Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
The 990-N e-Postcard is the free annual IRS filing for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. You file it online at irs.gov, it takes about 10 minutes, there's no paper form and no fee. Miss three years in a row and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status.
what is the 990-N postcard and who has to file it
The 990-N, officially called the "Electronic Notice (e-Postcard) for Tax-Exempt Organizations Not Required to File Form 990 or 990-EZ," is the smallest, simplest annual filing the IRS requires from small nonprofits. If your booster club, PTO, or youth sports league normally brings in $50,000 or less in gross receipts a year, this is almost certainly the filing you need. The IRS says it plainly: organizations "whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" file the 990-N unless they choose to file a full Form 990 or 990-EZ instead [1]. There's no paper version. You can't mail this one in, and there's no fee to file it. That's the whole point: Congress created this simplified option through the Pension Protection Act of 2006, Public Law 109-280, which for the first time required even the smallest tax-exempt organizations to file something with the IRS every year, instead of staying silent indefinitely. Section 1223 of that law added the annual notice requirement now codified at Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j), which is also the section that makes revocation automatic after three missed years [2]. A lot of new treasurers get confused here because "990" sounds like one form. It isn't. There's a family of them, and which one applies depends almost entirely on your gross receipts and total assets. If you're not sure which bucket you're in, our overview of the 990 tax form family walks through the thresholds in plain terms.
what is form 990, exactly
| 990-N (e-Postcard) | Gross receipts normally ≤ $50,000 | 8 data fields, online only | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 990-EZ | Gross receipts < $200,000 and total assets < $500,000 | Multi-page return | |
| 990 (full) | Gross receipts ≥ $200,000 or assets ≥ $500,000 | Full financial statement plus schedules | These thresholds come straight from the IRS's own filing guidance for exempt organizations [3]. If your booster club sits right at the edge, say you had one blowout fundraising year, check the exact current thresholds on IRS.gov before you assume 990-N still applies; "normally" gross receipts matters here, and the IRS has a specific averaging rule for organizations under three years old or with fluctuating income [3]. |
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations. Note the word "information," not "tax" (people call it a tax form out of habit, but most 501(c)(3) organizations owe no income tax; the return exists so the IRS and the public can see what the organization did with its money). The full Form 990 asks for revenue, expenses, executive compensation, program accomplishments, and governance policies. It's a real accounting undertaking. Most small booster clubs will never touch the full Form 990. There are three tiers, roughly: | Filing | Who files it | Complexity |
what information do you actually need to file it
The e-Postcard asks for eight things, and if you've got your organization's basic paperwork in a folder, you can finish this in about ten minutes. Per the IRS's own e-Postcard filing guidance, you need: your organization's Employer Identification Number (EIN), tax year, legal name and mailing address, any other names the organization uses, the name and address of a principal officer, your website (if you have one), confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, and a statement if the organization has terminated or is going out of business [1]. That's it. No balance sheet, no expense breakdown, no list of board members' salaries. If you don't have your EIN handy, it's on any past IRS correspondence, your bank's original account-opening paperwork, or you can call the IRS Tax Exempt/Government Entities line to ask them to look it up. One thing that trips people up: you need to know your organization's tax year, called your "accounting period" in this form. Most booster clubs run on a calendar year (January to December) or a school-year fiscal year (July to June). Check your original IRS determination letter or prior filings for this; guessing wrong can mean filing under the wrong deadline entirely.
where and how do you file the 990-N
You file the 990-N electronically at IRS.gov, through the Form 990-N Electronic Filing System. As of the 2021 filing season, the IRS moved this system onto its main IRS.gov portal (it used to live on a separate URBN Media site), so the login process for returning filers is different than it was a few years ago [1]. First-time filers just need their organization's information; there's no separate account registration required to submit. The process, in practice: go to the IRS's 990-N filing page, click through to the e-Postcard system, enter your EIN, confirm your organization's name and address populate correctly, fill in the tax year and the other required fields, and submit. You'll get an on-screen confirmation, and the filing status shows up in the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool within a few days to a couple of weeks. Print or save that confirmation. Not because the IRS asks for it later in most cases, but because when you hand off the books to the next treasurer, "I filed it and here's the confirmation" is worth a lot more than "I think I filed it." This is exactly the kind of paper trail that belongs in a handoff-and-audits binder.
