990s online: how to find, file, and read them

Last updated 2026-07-24

What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer keeps the money honest and the paperwork current. That's the one-sentence version. The longer version: a treasurer tracks every dollar coming in from concessions, spirit wear, and membership dues, every dollar going out for uniforms and tournament fees, and makes sure the group's bank balance matches what the books say it should be. In a volunteer group like a booster club or PTO, the treasurer usually also owns the tax filing. That means knowing whether the group even has 501(c)(3) status, tracking the fiscal year end, and filing some version of Form 990 every single year, even if the group brought in zero dollars. Skipping this is the single most common way small nonprofits lose their tax-exempt status. The IRS has revoked the status of more than 760,000 organizations since 2011 for failing to file for three consecutive years ^[1]. Treasurer duties usually split into four buckets: bookkeeping (recording transactions and reconciling the bank statement monthly), cash handling (concession stands, gate money, raffle proceeds), compliance (990 filings, state charitable registration where required, raffle permits), and reporting (giving the board a clean financial picture at every meeting). None of this requires an accounting degree. It requires consistency and a system you don't have to reinvent every August when a new volunteer takes over.

What is a treasurer, exactly, in a booster club or PTO?

A treasurer is the officer legally and practically responsible for an organization's money and its financial recordkeeping. Most bylaws spell this out directly: the treasurer collects funds, pays approved bills, keeps ledgers, and reports balances to the board on a set schedule. In a school booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer is almost always a volunteer parent, elected or appointed for a one or two year term. That's a short window to learn a system that might have been undocumented for a decade. The job isn't glamorous. It's also the role most likely to create legal exposure for the whole board if it's done badly, because a lapsed 990 filing or a missing state registration can jeopardize the group's tax-exempt status and, in some states, its ability to legally fundraise at all. A useful way to think about it: the treasurer is the only officer whose job doesn't stop when the season ends. Coaches and presidents can hand off cleanly between school years. A treasurer has to close out a fiscal year, reconcile final numbers, and file paperwork that's often due months after everyone else has stopped thinking about the team.

What do treasurers do day to day, week to week, and year to year?

Day to day, a treasurer deposits cash from fundraisers, pays invoices the board has approved, and answers the inevitable "can we afford this?" question from a coach or committee chair. Week to week (or at least monthly), the job is reconciliation: matching every transaction in the checkbook or accounting software against the actual bank statement, and flagging anything that doesn't match. This is the single habit that catches errors and theft early. A 2022 study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners found that organizations with fewer than 100 employees, which describes essentially every booster club and PTO, suffer a median fraud loss of $150,000 and are the most common size to be victimized, largely because of weak or absent internal controls ^[2]. Year to year, the treasurer's job is the fiscal year close: producing a final statement of income and expenses, handing that to the board for approval, and using it to file whatever version of Form 990 the organization's gross receipts and assets require. That filing has a hard deadline: the 15th day of the 5th month after the fiscal year ends. For a group on a calendar year, that's May 15. For a group on a school-year fiscal calendar ending June 30, that's November 15 ^[3].

What is Form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires most tax-exempt organizations to file. It isn't a tax bill. Most small nonprofits owe nothing. It's a disclosure document: revenue, expenses, assets, program activities, and (on the full 990) executive compensation, all reported so the IRS and the public can see how a tax-exempt organization actually spends its money. The IRS describes the purpose plainly: organizations use the form "to provide the IRS with the information required by section 6033" and the return is used "to determine whether the organization initially qualifies for tax-exempt status" and continues to meet the requirements ^[4]. Because it's an information return, not an income tax return, there's rarely a payment attached. There's always a deadline attached, though, and that deadline doesn't move just because your group is run by volunteers. There are three main flavors small groups deal with, and which one applies depends entirely on money in and money held, not on how big or well-known the organization is. A national brand-name booster club with $40,000 in annual concession revenue files the same form as an unknown one three towns over with the same revenue. Size of budget, not size of reputation, decides the form.

What is the 990 tax form, and which version does my group file?

