Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
990-N (the e-Postcard) is filed online only, directly at irs.gov, for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's free, takes about 10 minutes, and needs your EIN, legal name, mailing address, and tax year. Miss it three years running and the IRS revokes your exempt status automatically.
What is Form 990-N and who has to file it?
Form 990-N, nicknamed the e-Postcard, is the shortest annual information return the IRS offers to tax-exempt organizations. It exists for one reason: small nonprofits with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less still have to file something every year, and the IRS didn't want to make a group with a $3,000 concession-stand budget fill out a multi-page form. So they built an eight-question online form instead. The IRS is specific about the eligibility line. Per the agency's own guidance, "most small organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" are eligible to file the 990-N instead of Form 990 or 990-EZ [1]. "Normally" is doing real work in that sentence. It's based on a rolling average over your current and prior two years, not a strict single-year cutoff. A booster club that has a one-time $60,000 year from a big raffle might still qualify if its three-year average stays under the line. Confirm your organization's specific eligibility with the IRS if you're near that threshold. This matters for booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports groups because most of them live well under $50,000 in gross receipts most years. If that's you, 990-N is very likely your form. If you cross into $50,000 to $200,000 territory, you're probably looking at Form 990-EZ instead, and above $200,000 in receipts or $500,000 in total assets, the full Form 990 is required [2].
How do I file 990-N online?
You file 990-N entirely online at the IRS's e-Postcard filing system, reachable through irs.gov. There's no PDF, no mailed form, no third-party software required (though some are available for a fee). The whole process usually takes 10 minutes if you have your information ready. Here's what the IRS says you need before you start, straight from their 990-N filing page: your organization's Employer Identification Number (EIN), tax year, legal name and mailing address, any other names the organization uses, name and address of a principal officer, website address if you have one, confirmation that annual gross receipts are $50,000 or less, and a statement if the organization has terminated or is going out of business [1]. The actual filing steps are simple: 1. Go to the IRS 990-N e-Postcard system at irs.gov. 2. Create or sign in to your account (the IRS uses Login.gov for this). 3. Search for or enter your organization's EIN. 4. Confirm your organization's legal name, address, and tax year. 5. Answer the eight questions (gross receipts under threshold, website, principal officer, etc.). 6. Review and submit. 7. Save or screenshot the confirmation. This is your only proof of filing; there's no mailed receipt. That confirmation screen matters more than people expect. If your organization ever gets flagged for missing filings, or a new treasurer inherits the books with no paper trail, that confirmation (or a saved PDF of it) is the fastest way to prove you were compliant in a given year. Print it, save it to your shared drive, put it in the treasurer handoff binder. Don't rely on memory.
What is Form 990, and how is it different from 990-N?
| 990-N | Gross receipts normally ≤ $50,000 | 8 basic questions, online only, no financial detail | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 990-EZ | Gross receipts < $200,000 AND total assets < $500,000 | Summarized financial statements, several pages | |
| 990 (full) | Gross receipts ≥ $200,000 OR total assets ≥ $500,000 | Full financial statements, compensation, governance disclosures | |
| 990-PF | Private foundations (any size) | Full return regardless of receipts | These thresholds come directly from IRS instructions for the 990 series [2]. A regional swim club with $40,000 in annual dues and concession income files 990-N. A district-wide booster association running six-figure fundraising campaigns and paying a part-time bookkeeper is probably in 990-EZ or full 990 territory. If you're not sure which bucket you're in, run your last three years of gross receipts and check them against the table above before you file anything. See our breakdown of 990 tax form requirements for the EZ and full versions. |
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, the document that discloses an organization's finances, governance, and activities to the public. Think of it as the nonprofit world's version of a public financial statement. It's what most people mean when they ask "what is the 990" or "what is a 990 tax form." There are actually four versions, scaled to organization size, and 990-N is the smallest of the family: | Form | Who files it | What's required |
When is the 990-N deadline?
