Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
Filing your 990 means picking the right version (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990) based on gross receipts, then submitting by the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. Most small booster clubs and PTOs under $50,000 in gross receipts file the free 990-N e-postcard. Miss three years in a row and the IRS auto-revokes your tax-exempt status.
what is form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's not an income tax return in the usual sense (most exempt nonprofits owe no federal income tax), it's a disclosure document. The IRS uses it to confirm your group is still doing what it said it would do when it got exempt status, and the public can look it up too. The IRS puts it plainly: "Most tax-exempt organizations are required to file an annual return" and the specific version you file depends on your gross receipts and total assets [1]. There isn't one single "990 tax form." There's a family of them, scaled to the size of your organization. A booster club running a $12,000 budget files something very different from a regional youth sports league running $400,000 through its books. If you're brand new to the treasurer role and just want the plain definition, see our form 990 explainer and the 990 tax form overview for context before you file anything.
which 990 does my booster club or PTO actually need to 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 foundation (rare for booster/PTO groups) | Form 990-PF | "Normally" matters here. The IRS averages your gross receipts over a rolling period (generally the current year and the two before it) to smooth out one big fundraiser year, so a single unusually good car-wash-and-raffle season doesn't automatically bump you into a bigger form the very next year [2]. Most booster clubs, PTOs, and small youth sports groups land in the 990-N bucket. If your group runs a big annual gala or a multi-thousand-dollar concession stand operation, check the math every year, because thresholds don't adjust for your specific mission, only for the dollar amounts. For a side-by-side on the 990-N specifically, see our 990-n page and form 990-n breakdown. |
It depends almost entirely on your gross receipts for the year, with a secondary check on total assets. Here's the breakdown straight from IRS guidance [2]: | Your situation | Form to file |
what is the 990-N e-postcard and how do I file it?
The 990-N is the simplest version, built for organizations with $50,000 or less in annual gross receipts. It is not a paper form at all. You file it entirely online through the IRS's Form 990-N Electronic Filing System (e-Postcard) [3]. You'll need eight pieces of information: your EIN, tax year, legal name and mailing address, any other names the group uses, the name and address of a principal officer, your website (if you have one), confirmation that gross receipts are $50,000 or less, and a statement if the organization has terminated or is terminating [3]. That's genuinely it. No financial statements, no schedules, takes most treasurers under 15 minutes once they have the EIN and prior-year filing confirmation in hand. One quirk that trips people up: 990-N has no paper alternative and no extension option. If your info is wrong or you can't get into the system, you still have to get it filed by the deadline, there's no "Form 8868 for more time" escape hatch the way there is for 990-EZ and 990.
what is form 990-EZ and when do I need it instead?
Form 990-EZ is the mid-size version, for organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000 [2]. It's a real paper-or-electronic form with actual financial detail: revenue and expenses by category, a balance sheet, compensation of officers, and a handful of schedules depending on your activities (Schedule A for public charity status, Schedule G if you ran a raffle or gaming activity above certain thresholds, Schedule B for large donors in some cases). As of tax years beginning after July 2019, the IRS requires electronic filing for 990-EZ under the Taxpayer First Act, phased in with transition relief that has mostly expired by now, so plan to file electronically through an IRS-authorized e-file provider [4]. If your booster club had a breakout fundraising year, hit $60,000 in gross receipts from a big raffle or gala, you're probably now in 990-EZ territory instead of 990-N. That's a meaningfully bigger job. Budget a few hours, or budget for help.
what is the full form 990 and who has to file it?
The full Form 990 is required once gross receipts hit $200,000 or total assets hit $500,000 [2]. This is the long version: 12 pages of core form plus whichever of the 16 possible schedules apply to your activities, covering governance, executive compensation, fundraising events, grants made, and more. Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports organizations never touch this form. If yours has grown to this size, that's genuinely good news for your programs, but it also means the treasurer job has outgrown a volunteer doing it solo on a Saturday afternoon. At this scale, seriously consider a CPA who works with nonprofits, at least for the first year's filing, so you understand what each schedule is actually asking for.
when is the 990 deadline and how do extensions work?