$50,000 or less	any	990-N (e-Postcard)
Less than $200,000	Less than $500,000	990-EZ (or full 990)
$200,000 or more	any	Full Form 990
any	$500,000 or more	Full Form 990	Most booster clubs and PTOs land in the first row. If your group's gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, you file 990-N, the electronic postcard. It's eight data fields: EIN, tax year, legal name, address, confirmation that receipts are under the threshold, and a couple of yes/no questions. There's no financial detail required and no paper option; it's filed exclusively through the IRS website [6]. Groups over $50,000 but under the 990-EZ asset/receipt caps can file Form 990-EZ, a four-page summary return. Larger organizations file the full Form 990, which runs 12 pages plus schedules and asks for program service descriptions, governance policies, and compensation detail. One wrinkle worth knowing: "normally" in the 990-N threshold isn't your most recent year, it's a rolling average, generally figured over the current year and the two prior years. A group that had one unusually big fundraiser year can still qualify for 990-N if the average stays under $50,000. Confirm the exact averaging method and current thresholds with the IRS, since these figures are set by IRS instructions and have shifted over time.

Here's the breakdown most treasurers actually need, based on the IRS's current filing thresholds for tax-exempt organizations ^[5]: | Annual gross receipts | Total assets | Form required |

Where can I find 990s online, and how do I look one up?

Three free tools cover almost every use case. First, the IRS's own Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) lets you look up an organization's exempt status, confirm it hasn't been auto-revoked, and view or download 990s filed since 2019 (electronically filed returns are the ones displayed as images) ^[1]. This is the source to trust for status checks, because it's the IRS's own database. Second, ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer indexes 990 filings going back further and lets you search by name, state, or EIN, and view individual line items without downloading a PDF. It's built specifically for journalists and the public and is genuinely fast to use. Third, Candid's 990 Finder (candid.org) is the tool most grantmakers and larger nonprofits use, and it also hosts historical filings. All three are free. None require an account for basic lookups. If you're a new treasurer trying to confirm your own group's filing history, start with IRS TEOS, since that's the system that will show you an active revocation if one exists, and that's the single most urgent thing to check on day one of the job.

Do 990s have to be filed online now?

Yes, for essentially every organization, as of tax years beginning after July 1, 2019. The Taxpayer First Act (Public Law 116-25, section 3101) required the IRS to mandate electronic filing for most tax-exempt organizations, and the IRS confirms that "the Taxpayer First Act... requires tax-exempt organizations to electronically file information returns and related forms" . Paper 990s are no longer accepted for the vast majority of filers, and 990-N has always been online-only since it was introduced in 2010. Practically, this means every treasurer needs an IRS-recognized e-filing method. For 990-N, that's the free IRS portal directly. For 990-EZ and full 990, most small groups use one of several IRS-authorized e-file providers, since the IRS itself doesn't offer free direct e-file software for those forms the way some countries' tax agencies do for individual returns. One practical headache: switching treasurers means someone needs the group's EIN, the prior filer's login information (if any), and confirmation of the correct fiscal year, or the new filer risks either missing the window or filing under the wrong tax year. This is exactly the kind of continuity problem that trips up first-time treasurers, which is part of why a 990-n filing checklist and a documented handoff packet save real hours in year one.

What happens if a treasurer misses a 990 filing?

One missed year usually triggers a reminder notice, nothing dramatic. Three missed years in a row is where it becomes serious: the IRS automatically revokes federal tax-exempt status by operation of law, with no appeal for the automatic revocation itself. The IRS states plainly that organizations "that fail to file required Form 990-series returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status" . Auto-revocation isn't quiet. The organization gets listed on the IRS's public Auto-Revocation List, donations made after the revocation date stop being tax-deductible, and the group may owe corporate income tax on money it previously treated as exempt. For a small booster club, this often surfaces years later, when a bank asks for exemption confirmation or a school district asks for proof of nonprofit status before allowing a fundraiser on campus. Recovery is possible but takes real paperwork: filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again (this time as reinstatement), paying the application fee, and in many cases requesting retroactive reinstatement under Revenue Procedure 2014-11 if you can show reasonable cause. It's fixable. It's also weeks of work that a five-minute annual 990n filing would have prevented entirely.