The 990-N is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's tax year ends. For a group running on the calendar year (January 1 to December 31, which covers most booster clubs and PTOs), that puts the deadline at May 15 of the following year [1]. If your fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30 instead (common for school-affiliated groups that align with the academic year), your 990-N is due November 15. Whatever your fiscal year is, count five months forward from the end date and land on the 15th. There's no extension option for 990-N specifically, though the IRS does allow extensions for organizations required to file the longer 990 or 990-EZ using Form 8868. Because 990-N is so short, most organizations just file it early rather than bother with any extension process. If you're a new treasurer and you don't know your organization's fiscal year end, check the bylaws or ask whoever held the role before you; it's usually printed right in the founding documents.
What happens if I file 990-N late, or don't file at all?
Filing 990-N late by itself doesn't trigger a monetary penalty; the IRS doesn't assess a late fee for a single missed e-Postcard the way it does for the longer 990 or 990-EZ forms. But there's a much bigger consequence lurking behind it. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j), an organization that fails to file its required annual return or notice for three consecutive years automatically loses its tax-exempt status, by operation of law, with no separate IRS notice or appeal required before it happens [3]. The IRS states plainly on its exempt organizations page: "Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, most tax-exempt organizations, other than churches, are required to file an annual return or notice with the IRS. Failure to file for three consecutive years results in automatic revocation of tax-exempt status" [4]. This is the single most common way small booster clubs and PTOs lose their exempt status. Nobody notices for years because nothing bad seems to happen right away; the group keeps running its car wash and its bake sale like normal. Then a bank asks for a determination letter, or a parent tries to claim a donation deduction and gets pushback, and someone discovers the organization has been sitting on the IRS's Auto-Revocation List since some point three-plus years back. Good news: if this happens to you, recovery is possible through retroactive reinstatement (Rev. Proc. 2014-11 lays out streamlined options for small organizations), but it takes paperwork, sometimes a filing fee, and time you'd rather not spend. Filing 990-N every single year, even in a year with almost no activity, is the cheapest insurance against this problem that exists in the nonprofit world.
What if my organization has never gotten IRS tax-exempt status in the first place?
This trips up a surprising number of booster clubs and youth sports groups. If your organization was never formally recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS under section 501(c)(3) or another exempt category, you can't file 990-N, because 990-N is only for organizations that already hold exempt status. Some booster clubs operate for years as informal parent groups, collecting dues and running fundraisers under a school's tax ID or with no clear legal structure at all. That's a real risk, more than a paperwork technicality. Without your own EIN and exempt determination, donations to your group generally aren't tax-deductible for donors, and you can't get your own bank account cleanly separated from the school's. If that's your situation, the fix starts with applying for an EIN from the IRS (free, done online) and then filing Form 1023 or the streamlined Form 1023-EZ for 501(c)(3) recognition, or checking whether your group is covered under a parent organization's group exemption. That's a separate, bigger project than this article covers. Confirm your specific path with the IRS and, if your state requires charitable registration, with your state attorney general's charity office before you fundraise publicly.
Can a bookkeeping service or software file 990-N for me?
Yes, but you don't need to pay for one. The IRS built the 990-N e-Postcard system specifically so small organizations could self-file for free, directly at irs.gov, without hiring anyone [1]. There is no filing fee charged by the IRS for 990-N under any circumstance. Third-party services exist that will walk you through the same eight questions for a fee, usually somewhere in the $20 to $50 range depending on the vendor, and some accountants will include it as part of a broader annual engagement. For an organization this small, that's rarely worth it unless you're already paying that accountant for other work, or you're so unsure of your EIN and filing history that you want someone else double-checking it. What is worth spending on, if anything, is getting your organization's records straight before you file: correct EIN, correct legal name matching IRS records, and a clear answer on your gross receipts for the year. Filing is the easy part. Knowing your own numbers is where most volunteer treasurers actually get stuck.
What does a treasurer do, and where does 990-N fit into the job?
