Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
The tax return 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from tax-exempt organizations. Most small booster clubs and PTOs file the 990-N postcard if gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less [1]. Miss it three years running and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status, no warning letter required [2].
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS uses to track tax-exempt organizations. It isn't an income tax return in the way individuals think of one. Your club almost certainly owes no tax. The 990 exists so the IRS (and the public) can see what a nonprofit brought in, spent, and paid its officers, if it pays anyone at all. There are four flavors, and which one you file depends entirely on money. The IRS explains it plainly: organizations "whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" file the 990-N, a simple electronic postcard with almost no financial detail [1]. Bigger organizations file the full 990 or the shorter 990-EZ, and private foundations file a 990-PF, which almost never applies to a booster club or PTO. Here's the thing new treasurers get wrong constantly: even if your bank account never crosses five figures, you still have to file something every single year. There is no exemption from filing just because you're small. The 990-N takes about ten minutes online through the IRS's e-Postcard system once you have your EIN and basic org info [1].
What is the 990 tax form used for?
It's a public accountability document, not a revenue collection tool. The IRS uses it to confirm your organization still qualifies for exemption under section 501(c)(3) or whatever subsection you were granted, and the public (donors, grant funders, journalists, nosy parents) can pull your 990 through free databases to see how you spend money. GuideStar/Candid and the IRS's own Tax Exempt Organization Search let anyone look up your filings [2]. If your booster club has ever had a parent ask "where does the money actually go," the honest answer is: it's supposed to be on your 990, and if you're 990-N eligible, it's barely detailed at all, which is exactly why some clubs choose to file the more detailed 990-EZ voluntarily even when they don't have to. The form also flags red flags for the IRS: unusual compensation, loans to officers, big swings in revenue. For a five-figure booster club budget, none of that usually applies. But the form still exists to catch the organizations where it does.
Which 990 does my booster club or PTO actually file?
| Gross receipts normally $50,000 or less | 990-N (e-Postcard) [1] | 10-15 minutes online | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross receipts under $200,000 AND total assets under $500,000 | 990-EZ [3] | A few hours, basic bookkeeping needed | |
| Gross receipts $200,000+ OR total assets $500,000+ | Form 990 (full) [3] | Best done with an accountant | |
| Private foundation (rare for boosters/PTOs) | 990-PF | Accountant strongly recommended | "Normally" is the key word for the 990-N threshold. The IRS averages your receipts over the current year and the two years before it, so one unusually big fundraiser year doesn't automatically bump you into 990-EZ territory if your average stays under $50,000 [1]. If you're right on the line, it's worth confirming with the IRS or a tax preparer familiar with nonprofits before you assume you're 990-N eligible. Most single-school booster clubs and small PTOs land in the 990-N category. A PTO running a $150,000 annual fall festival and spring gala combo, though, is squarely in 990-EZ territory and needs real bookkeeping behind it, not a shoebox of receipts. |
Match your gross receipts and total assets to the right form. Get this wrong and you either waste hours on paperwork you didn't need, or you underfile and risk penalties. | Your situation | Form to file | Approx. effort |
What does a treasurer do?
The treasurer is the person legally and practically responsible for the organization's money: tracking it, reporting it, and making sure the group files what it owes the IRS and the state. In a booster club or PTO, that usually means keeping the checkbook, reconciling the bank statement monthly, presenting a budget report at meetings, and filing (or making sure someone files) the annual 990. It's a bigger job than most volunteers expect walking in. You're more than paying invoices. You're the one who notices the club hasn't filed a 990 in two years, or that nobody registered the raffle with the state, or that the outgoing treasurer left you a Google Sheet with no bank reconciliations. Nobody teaches this in a PTA welcome packet. You learn it by doing it, usually under deadline pressure.
What is a treasurer, exactly, and what do treasurers do day to day?
