Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
Form 990-N, called the e-Postcard, is a free, eight-question online filing the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations with $50,000 or less in annual gross receipts. It's due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. Miss three years in a row and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status.
what is form 990 (the e-postcard version)
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations. It's not an income tax return in the usual sense (exempt orgs generally don't owe income tax on mission-related revenue), but the IRS still wants an annual look at what came in, what went out, and whether the group is still doing what it said it would do when it applied for exemption. There are several versions depending on size. Form 990-N, nicknamed the e-Postcard, is the version for the smallest organizations: those with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. "Normally" matters here. The IRS uses averaging rules for organizations in their first, second, or third year, so a brand new booster club with an unusual first-year number isn't automatically bumped to a bigger form [1]. If your gross receipts are above $50,000, you file Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990 instead, not the e-Postcard. The [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) and 990 tax form articles on this site cover those bigger versions if your booster club or PTO has grown past e-Postcard territory. The e-Postcard itself is genuinely small. It's eight questions, filed electronically, and takes most treasurers under fifteen minutes once they have the basic facts (EIN, tax year, mailing address, a principal officer's name, and confirmation gross receipts are still $50,000 or under) [2].
what does a treasurer do
A treasurer is the person responsible for a nonprofit's or club's money: tracking what comes in, what goes out, keeping records straight, and making sure the group's bank balance matches what the books say. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer is usually the only person who touches the checking account regularly, which is exactly why the job needs guardrails, more than trust. Day to day, a treasurer deposits fundraising cash, pays vendors and reimbursements, reconciles the bank statement monthly, and reports a simple income-and-expense summary to the board. Annually, the treasurer is usually the one who files (or arranges to file) Form 990-N, renews any state charitable registration, and hands over clean records at the end of their term. None of this requires an accounting degree. It requires consistency: the same categories every month, receipts kept for every expense, and a habit of not letting three months of transactions pile up unrecorded. Most booster treasurer burnout comes from falling behind, not from the math being hard.
what is a treasurer (and what do treasurers do, exactly)
Strip away the titles and a treasurer is a bookkeeper with a fiduciary duty. That second part is the real difference from a personal budget. A treasurer isn't just tracking their own spending, they're accountable to a board, sometimes to a school district, and often to state charity regulators for money that belongs to the organization, not to them personally. What treasurers do, concretely, breaks into four buckets: recording transactions (deposits, checks, card charges), reconciling (matching the books to the actual bank statement every month), reporting (a summary at each board meeting, an annual report to the board and sometimes the state), and filing (the IRS e-Postcard or bigger 990, plus any state raffle or charitable solicitation renewals). A treasurer who does only the first two but skips reporting and filing is quietly building a problem. The IRS doesn't send reminders before auto-revocation, and a lot of booster clubs discover their exemption is gone only when a bank asks for a determination letter that no longer matches IRS records.
what does a club treasurer do (and what does a treasurer of a club do differently)
A club treasurer, whether it's a booster club, a PTO, or a youth sports league, does the same core job as any nonprofit treasurer but usually with less infrastructure: no paid bookkeeper, no accounting software budget, and a board that turns over every year or two. That makes documentation even more important, because the next treasurer has to be able to pick up the books cold. Specific club-treasurer tasks tend to include: managing a concession stand or gate cash box, tracking fundraiser proceeds separately from general operating funds, reimbursing coaches or volunteers for supplies, and keeping a simple ledger the whole board can read at a glance. Many clubs also handle raffles or 50/50 drawings, which usually require a separate state gaming or raffle license, more than IRS compliance. That topic is covered in the raffles-by-state hub if your club runs one. The filing side is the part new club treasurers most often miss. If your club has its own EIN and is recognized (or was recognized) as tax-exempt, somebody has to file the e-Postcard or bigger 990 every single year, even in years where the club barely fundraised. Zero activity doesn't mean zero filing obligation.