What does a club treasurer or booster club treasurer actually owe the board?

At minimum: a written financial report at every board meeting, a reconciled bank statement monthly, and a full-year financial summary at the annual meeting or transition point. Most bylaws require this explicitly, even if nobody's read that section of the bylaws in years. Beyond the minimum, good treasurers give the board something usable, more than accurate. That means a simple income-and-expense statement that separates restricted funds (money raised for a specific team or trip) from general funds, a running list of outstanding bills, and a heads-up whenever a fundraiser is tracking meaningfully over or under budget. Boards can't make good decisions on stale or vague numbers, and "we have money in the account" isn't a financial report. The treasurer also owes the incoming treasurer a real handoff: the EIN, the 990 filing history, bank account access, any state charitable registration numbers, and login credentials for whatever accounting tool is in use. Groups that build this packet once and update it annually save the next volunteer from starting cold. That's essentially what a 990-tax-form reference sheet and a documented handoff folder are for, and it's the gap BoosterLedger's $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: a state-specific packet covering your 990 track, raffle licensing basics, and a handoff template, at /treasurer-kit-builder.

Does my group need to register with the state, in addition to filing a 990?

Often, yes, and this is separate from the IRS entirely. Most states require organizations that solicit charitable donations to register with a state charity office or attorney general, sometimes with an annual renewal and fee. Requirements vary widely: some states exempt small organizations under a receipts threshold, others exempt only certain categories like religious organizations or purely local PTOs, and some require registration regardless of size. This is genuinely state-by-state and changes periodically, so confirm the current threshold and registration form with your state's charity regulator or attorney general's office directly rather than relying on a national rule of thumb. A group running a raffle adds a separate layer again: most states require a distinct raffle or gaming permit through a state gaming commission or the attorney general's charitable gaming division, on top of any general charitable solicitation registration. Don't assume a booster club is automatically exempt from state registration just because it's small or run entirely by volunteers. Some states' exemptions are narrower than treasurers expect, and the penalty for skipping registration when it was required ranges from a late fee to a cease-and-desist on further fundraising.

What's the real difference between the 990-N, 990-EZ, and full 990?

Beyond the receipts thresholds, the practical difference is how much you have to disclose and how long it takes to prepare. 990-N is eight fields and takes most treasurers under ten minutes once they have the EIN and login. There's no accountant needed for a straightforward one. 990-EZ asks for a full income statement, balance sheet, and a description of program service accomplishments, plus schedules for things like fundraising events over certain thresholds or transactions with officers. Expect an hour or two if your books are already reconciled, longer if they aren't. Full Form 990 asks for governance policies (conflict of interest, whistleblower, document retention), compensation for anyone paid more than $100,000 or the five highest-compensated employees, and much deeper program detail. Most volunteer booster clubs never reach the receipts level that requires the full form, but a group with a paid part-time coordinator or a large annual gala can cross that line faster than expected. Whichever form applies, the deadline math is identical: 15th day of the 5th month after fiscal year close, with one automatic 6-month extension available via Form 8868 if you file it before the original deadline ^[3].

Where do the numbers on a 990 actually come from?

They come from the same reconciled books a treasurer should already be keeping. That's the honest, slightly annoying answer: filing a 990 isn't a separate research project if the bookkeeping was done right all year. Revenue lines map to your income categories (membership dues, concessions, sponsorships, fundraising events), expense lines map to your budget categories (uniforms, tournament fees, insurance, bank fees), and the balance sheet is just your ending bank balance plus any other assets, minus anything owed. The treasurers who dread 990 season are almost always the ones who didn't reconcile monthly and are now trying to reconstruct twelve months of transactions from a shoebox of receipts in April. The treasurers who find it easy are the ones who close their books every month, so the annual filing is a five-minute summary of numbers they already trust. If you're inheriting a set of books that isn't reconciled, don't try to file first. Reconcile first, even if that means going back several months. A 990 built on wrong numbers creates a paper trail the IRS or a future auditor might question later, and correcting a filed return is more work than getting it right once.