A treasurer is the officer accountable for an organization's finances, elected or appointed under the bylaws, and typically the person whose name is on the bank account and on IRS filings. What treasurers do day to day is less glamorous than the title suggests: reconcile the checking account against the bank statement every month, log every deposit and expense with a receipt or invoice attached, and keep a running total against the approved budget. Monthly, a treasurer usually reports a simple income-and-expense summary to the board or membership. Annually, the job shifts to compliance: filing the 990-N or 990-EZ, renewing any state charitable solicitation registration, and checking whether the club's raffle or bingo license (if it runs one) needs a fresh application. If the club has employees or pays 1099 contractors, add quarterly payroll tax deposits and year-end 1099 filings to that list too, though most boosters and PTOs are volunteer-run and skip this entirely. The job also includes things nobody writes down: knowing where the checkbook physically is, having the EIN memorized or at least written somewhere findable, and being the one who says "we can't spend that" when enthusiasm outruns the budget.
What does a club treasurer do that's different from a company bookkeeper?
A club treasurer wears more hats with less support. A company bookkeeper usually has software, an accountant on retainer, and a boss checking their work. A booster club treasurer often has a shared spreadsheet, a shoebox of receipts from three coaches, and a one-year term before handing it all to someone new who's never done this before. The stakes are also different in a specific way: club treasurers are personally the point of contact if the IRS auto-revokes the group's tax-exempt status, and they're usually the one explaining to a room of frustrated parents why the club suddenly owes tax on donations it thought were tax-free. That's not a company bookkeeper's problem to own alone. What does a treasurer of a club do that a corporate one doesn't? Mostly: run the raffle cash box at a Friday night football game, count concession stand money at 10pm, and still show up Monday to file the 990-N before the fiscal year deadline creeps up. It's part accounting, part crowd control.
When is the Form 990 due?
Your 990, in whatever version, is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's accounting period ends [4]. For a booster club or PTO running on a calendar year (January to December), that's May 15. For groups running a July-to-June fiscal year, common for school-affiliated organizations, the deadline is November 15. Miss the deadline and you can file Form 8868 for an automatic 6-month extension, no explanation required, before the original due date [4]. That moves a May 15 deadline to November 15. It's free and it's automatic; there's no reason not to file it if you're going to be late anyway. The deadline sneaks up on volunteer treasurers specifically because fiscal years tied to a school calendar don't match the calendar year most people think in. Write your actual due date on a physical calendar, more than a mental note, the day you take over the books.
What happens if a booster club or PTO doesn't file the 990?
Miss three consecutive years and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status. No warning letter, no phone call. The IRS states it directly: "Organizations that fail to file required Form 990-series returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status" and the revocation is effective as of the filing due date of the third missed year [5]. That's the scenario that ends up in most treasurers' inboxes as a surprise. You inherit a club, check the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool, and discover the group has been sitting on the Auto-Revocation List for two years because the previous three treasurers each assumed someone else was filing. Once revoked, the organization becomes a taxable entity. Donations made after revocation may not be tax-deductible to donors, and the organization itself could owe federal income tax on revenue it never expected to pay tax on. Reinstatement is possible but it's a real project: Revenue Procedure 2014-11 lays out streamlined retroactive reinstatement for small organizations that file within 15 months of revocation, using Form 1023 or 1023-EZ along with the required 990s [6]. Miss that 15-month window and the process gets more expensive and more paperwork-heavy.
How do I check if my organization's tax-exempt status is already revoked?
Search your organization's name or EIN in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool . It's free, takes under a minute, and shows current exempt status plus a filed-990 history going back several years. If your club shows up on the Auto-Revocation List inside that same tool, your status is already gone, and you're working a reinstatement problem, more than a late-filing problem. This is the very first thing a new treasurer should do, before touching the checkbook. If the club is fine, you've lost five minutes. If it's revoked, you just found out early enough to fix it calmly instead of during a parent meeting where someone asks why the raffle prize isn't tax-deductible.
Does a small booster club really need to file anything if it has no money?
Yes. There is no minimum-income exception to the filing requirement. Even a club with $200 in the bank and one bake sale a year files the 990-N every year, because the requirement is based on tax-exempt status, not on activity level. The IRS's own guidance says organizations "normally" under $50,000 in gross receipts "generally" file the 990-N unless they choose to file the 990 or 990-EZ instead [1]. The only real exceptions are certain church-related organizations and a few other narrow categories the IRS lists separately; most booster clubs and PTOs don't qualify for any of those exceptions. If you're not sure whether your group is one of the rare exceptions, that's worth confirming directly with the IRS or a nonprofit-specialist preparer rather than guessing.