who has to file form 990-n
Most tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less must file the e-Postcard annually unless they're specifically exempted. The IRS says organizations eligible to file 990-N are those "whose annual gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" [1]. A few organizations are excused from the annual 990 series entirely, including churches and their integrated auxiliaries, and certain organizations included in a group return [1]. Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues don't fall into those exceptions, so if you have your own EIN and 501(c)(3) or similar recognition, assume you owe a filing every year until you confirm otherwise with the IRS. One trap: some booster clubs never actually applied for their own tax-exempt status and instead operate loosely under a school district's umbrella. If that's your situation, the e-Postcard rules may not apply the same way, and you should confirm your group's actual exempt status and EIN situation with the IRS before assuming anything about filing requirements.
when is form 990-n due
| December 31 | May 15 |
|---|---|
| June 30 | November 15 |
| August 31 | January 15 |
| September 30 | February 15 |
The e-Postcard is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after the close of your organization's tax year [1]. For a calendar-year organization (tax year ending December 31), that's May 15 of the following year. If your fiscal year ends June 30, a common school-year-aligned choice for booster clubs and PTOs, your e-Postcard is due November 15. There's no extension form for 990-N specifically, and the IRS notes there's no penalty for filing it late in a single year, but the accumulation across three years is what triggers the real consequence [3]. Here's the filing deadline by common fiscal year end: | Fiscal year ends | e-Postcard due (15th day of 5th month after) |
how do you actually file the e-postcard
You file Form 990-N through the IRS's online e-Postcard system at irs.gov, using the organization's EIN, legal name, and mailing address, plus confirmation the organization's gross receipts are $50,000 or less [2]. You'll also need the name and address of a principal officer, the organization's website if it has one, and confirmation it hasn't terminated or gone out of business. There's no cost to file, and no paper option. The IRS system requires you to register or verify your organization's information first before submitting. If your EIN doesn't show up in the system, that's often a sign your exemption was already auto-revoked or was never fully processed, and it's worth calling the IRS Exempt Organizations line to sort out before trying to force a filing through. The whole thing genuinely is short: legal name, EIN, tax year, mailing address, alternate names if any, principal officer name and address, website (or "N/A"), confirmation of gross receipts under $50,000, and confirmation you're not terminating operations. Eight data points, no financial statements attached.
what happens if you miss it, and what is auto-revocation
If an organization required to file an annual return or notice fails to do so for three consecutive years, its tax-exempt status is automatically revoked by operation of law, no warning letter required first [4]. This is one of the most consequential and least understood rules in nonprofit compliance, and it hits small volunteer-run groups constantly because treasurers rotate out and nobody tells the new one about the filing. Once revoked, the organization is treated as a taxable entity going forward and, in the IRS's words, is "required to file the appropriate federal income tax return for the year and pay applicable income taxes" until reinstated [5]. Donations made after revocation are generally no longer tax-deductible to donors, which can quietly wreck a booster club's ability to get sponsor checks or grant funding. The fix is reinstatement, filed through Form 1023 or 1023-EZ (or Form 1024 for non-501(c)(3) groups) with a request for retroactive reinstatement, plus the delinquent 990s. The IRS has a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process for organizations that were eligible to file 990-N or 990-EZ and apply within 15 months of revocation or of the date they discover it, whichever is later, though the exact procedure and current fee should be confirmed directly with the IRS since these details change . Realistically budget real time for this, not a quick afternoon fix. If your club's EIN shows up as revoked on the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search, that confirms it, and from there the honest options are apply for reinstatement or start fresh with a new EIN and application, both of which have real tradeoffs worth discussing with someone who does this for a living.
can you check if your group is already revoked
Yes. The IRS maintains a public Tax Exempt Organization Search tool where you can look up any EIN and see its current exemption status, including whether it's been auto-revoked . This should be one of the first things a new booster or PTO treasurer does in their first week: look up your own organization's EIN and confirm it's actually still recognized as tax-exempt. A lot of incoming treasurers assume exemption is a one-time thing settled years ago by someone else and never think to check again. It's not one-time. It's an annual obligation, and the search tool takes about two minutes to use. If your group shows up as revoked, don't panic and don't ignore it either; it just means the next step is sorting out reinstatement rather than assuming a normal e-Postcard filing will fix things.
