The practical guidance: check both numbers every year, gross receipts and total assets, more than the one you remember. A group that stays small on income but accumulates equipment, a reserve fund, or a building fund can trip the assets threshold quietly.
What records does a treasurer need before filing?
Before you sit down to file 990-N, gather your EIN, your fiscal year start and end dates, your organization's legal name exactly as registered, any alternate name the group uses publicly, your principal officer's name and mailing address, and a rough total of gross receipts for the year (even though 990-N doesn't ask for a dollar figure, you need to know you're under $50,000 average). This is also the moment to reconcile your bank statements against your ledger for the year, since a filing that says "we're under $50,000" should match what your books actually show. If you're stepping into the treasurer role mid-year with incomplete records, that's a bigger problem than the 990-N itself, and it's worth reading up on 990-N specifics and the broader [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) filing family so you understand what you're inheriting. This is also where a lot of small groups quietly go wrong: nobody keeps a master file of the EIN, prior filings, and bylaws, and each new treasurer starts from zero. A State-Personalized Treasurer Kit ($99 one-time) is built to hand a new treasurer exactly this, the state-specific compliance checklist and templates, so the 990-N deadline and the state charity registration renewal aren't things you rediscover in a panic every spring.
What if my booster club has never filed anything with the IRS?
If you can't find any EIN, any prior 990-N filing, or any IRS determination letter for your organization, you may be dealing with a group that was never formally recognized as tax-exempt, even if it's operated like one for years. This is common with informal booster clubs that started as a handful of parents collecting cash at games. First step: get an EIN if you don't have one, which is free and done directly through irs.gov, not through a third-party site that charges a fee for it. Second step: determine whether the group needs to formally apply for 501(c)(3) or another exemption category using Form 1023 or 1023-EZ, or whether it should operate under a fiscal sponsor (often the school itself, or a national booster/PTA affiliate) instead of pursuing its own exemption. Confirm the right path with the IRS and, since charitable status often intersects with state rules too, your state charity office or attorney general's office. This is genuinely one of the messier situations a new volunteer treasurer can inherit, and it's worth being honest that there's no shortcut. A qualified nonprofit attorney or accountant familiar with small exempt organizations is worth a consultation fee here, even for a volunteer-run group, because getting the entity structure wrong at the start creates years of downstream filing headaches.
State filings: does 990-N cover everything?
No. Form 990-N satisfies your federal IRS filing requirement, but most states also require separate registration and annual renewal for charitable organizations, and some require registration before you run a raffle or other charitable gaming event. These are two completely different systems run by different agencies. Your state's charity regulator, usually housed in the attorney general's office or secretary of state, sets its own registration thresholds, renewal fees, and forms, and they don't automatically know you filed a 990-N with the IRS. Some states exempt very small organizations from charitable solicitation registration; others don't. Confirm the specific rules with your state charity office or attorney general, since they vary by state and change over time. If your group runs raffles, bingo, or similar games as a fundraiser, that's usually a separate state (sometimes county or municipal) license entirely, on top of both the federal 990-N and any state charity registration. Don't assume one filing covers you everywhere.
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do in a booster club or PTO?
A treasurer manages the organization's money: tracking income and expenses, reconciling the bank account monthly, processing reimbursements, presenting financial reports to the board, and handling the annual IRS 990-series filing plus any required state charity or raffle registration. In most booster clubs and PTOs this is an unpaid volunteer role handed off year to year.
What is Form 990-N and who needs to file it?
Form 990-N, the e-Postcard, is the IRS annual information return for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less [1]. It's filed free online at irs.gov, takes about 10 minutes, and requires only basic identifying information, no financial statements.
What is the deadline for filing Form 990-N?
Form 990-N is due the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's fiscal year ends [1]. For a calendar-year group, that's May 15. There's no extension option for 990-N, unlike the full 990 or 990-EZ, so file as close to on-time as possible.
What happens if we miss the 990-N deadline?
There's no direct monetary penalty for a single late 990-N. But the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status for any organization that fails to file a required return for three consecutive years [4]. File as soon as you remember, even late, to reset that clock.
How do I check if our organization already lost its tax-exempt status?
Search your organization's name or EIN in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which includes the Auto-Revocation List [5]. If listed, your exemption ended on the date shown even if no one at your organization was ever notified directly.
What's the difference between Form 990-N, 990-EZ, and full Form 990?
990-N is for gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. 990-EZ generally applies when gross receipts are under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000. The full Form 990 applies once either threshold is exceeded [3]. Higher forms require actual financial statements, more than identifying information.
Is there a fee to file Form 990-N?
No, filing Form 990-N through the IRS e-Postcard system at irs.gov is free [1]. Be cautious of third-party websites that charge a fee to "file" it for you; the official IRS system has no filing cost.
Does gross receipts mean net income after expenses?
No. Gross receipts means total money received before subtracting expenses. A fundraiser that brought in $60,000 in sales but netted $15,000 after costs still counts as $60,000 in gross receipts for the 990-N threshold test, which could push your organization into 990-EZ territory instead.
What is a 990 tax form used for exactly?
It's the family name for the IRS's annual information returns that tax-exempt organizations file to report their activities, finances, and governance to the government and the public. It's an information return, not an income tax bill; most small exempt organizations owe no tax with it, but must still file to keep their status.
Do churches need to file Form 990-N?
Generally no. Churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches are not required to file annual Form 990-series returns, though they may choose to for transparency purposes. Confirm your organization's specific classification with the IRS if you're unsure whether this exception applies.
Can a new treasurer file 990-N without an accountant?
Yes, in most cases. Form 990-N asks for basic identifying information only, no financial statements, so most volunteer treasurers can file it themselves at irs.gov in about 10 to 15 minutes once they have the EIN and prior-year details. More complex situations, like uncertain exempt status, still warrant professional help.
What do I do if I can't find our organization's EIN or past filings?
Search the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool by organization name to check registration and filing history [5]. If nothing turns up, the group may never have been formally recognized as tax-exempt, and you may need to apply for an EIN and possibly file Form 1023 or 1023-EZ; confirm the right path with the IRS.
Does filing Form 990-N also cover state charity registration requirements?
No. Form 990-N only satisfies the federal IRS requirement. Most states run separate charitable solicitation registration and, for raffles or gaming, separate licensing, through the attorney general's office or a state charity regulator. Confirm requirements with your specific state charity office since rules vary and change.
Sources
- IRS, "Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations, Form 990-N (e-Postcard)": 990-N filing requirements, $50,000 gross receipts threshold, deadline formula, no extension, filed online only
- IRS, "Annual Filing and Forms": Churches and certain church-affiliated organizations are generally exempt from annual filing requirements
- IRS, "Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File": 990-EZ and full Form 990 gross receipts and total assets thresholds
- IRS, "Automatic Revocation of Exemption": Organizations that fail to file for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status
- IRS, "Tax Exempt Organization Search": Tool to check filing history and Auto-Revocation List status by organization name or EIN
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11 (Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement): Streamlined retroactive reinstatement process available for eligible small organizations after revocation within 15 months
- IRS, "Instructions for Form 1023-EZ": Form 1023-EZ user fee amount, subject to change, verify current figure
- 26 U.S.C. Section 6033 (Returns by exempt organizations): Statutory basis for annual information return filing requirements for tax-exempt organizations, including the small-organization notice provision underlying Form 990-N