What information goes on the 990-N versus the full 990?
The 990-N is genuinely tiny: legal name, any other names used, mailing address, website if you have one, EIN, tax year, confirmation that gross receipts are still $50,000 or under, and a statement confirming the organization hasn't terminated [1]. That's it. No financial statements, no board list, no program description required. The full Form 990 and the 990-EZ ask for real financial detail: revenue by source, expenses by function, a balance sheet, compensation for officers and key employees, and, for the full 990, governance questions about conflict-of-interest policies and whistleblower protections [3]. This is public information once filed. Anyone can look it up. That gap between the postcard and the full form is exactly why some small nonprofits voluntarily file the 990-EZ even though they qualify for the 990-N: donors and grant committees sometimes want to see actual numbers, and a bare 990-N doesn't give them any.
Where do I actually file the 990 or 990-N?
The 990-N is filed electronically only, through the IRS's dedicated e-Postcard portal linked from the Form 990-N page [1]. The full 990 and 990-EZ are also required to be e-filed for most organizations now, following the mandate under the Taxpayer First Act, using IRS-authorized e-file providers rather than paper forms . There's no fee to file any version of the 990 with the IRS itself. If you use paid tax software or a preparer, that's where the cost comes in, not from the IRS. Budget accordingly: a simple 990-N costs you time, not money; a full 990 prepared by an accountant for a mid-size PTO can run several hundred dollars depending on your area and the preparer. A related but separate step: many states also require a charitable registration or annual report from nonprofits soliciting donations in that state, filed with the state charity office or attorney general, not the IRS. That's a different deadline and a different form, and it's easy to file your federal 990 correctly while completely missing a state renewal. Confirm with your state charity office or attorney general whether your club needs a separate state filing.
How does this connect to raffle licensing and state reporting?
If your booster club runs a raffle, that's usually a separate state-level requirement layered on top of your federal 990 filing, and the two get confused constantly by new treasurers. The 990 goes to the IRS and reports your organization's overall finances for the year. A raffle license, where required, is issued by a state agency, often the state's charity/gaming regulator or the attorney general's office, and it typically comes with its own reporting requirement after the raffle ends, showing gross receipts, prizes awarded, and expenses. Rules vary enormously by state: some states exempt small nonprofit raffles under a certain dollar threshold entirely, others require a license application weeks in advance and a post-event financial report. None of this is standardized nationally, so confirm the exact threshold and process with your state's charity office or attorney general before you sell a single ticket. Building a raffle income line into your books correctly also matters for your 990, since raffle proceeds count toward the gross receipts figure that determines which 990 version you file in the first place.
What should a new treasurer do in the first month on the job?
Check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool first, before anything else, to confirm current status and see the filing history . If the group is on the revocation list, that becomes priority one, ahead of budgets, ahead of fundraiser planning. Second, find the EIN and confirm which fiscal year the organization actually uses; don't assume calendar year just because that's how most people think. Third, pull the last three years of filed 990s if they exist, because they'll show you exactly what gross receipts have looked like and which form you should be filing going forward. Fourth, get access to the actual bank account and set up a reconciliation habit monthly, not annually. A lot of the 990 stress new treasurers feel comes from not having clean numbers, not from the form itself being hard. The 990-N itself takes ten minutes; finding accurate gross receipts after a year of loose recordkeeping can take a weekend. This is exactly the gap the $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: state-specific raffle and registration guidance plus a plain-English 990 checklist, so a new volunteer treasurer isn't reconstructing all of this from scratch under deadline pressure.
Where can a treasurer get more detail on the exact forms?
The IRS's own Form 990 series page is the authoritative source for which form applies to which size organization, and it's updated when thresholds change [3]. Read it directly rather than relying on secondhand summaries, including this one, before you file. For deeper background on the form itself, see our companion pieces on Form 990, the 990 tax form, and Form 990-N specifically, which each break down one piece of this in more depth. None of this replaces an accountant or the IRS's own guidance for a specific, unusual situation; treat it as a starting map, not a final answer.