990-n vs 990-ez vs full form 990: which one do you file
| Gross receipts normally ≤ $50,000 | Form 990-N (e-Postcard) | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross receipts < $200,000 AND total assets < $500,000 | Form 990-EZ (or full 990) | |
| Gross receipts ≥ $200,000 OR total assets ≥ $500,000 | Form 990 | |
| Private foundations (any size) | Form 990-PF | Most booster clubs, PTOs, and small youth sports leagues sit comfortably in e-Postcard territory. A concession stand, a few fundraisers, some sponsor donations rarely add up to $50,000 in gross receipts for a small club, though a big raffle year or a capital campaign for equipment can push a group over the line unexpectedly. Track your running total through the year so you're not surprised at filing time. If you're not sure which form applies, the irs form 990 and form 990-n reference pages on this site walk through the thresholds in more depth. |
Which form you file depends almost entirely on gross receipts (and, for the full 990, total assets too). Here's the general breakdown, though you should confirm current thresholds directly with the IRS since they can shift: | Organization size | Form required |
do you need an accountant to file the e-postcard
For the e-Postcard specifically, no. It's eight questions with no financial statements attached, and the IRS built it for volunteer treasurers to file themselves without professional help. Where an accountant earns their fee is the 990-EZ or full 990, which do require actual financial statement data, functional expense allocation, and more judgment calls. Where volunteer treasurers get into trouble isn't the e-Postcard form itself, it's not knowing the form exists, not knowing the deadline, or inheriting a mess from a predecessor who never filed. A one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit ($99) is built for exactly that handoff moment: a state-specific checklist covering IRS filing deadlines, state charitable registration renewal dates, and raffle license basics so a new treasurer isn't reconstructing this from scratch or guessing at what applies in their state. This article, and this site generally, isn't accounting or legal advice, and nothing here guarantees a filing outcome or tax-exempt status. Rules and thresholds change, and state requirements vary widely, so confirm specifics with the IRS and your state charity office before you file or make decisions based on last year's numbers.
what should a new treasurer do in their first month
Look up your EIN on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search first, before anything else, to confirm your group is still recognized as exempt and see when it last filed . Then find (or reconstruct) your fiscal year end, because that determines your e-Postcard due date. Then check whether your state requires separate charitable solicitation registration; many states do, and it's a completely separate filing from the IRS one, handled by your state attorney general or secretary of state's charity office. If your predecessor left no records at all, don't guess at prior years. Call the IRS Exempt Organizations customer account services line and ask directly what your filing history shows. It's a normal question and they field it constantly from incoming volunteer treasurers. Finally, set a recurring calendar reminder two months before your deadline, every year, tied to your organization's email, not your personal one. The single biggest cause of auto-revocation in small clubs isn't ignorance of the rule, it's the reminder living only in one person's head and that person moving on.
Frequently asked questions
what is form 990
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations, reporting revenue, expenses, and activities. Its size scales with the organization: the smallest file Form 990-N (the e-Postcard), mid-size groups file 990-EZ or full 990, and private foundations file 990-PF. It's not an income tax bill for most exempt groups, just an annual disclosure.
what is a 990 tax form
A 990 tax form is the IRS's umbrella term for the annual reporting forms tax-exempt organizations file: 990-N, 990-EZ, 990, and 990-PF. Despite the name, it's an information return, not typically an income tax bill, since qualifying exempt organizations generally don't owe federal income tax on mission-related revenue.