Frequently asked questions

What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer tracks all money coming into and out of an organization, reconciles the bank account regularly, reports finances to the board, and files the required annual tax paperwork (a 990 variant for most nonprofits). In a booster club or PTO, the treasurer is usually the one officer whose job doesn't end when the season does.

What is a treasurer?

A treasurer is the officer responsible for an organization's money and financial records, usually defined in the group's bylaws. The role covers bookkeeping, cash handling, tax compliance, and board reporting, and in volunteer nonprofits it's typically a one or two year elected position.

What is Form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations must file with the IRS under Internal Revenue Code section 6033. It discloses revenue, expenses, and activities so the IRS and public can see how the organization uses its money; it's not an income tax bill for most filers ^[4].

What is the 990 tax form used for?

It's used by the IRS to confirm an organization still qualifies for tax-exempt status and by the public to see how a nonprofit spends its money. It also determines whether an organization stays in good standing; missing it for three straight years triggers automatic revocation of exempt status ^[9].

What does a club treasurer do that's different from a company treasurer?

A club treasurer usually handles smaller, more informal cash flows (concessions, dues, raffle proceeds) with fewer paid staff and less formal accounting systems, but carries the same legal filing obligations as any nonprofit treasurer, including annual 990-series filings and, in many states, charitable registration.

Which 990 form does a small booster club file?

Most booster clubs with gross receipts of $50,000 or less file Form 990-N, the electronic postcard, which requires only basic identifying information and no financial detail. Groups above that threshold file 990-EZ or the full Form 990 depending on receipts and total assets ^[5].

Where can I look up a nonprofit's 990 online for free?

Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search at apps.irs.gov, ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, or Candid's 990 Finder. All three are free and let you search by organization name or EIN; IRS TEOS is the best source to confirm current exempt status.

Do 990s have to be filed electronically?

Yes. The Taxpayer First Act requires electronic filing for tax-exempt organizations' information returns for tax years beginning after July 1, 2019 ^[8]. Form 990-N has always been electronic-only since its introduction, with no paper option ever available.

What happens if my group hasn't filed a 990 in years?

After three consecutive missed years, the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status with no appeal for the revocation itself ^[9]. Reinstatement requires refiling Form 1023 or 1023-EZ, paying the application fee again, and possibly requesting retroactive reinstatement for reasonable cause under Revenue Procedure 2014-11.

Are 990 filings public record?

Yes. Form 990 filings are public documents. The IRS publishes them through its Tax Exempt Organization Search, and third-party sites like ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer and Candid's 990 Finder host searchable copies, often going back further than the IRS's own online archive.

Does a PTO or booster club need to register with the state separately from filing federal 990s?

Often yes. Many states require charitable solicitation registration through the attorney general or a state charity office, separate from IRS filings, sometimes with size-based exemptions. Requirements and thresholds vary by state, so confirm current rules with your state's charity regulator directly.

How long does it take to file Form 990-N?

Most treasurers complete Form 990-N in under 10 minutes once they have the organization's EIN, legal name, and address on hand. It's eight data fields with no financial statements required, filed only through the IRS's online portal.

What's the deadline to file a 990?

The 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's fiscal year ends. For a calendar-year filer, that's May 15; for a group on a July-to-June fiscal year, that's November 15. A one-time 6-month extension is available by filing Form 8868 before the original deadline ^[3].

Sources

1. IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: IRS has revoked tax-exempt status of organizations failing to file for three consecutive years, over 760,000 since the process began
2. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Report to the Nations 2022: Small organizations (under 100 employees) suffer a median fraud loss of $150,000 and are disproportionately victimized due to weak internal controls
3. IRS, Form 8868 instructions and 990 filing deadlines: 990-series returns are due the 15th day of the 5th month after fiscal year end, with one automatic 6-month extension via Form 8868
4. IRS, About Form 990: Form 990 is used to provide the IRS with information required under section 6033 and to determine ongoing qualification for tax-exempt status
5. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): Form 990-N is filed exclusively electronically through the IRS website and requires only basic identifying information
6. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: IRS TEOS lets users view exempt status and access 990 filings from 2019 onward