Frequently asked questions
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations. It reports revenue, expenses, and governance details rather than calculating income tax owed, since most exempt organizations owe none. Small organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less file a short version called the 990-N instead of the full form.
What is the 990-N e-Postcard?
The 990-N is the simplest 990 version, filed electronically only, for organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less per year. It asks for basic identifying information (name, address, EIN, tax year) and confirmation the group is still operating, with no financial detail required, per IRS guidance.
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks an organization's money: recording deposits and expenses, reconciling the bank account monthly, reporting a budget summary to the board, and making sure required filings like the annual 990 and any state charity registration get submitted on time. In a booster club, they're also often the one holding the raffle cash box.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the elected or appointed officer legally responsible for an organization's finances, usually the person whose name is on the bank account and IRS filings. In small nonprofits like boosters and PTOs, the role covers bookkeeping, budgeting, and compliance filings, more than check-writing.
What does a club treasurer do differently from a corporate bookkeeper?
A club treasurer usually works without dedicated software or a supervising accountant, handles cash from events like concession stands and raffles directly, and is personally the point of contact if the IRS revokes the club's tax-exempt status for missed 990 filings. It's a hands-on, higher-stakes version of bookkeeping done by a volunteer.
What is a 990 tax form used for?
It's used to report a tax-exempt organization's annual finances to the IRS and to the public, confirming the organization still qualifies for exemption. Anyone can look up a filed 990 through the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool, making it a public accountability document as much as a tax filing.
Do PTOs and booster clubs have to file a 990 every year even with no income?
Yes, there is no minimum-income exception. Every tax-exempt organization files some version of the 990 annually, even one with almost no activity that year, unless it falls into a narrow exception category like certain church-affiliated groups. The 990-N takes about ten minutes and requires no financial figures.
What happens if a booster club misses three years of 990 filings?
The IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status after three consecutive missed years, with no advance warning letter, effective as of the third year's filing deadline. The organization then becomes taxable and donor contributions may no longer be tax-deductible until status is reinstated.
How do I check if our organization already lost its tax-exempt status?
Search your organization's name or EIN in the IRS's free Tax Exempt Organization Search tool. It shows current exempt status and, separately, an Auto-Revocation List you can check if the status search shows a problem. This should be the first thing any new treasurer checks.
When is the Form 990 due?
The 990 is due the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's fiscal year ends. Calendar-year organizations file by May 15. A free, automatic six-month extension is available via Form 8868, filed before the original due date, no explanation required.
Can a small nonprofit get its tax-exempt status back after auto-revocation?
Yes, through IRS reinstatement procedures. Organizations that apply within 15 months of revocation can use a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process under Revenue Procedure 2014-11, filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ along with required 990s. Waiting longer makes the process more complex and costly.
Does filing a 990-N cost anything?
No, the IRS charges no fee to file the 990-N, 990-EZ, or full Form 990 directly. Any cost comes from optional paid tax software or hiring a preparer or accountant, which is worth it for organizations filing the full 990 but usually unnecessary for a straightforward 990-N.
Is a 990 filing the same as a state raffle license report?
No, they're separate. The 990 goes to the IRS and covers your organization's overall annual finances. A raffle license and its post-event report, where required, go to your state's charity regulator or attorney general and cover just that specific raffle. Confirm requirements for both with the IRS and your state charity office.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): 990-N eligibility threshold of gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, and what data the postcard requires
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: automatic loss of tax-exempt status after three consecutive years of missed 990 filings
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: public search tool for checking an organization's exempt status and filing history
- IRS, Form 990 Series: Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: gross receipts and total asset thresholds distinguishing 990-N, 990-EZ, and full Form 990
- IRS, Form 8868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File: 990 due date of the 15th day of the 5th month after fiscal year end, and automatic 6-month extension
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11 (Streamlined retroactive reinstatement): streamlined retroactive reinstatement process for organizations applying within 15 months of automatic revocation