A treasurer is the person responsible for an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping bank accounts reconciled, reporting the financial picture to the board or membership, and making sure the group meets its legal filing obligations. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, that's almost always a volunteer role, often handed off year to year with minimal training. What does a treasurer do in a club, in practice? The job usually breaks into four buckets: keeping accurate books (deposits, receipts, a simple ledger or spreadsheet), managing cash handling for fundraisers and events, reporting financial status at meetings, and handling compliance, which includes the annual 990-N or 990-EZ filing, any state charitable registration renewal, and sometimes a raffle license application. What does a club treasurer do that's different from a corporate bookkeeper? Mostly scale and structure. A club treasurer isn't managing payroll or complex accounting; they're managing dues, concession stand cash, fundraiser proceeds, and reimbursements, usually with volunteer help and often with a system inherited from three treasurers ago. The 990-N filing is one of the smallest tasks on that list time-wise (10 minutes) but one of the highest-consequence ones if skipped, because of the three-year auto-revocation rule covered above. What does a treasurer of a club do that a president or secretary doesn't? The clearest dividing line is signature authority and financial reporting. The treasurer usually signs checks (often with a second signer required), files the annual IRS return, and presents a financial report at each meeting. If your bylaws don't spell this out clearly, that's worth fixing at your next board meeting, because ambiguity here is exactly what causes filings to slip through the cracks when a treasurer changes over.
How do I know my EIN if I've lost track of it?
Your organization's EIN (Employer Identification Number) is the nine-digit number the IRS uses to identify your organization, and you need it to file 990-N. If a previous treasurer didn't hand it off cleanly, there are a few reliable ways to track it down. Check old bank statements or the original bank account paperwork; banks require an EIN to open a nonprofit account, so it's usually on file there. Check any past IRS correspondence, including old 990-N confirmation emails or a CP-575 confirmation letter from when the EIN was first assigned. You can also search the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which lists organizations by name and shows their EIN along with their current exempt status and any auto-revocation history [5]. If none of that works, you can call the IRS Exempt Organizations customer account services line, though hold times can run long during filing season. Whatever you do, don't apply for a brand new EIN just because you lost track of the old one; that creates a duplicate record and more confusion, not less.
What should a new treasurer check before filing anything?
If you just inherited the treasurer role and you're staring down a 990-N deadline, run through this short list before you file: - Confirm your EIN matches IRS records exactly (name and number both).
- Confirm your fiscal year end (calendar year or school year) so you know your real deadline.
- Pull your last three years of gross receipts to confirm you're actually eligible for 990-N and not 990-EZ.
- Check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool to see if your organization is currently listed as auto-revoked [5]. If it is, filing 990-N alone won't fix it; you'll need to go through reinstatement.
- Check whether your state also requires a separate charitable solicitation registration or annual report; the IRS 990-N filing is federal only and doesn't cover state-level nonprofit compliance. Confirm requirements with your state's charity registration office or attorney general. This is exactly the kind of scattered, one-time research that eats up a new volunteer treasurer's first month. A BoosterLedger $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit bundles this checklist with your specific state's charitable registration and raffle licensing requirements so you're not rebuilding it from scratch every time your board turns over.
Does my state also require a nonprofit filing separate from the IRS?
Almost certainly, yes, and this is the part most new treasurers miss entirely. The 990-N is a federal filing with the IRS. Most states run a completely separate charitable organization registration system, often through the attorney general's office or a secretary of state charities division, and it has its own deadlines, fees, and forms. Some states require annual renewal of a charitable solicitation registration regardless of whether you filed 990-N federally. Others tie their requirements to gross receipts thresholds similar to the IRS's, but not identically. The specifics vary enough state to state that there's no honest single answer here; confirm your state's requirement directly with your state charity registration office or attorney general's office before you assume a federal 990-N filing covers you completely. This is also the area where booster clubs most often get tripped up when they run a raffle: many states require a separate raffle or gaming license on top of standard charity registration, with its own application and fee. That's a distinct process from anything covered here.
Where do I actually go to file, and what does the confirmation look like?
You file at the IRS's dedicated 990-N e-Postcard portal, linked from the agency's main Form 990-N page at irs.gov [1]. As of recent filing cycles, the IRS routes 990-N filers through Login.gov to create an account before accessing the filing system, a change from the older system that used to run through a separate third-party site. Once you submit, you'll see an on-screen confirmation that your form was accepted (or rejected, with a reason, if something didn't match IRS records, most commonly a mismatched EIN or organization name). There is no mailed confirmation and no PDF automatically emailed to you in most cases, so take a screenshot or save the confirmation page as a PDF the moment you see it. Store that confirmation somewhere durable: a shared organizational drive, a physical binder that transfers with the treasurer role, or scanned into whatever record-keeping system your board uses. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool will eventually reflect your filing too, usually within a few months, and that's a good secondary place to verify a past year's filing actually went through if you ever lose the original confirmation [5].