when is the 990-N due
The 990-N is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's accounting period ends. For a calendar-year organization (year ends December 31), that's May 15 of the following year [1]. For a July-to-June fiscal year, common for school-affiliated groups, that's November 15. Here's the part that catches new treasurers off guard: there is no extension available for the 990-N. The IRS says so directly on its e-Postcard FAQ page. If you're late, there's technically no penalty for a single late 990-N filing, but the real danger isn't a fine; it's what happens if you're late three years running (more on that below). A practical habit: put the due date on a shared calendar the day you take over as treasurer, not the week before it's due. If your fiscal year doesn't match the school year or the calendar year, confirm it against your original determination letter rather than assuming.
what happens if you file the 990-N late or miss it entirely
One missed year, on its own, usually isn't fatal. There's no monetary penalty tied to a single late 990-N. But the structural risk is real and it's automatic: federal law requires the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of any organization that fails to file its required annual return or notice for three consecutive years [4]. This isn't a judgment call by an IRS agent; it's a statutory requirement under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j), added by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 [2]. Once that third year passes without a filing, revocation happens automatically, and the IRS publishes the organization's name on its Tax Exempt Organizations Revocation List [4]. Donations made after the revocation date are no longer tax-deductible to the donor, which is a real problem if your booster club solicits from parents who plan to write it off. If this has already happened to your organization, don't panic, but do act. The IRS has a formal process (Revenue Procedure 2014-11) for streamlined reinstatement, including a version specifically for small organizations that qualified for 990-N or 990-EZ, which involves filing the missing information along with Form 1023 or 1023-EZ and a reasonable cause statement [5]. This is a real project, not a ten-minute form, and it usually makes sense to loop in a tax professional or your state's nonprofit legal aid clinic for anything beyond the smallest, simplest reinstatement.
what does a treasurer do (and why does the 990-N fall on them)
A treasurer's core job is to be the one person in the organization who always knows: how much money is in the bank, where it came from, where it went, and whether the organization is current on its legal and tax obligations. That last piece, keeping the organization current with the IRS, is exactly where the 990-N lives. In a typical booster club or PTO, what a treasurer does breaks down into a handful of recurring jobs: tracking income (dues, concession sales, sponsorships, raffle proceeds), tracking expenses and reimbursements, reconciling the bank statement every month against the books, presenting a financial report at meetings, and making sure required filings, the 990-N chief among them, get submitted on time. Some treasurers also handle state-level filings like charitable registration renewals or raffle license applications, depending on how the organization is structured. What a club treasurer does is not the same as what a paid bookkeeper does. Nobody expects a volunteer treasurer to prepare audited financials or interpret complex tax law. But the IRS doesn't care that you're a volunteer; the organization's exempt status depends on someone filing the 990-N (or 990-EZ, or full 990) every single year, and in most small organizations, that someone is the treasurer. If you want a broader walkthrough of the full scope of the role, see our guide to what a treasurer does more generally.