what is the 990
"The 990" usually refers to the full-length Form 990, the annual disclosure return for larger tax-exempt organizations (generally gross receipts of $200,000 or more, or total assets of $500,000 or more). Smaller organizations file simpler versions instead: 990-EZ or the 8-question 990-N e-Postcard.
what does a treasurer do
A treasurer manages an organization's money: recording deposits and expenses, reconciling the bank account monthly, reporting balances to the board, and handling annual filings like the IRS e-Postcard and any state charitable registration renewal. In a small nonprofit or club, the treasurer is usually the sole person with regular access to the bank account.
what is a treasurer
A treasurer is the officer responsible for an organization's finances and financial records, accountable to the board and, for tax-exempt groups, to IRS and state filing requirements. It's a fiduciary role: the treasurer manages money that belongs to the organization, not to them, and is expected to document and report on it.
what do treasurers do
Treasurers record transactions, reconcile bank statements, prepare simple financial reports for board meetings, and file required annual paperwork like Form 990-N or 990-EZ and state charitable solicitation renewals. In smaller clubs they often also manage cash handling for fundraisers, concession stands, or gate receipts directly.
what a treasurer does day to day
Day to day, a treasurer deposits incoming funds, pays approved expenses, keeps receipts and a running ledger, and reconciles the checkbook against the bank statement, usually monthly. Annually, that same person is typically responsible for filing the organization's IRS 990-N or 990-EZ and any state registration renewals.
what does a treasurer do in a club
In a club setting like a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, a treasurer tracks fundraiser proceeds and expenses, manages a cash box or concession stand accounting, reimburses volunteers and coaches, and reports simple financials to the board. They're also usually responsible for the annual IRS e-Postcard filing if the club has its own tax-exempt status.
what does a club treasurer do differently from a corporate treasurer
A club treasurer usually has no paid bookkeeper or software budget and works with a board that turns over yearly, so clean documentation matters more, not less. They also handle physical cash from bake sales, raffles, and concessions more directly than a typical corporate treasurer would, and often need a separate state raffle license for gaming activities.
what does a treasurer of a club do at year end
At year end, a club treasurer closes out the books, reconciles the final bank statement, prepares a simple annual summary for the board, and files (or confirms someone files) the IRS Form 990-N or 990-EZ by the deadline: the 15th day of the 5th month after the fiscal year closes. They should also hand off complete records to any incoming treasurer.
is form 990-n free to file
Yes, filing Form 990-N through the IRS online e-Postcard system has no fee. There's no paper alternative, and no financial statements are attached, just eight basic organizational data points like EIN, tax year, and confirmation gross receipts are $50,000 or less.
what happens if a booster club misses three years of 990 filings
The IRS automatically revokes the organization's tax-exempt status by law after three consecutive years of missed required filings, with no warning letter first. The group then owes income tax as a taxable entity going forward, and donor contributions generally stop being tax-deductible, until the organization successfully applies for reinstatement.
how do you check if your nonprofit's tax-exempt status was revoked
Search your organization's EIN on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which shows current exemption status and revocation history for free. This takes about two minutes and is a good first task for any new treasurer, since exemption status isn't something settled once and forgotten.
does a small booster club with no fundraising still have to file 990-n
Generally yes. If your club has its own EIN and recognized tax-exempt status, the annual filing requirement applies even in a year with little or no financial activity. Confirm your specific situation with the IRS, since some organizations (like certain church-affiliated groups) are excused from the requirement entirely.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations - Form 990-N (e-Postcard): organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less must file 990-N, and the due date is the 15th day of the 5th month after the tax year ends
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and certain group-return organizations are excepted from the annual 990-series filing requirement
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: organizations that fail to file required annual returns for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status by operation of law
- IRS, Automatic Revocation - How to Have Your Tax-Exempt Status Reinstated: organizations with automatically revoked status are treated as taxable entities and must file appropriate income tax returns until reinstated
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: the public search tool lets anyone look up an EIN's current exempt status and revocation history