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer manages an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, reconciling bank accounts, reporting financial status to the board, and handling compliance filings like the annual IRS return (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990) and any state charity registration. In a volunteer-run club, it's usually the person with bank signature authority and the one who presents numbers at meetings.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the officer or volunteer responsible for an organization's finances, typically defined in the bylaws with duties like maintaining accurate records, managing bank accounts, and filing required tax returns. The role carries fiduciary responsibility, meaning the treasurer is expected to act in the organization's financial best interest, not their own.
What do treasurers do day to day?
Day to day, a treasurer records deposits and expenses, reconciles the bank statement against the books, tracks fundraiser income and cash handling, and prepares simple financial reports for meetings. Once a year, they handle the bigger compliance tasks: the IRS 990-N or 990-EZ filing and any state charitable registration renewal.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, disclosing finances, governance, and activities. It comes in four sizes based on gross receipts and assets: 990-N for organizations with receipts normally $50,000 or less, 990-EZ for mid-size organizations, full Form 990 for larger ones, and 990-PF for private foundations [2].
What does a treasurer do in a club?
In a club setting, the treasurer keeps the books (dues, fundraiser income, expenses), manages the bank account, reports finances at meetings, and files the required annual IRS return, usually 990-N for smaller clubs. They often also handle reimbursements to members and coordinate cash handling for events like concession stands or raffles.
What does a club treasurer do that's different from a company bookkeeper?
A club treasurer manages a much smaller, simpler set of transactions, mostly dues, fundraiser proceeds, and reimbursements, with volunteer support rather than professional accounting staff. They also carry specific compliance duties a corporate bookkeeper wouldn't, like filing the organization's own annual IRS information return and any state charity registration.
What is a 990 tax form?
A 990 tax form is any version of the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, not an income tax return. It reports financial activity, governance, and program details rather than calculating tax owed, since exempt organizations generally don't pay income tax on income related to their exempt purpose.
What is the 990?
"The 990" usually refers generally to the IRS Form 990 series that tax-exempt organizations file annually: 990-N (e-Postcard) for the smallest organizations, 990-EZ for mid-size ones, full Form 990 for larger organizations, and 990-PF for private foundations [2].
What does a treasurer of a club do regarding taxes?
The club treasurer is typically responsible for identifying which IRS form the organization must file each year (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990), gathering the needed information, filing by the deadline, and keeping the confirmation on file. They also track whether the organization needs a separate state charity filing.
Who is eligible to file 990-N instead of 990-EZ or 990?
Organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less are generally eligible for 990-N, per IRS guidance [1]. "Normally" is based on an average over the current and prior two tax years, not a single year's number, so confirm your specific eligibility with the IRS if you're near the threshold.
Is there a fee to file Form 990-N?
No. The IRS charges nothing to file 990-N through its official online e-Postcard system at irs.gov [3]. Some third-party filing services charge a fee, typically $20 to $50, but that's optional and not required to complete the filing.
What happens if my organization misses the 990-N deadline one year?
Missing one year's 990-N deadline doesn't carry a monetary penalty by itself. The real risk is cumulative: under IRC Section 6033(j), failing to file for three consecutive years triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status with no separate notice required [5][6].
How do I check if my organization already lost its tax-exempt status?
Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which lists current exempt organizations and also shows those on the Automatic Revocation of Exemption List [7]. Search by name or EIN to see your organization's current status and filing history.
Can I file 990-N for a previous, missed year?
The IRS 990-N system generally only accepts filings for the current tax year and, in some cases, one or two prior years, but it won't fix a status that's already been auto-revoked for missing three straight years. If you're already revoked, you need the retroactive reinstatement process instead of a simple late 990-N filing.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): Organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less are eligible to file Form 990-N
- IRS, Instructions for Form 990 and Form 990-EZ: Gross receipts and total asset thresholds distinguishing 990-N, 990-EZ, and full Form 990 filers
- Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j): Failure to file required annual return or notice for three consecutive years results in automatic revocation of exempt status
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Quoted IRS statement that failure to file for three consecutive years results in automatic revocation of tax-exempt status
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: Tool to check an organization's EIN, current exempt status, and whether it appears on the auto-revocation list