what does a treasurer of a club actually do day to day, beyond the 990-N
Filing one annual e-Postcard is maybe twenty minutes of a treasurer's total yearly workload. The rest of the job is quieter and more constant. A club treasurer typically: opens and manages the bank account, sets up (or maintains) a simple bookkeeping system, whether that's a spreadsheet or software like QuickBooks, collects and deposits cash from fundraisers and events, cuts checks or handles reimbursements for approved expenses, tracks budget versus actual spending for the board, and prepares a treasurer's report for each meeting. Good cash-handling habits matter more here than most new treasurers expect, especially for organizations that run concession stands, raffles, or cash-heavy events. Two people counting cash together, deposits made promptly rather than sitting in someone's car for a week, and a simple receipt log for reimbursements will save you enormous headaches later, both with your own board and if you're ever asked to explain a number to the IRS or a state charity regulator. Our financial-controls hub covers these habits in more depth. The treasurer is also, realistically, the institutional memory of the club's finances. Board members rotate every year or two; the treasurer (or the treasurer's records) is often the only continuity between one season and the next. That's why a clean handoff packet, EIN, prior filings, bank records, current fiscal year, matters as much as any single form.
does filing the 990-N cost anything, and where does the state-personalized treasurer kit fit in
No. The 990-N itself is free to file, every year, with no fee charged by the IRS [1]. If anyone tells you there's a filing fee for the e-Postcard specifically, that's wrong, or they're confusing it with a state charitable registration fee, which is a separate requirement in many states and does often carry a cost. Where cost does come in is the surrounding paperwork: reconstructing your EIN, figuring out your correct fiscal year, tracking down whether your state also requires a separate annual charitable solicitation registration, building out a bank reconciliation process from scratch. That overhead is what a lot of new treasurers underestimate. If you're starting from zero, the BoosterLedger treasurer kit builder is a $99 one-time, state-personalized packet built for exactly this situation: the templates, checklists, and state-specific reference sheets for your particular state's charity office and filing calendar, so you're not reconstructing all of this from scratch under deadline pressure. It's not a substitute for a tax professional if your organization is in real trouble with the IRS, but for a new treasurer trying to get organized before the next due date, it can save a lot of guesswork.
what if your organization has already lost its tax-exempt status
Check the IRS's Tax Exempt Organizations Search tool first. It shows both current exempt organizations and the auto-revocation list, and it's the fastest way to confirm whether your booster club is actually affected or whether you're just missing a confirmation letter [4]. If you're on the revocation list, the path back is Revenue Procedure 2014-11's streamlined retroactive reinstatement process, available to organizations that were eligible to file 990-N or 990-EZ for the years they missed [5]. This generally involves filing a new exemption application (Form 1023 or the shorter Form 1023-EZ, if your organization qualifies) along with the delinquent 990-N filings and a statement explaining what happened, within a specific window after revocation to get retroactive treatment. This is genuinely one spot where it's worth paying a tax professional or asking a local nonprofit legal aid clinic for help, especially if your organization has been off the rolls for more than a year or two, or if donors are asking about the deductibility of gifts made during the gap. Confirm current procedures and fees with the IRS directly; reinstatement rules and user fees do change over time.
state filings you might also owe alongside the federal 990-N
The 990-N satisfies your federal annual notice requirement. It does not automatically satisfy any state-level requirement. A large number of states require nonprofits that solicit donations from residents to register annually with a state charity official, usually the attorney general's office or a secretary of state charities division, separate from and in addition to whatever you file with the IRS. These state registration requirements have their own thresholds, fees, and deadlines, and they vary enormously. Some states exempt very small organizations; others don't. If your booster club runs a raffle as part of fundraising, you may also need a separate state raffle license, which is a different requirement entirely from both the 990-N and general charitable registration; see our raffles-by-state hub for that layer. The honest answer here is: confirm with your specific state's charity registration office or attorney general's charities division what your organization owes at the state level. There's no single federal source that tracks all fifty states' requirements accurately, and getting this wrong (or simply not knowing it exists) is one of the most common gaps new booster club treasurers inherit from their predecessors.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 990-N e-Postcard?
The 990-N is the shortest annual IRS filing for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's filed online only, at no cost, and asks for eight basic pieces of information like your EIN, tax year, and a principal officer's name. It replaces the longer 990-EZ or 990 for very small organizations [1].
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations, used to report revenue, expenses, and activities to the public and the IRS. It's not an income tax return in the traditional sense; most exempt organizations owe no income tax, but they still must report annually. There are several versions depending on organization size [3].
What is a 990 tax form used for?
A 990 tax form (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) tells the IRS and the public how a tax-exempt organization raised and spent its money that year. It's the mechanism that keeps small nonprofits, booster clubs included, from disappearing off the IRS's radar and losing exempt status through inaction [2].
How much does it cost to file the 990-N?
Nothing. The 990-N e-Postcard has no filing fee, ever, according to the IRS's own guidance [1]. If your organization is asked to pay a fee specifically to file the 990-N, that request isn't coming from the IRS; you may be confusing it with a separate state charity registration fee.
When is the 990-N due each year?
The 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's accounting period ends. Calendar-year organizations (year ending December 31) file by May 15. There's no extension available for the 990-N specifically, so mark the date well before deadline week, not the week of [1].
What happens if I don't file the 990-N for three years?
The IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status for organizations that fail to file a required annual return or notice for three consecutive years, per Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j). This is automatic, not discretionary, and your organization's name appears on the IRS's public revocation list [4].
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks all money in and out of the organization, reconciles the bank account, reports finances to the board, and keeps the organization current on required filings like the 990-N. In small clubs, the treasurer is often the only person who fully understands the organization's financial and filing history.
What is a treasurer, exactly, in a club or booster organization?
The treasurer is the officer legally and practically responsible for the organization's money: bank accounts, bookkeeping, budget tracking, and required tax filings. It's usually an elected or appointed volunteer position, not a paid job, but the IRS holds the organization to the same filing standards regardless.
What does a club treasurer do differently from a PTO or booster club treasurer?
The core job is the same across club types: track money, reconcile accounts, report to the board, file required returns. Differences show up mostly in scale and specifics, a booster club running concessions and raffles has different cash-handling needs than a small hobby club, but the annual 990-N obligation applies broadly to small tax-exempt organizations.
Can I file the 990-N on paper or by mail?
No. The 990-N is electronic-only; there's no paper version and the IRS doesn't accept mailed submissions for it. You file it directly through the IRS's e-Postcard system at IRS.gov [1]. If your organization's gross receipts exceed the threshold, you'd file a 990-EZ or full 990 instead, both of which do have paper or e-file options.
How do I find my organization's EIN if I don't have it?
Check prior IRS correspondence, your organization's original bank account paperwork, or any past tax filings. If you can't locate it anywhere, call the IRS Tax Exempt/Government Entities customer account services line and ask them to help you locate your EIN using your organization's name and address.
Does filing the 990-N also cover state charity registration requirements?
No. The 990-N only satisfies your federal IRS annual notice requirement. Many states separately require charitable organizations to register annually with a state attorney general's office or charities division. Confirm with your specific state's charity regulator whether that additional registration applies to your organization.
What if my booster club's gross receipts go over $50,000 in one big year?
The IRS uses a "normally" test with specific averaging rules for organizations whose income fluctuates, so one unusually large fundraising year doesn't automatically bump you to the 990-EZ. Check the current thresholds and averaging method on IRS.gov [3], and if you're consistently over $50,000, plan to file the 990-EZ instead.
Sources
- IRS, "Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N)": 990-N filing requirements, due date, required fields, no fee, electronic-only filing
- Pension Protection Act of 2006, Public Law 109-280, Section 1223: Pension Protection Act of 2006 first required small tax-exempt organizations to file an annual notice, codified at IRC section 6033(j)
- IRS, "Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File": Gross receipts and asset thresholds distinguishing 990-N, 990-EZ, and full 990
- IRS, "Automatic Revocation of Exemption": Automatic revocation after three consecutive years of unfiled annual returns/notices, and the public revocation list
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: Streamlined retroactive reinstatement process for small organizations after automatic revocation
- 26 U.S.C. section 6033(j), Cornell Legal Information Institute: Statutory basis for automatic revocation after three consecutive years of unfiled annual returns or notices