Every version of the 990 is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's accounting period ends [1]. For a calendar-year filer (fiscal year ending December 31), that's May 15 of the following year. For a fiscal year ending June 30 (common for school-affiliated booster clubs), that's November 15. If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, it moves to the next business day, per standard IRS filing rules [1]. For 990-EZ and full 990, you can request a 6-month automatic extension by filing Form 8868 before the original due date [5]. There is no extension for 990-N, as noted above, so mark that date and treat it like a hard stop. Here's a mistake to watch for: your fiscal year doesn't have to match the calendar year, and a lot of booster clubs run July-to-June to line up with the school year. Whoever set up your EIN registration told the IRS what your fiscal year is, and that's the clock that matters, not January 1.
what happens if I file 990 late or miss it entirely?
For 990-N, there's technically no dollar penalty for filing late, but there's a much bigger consequence: automatic revocation. The IRS is required by law to automatically revoke the tax-exempt status of any organization that fails to file its required 990 (in any version) for three consecutive years [6]. This is not a warning system with escalating fines first, it's a hard trigger written into the tax code. For 990-EZ and full 990, there are also monetary penalties for late filing, generally $20 a day for smaller organizations (capped at the lesser of $12,000 or 5% of gross receipts for the year), with higher daily penalties for larger organizations, per IRS guidance on late filing penalties [7]. Those numbers get adjusted periodically, so confirm the current figures with the IRS before assuming a specific dollar amount applies to your group. Auto-revocation is the outcome that actually wrecks booster clubs. Lose your exempt status and your donations are no longer tax-deductible to donors, and depending on your state, you may lose your state sales tax exemption and charitable registration standing too. Getting reinstated involves filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again (yes, starting over) and often paying a new user fee, though the IRS does have streamlined retroactive reinstatement procedures for organizations that act within 15 months of revocation [8]. If your group has already been auto-revoked, don't panic, but don't wait either. Confirm your specific reinstatement path with the IRS and, if state registration is also affected, with your state charity office.
what does a treasurer do?
A treasurer is the person responsible for tracking, reporting, and safeguarding an organization's money, and for a volunteer booster club or PTO, that job is bigger than it sounds on paper. What does a treasurer do, concretely? Collects dues and fundraiser income, pays vendors and reimburses parent volunteers, reconciles the bank account monthly, keeps receipts organized enough to survive a board question or an audit, and files the annual 990. What is a treasurer, structurally, is usually an elected or appointed officer position defined in your organization's bylaws, often with check-signing authority and a term limit. What do treasurers do that non-treasurers don't see: they're usually the one person who knows whether the group can actually afford the new equipment the coaches are asking for, because they're the one watching the account balance week to week, more than at the annual meeting. What a treasurer does in practice varies by group size. A five-family booster club treasurer might spend two hours a month on this. A district-wide PTO council treasurer overseeing six-figure fundraising might spend several hours a week, plus the 990 filing itself each year.
what does a treasurer do in a club or booster organization specifically?
What does a club treasurer do, day to day, in a youth sports or school booster context? The job usually breaks into four buckets: intake (collecting registration fees, concession stand cash, raffle ticket money), outflow (paying referees, ordering uniforms, reimbursing the coach who bought first-aid supplies), recordkeeping (a simple ledger or spreadsheet showing every dollar in and out, tied to receipts), and reporting (a treasurer's report at each board meeting, plus the annual 990 to the IRS). What does a treasurer of a club do that's easy to overlook: maintaining continuity for the next person. Booster club and PTO treasurers turn over constantly, often every one to two years as kids age out of a program. A treasurer who keeps clean digital records, a written procedures list, and copies of the last three years of 990 filings hands off a functioning organization. One who keeps everything in a shoebox and their own head hands off a mess, sometimes an auto-revoked mess, to whoever takes over next. This is exactly the gap our $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: a starting point tailored to your state's raffle and charity registration rules, plus templates for the recordkeeping habits that make next year's 990 filing take twenty minutes instead of a weekend of digging through a shoebox.
what information do I need before I sit down to file?
Gather these before you open the IRS site or your e-file software: your organization's EIN (not your school district's or a parent's Social Security number), the legal name and any "doing business as" name on file with the IRS, your fiscal year start and end dates, total gross receipts for the year, and the name, title, and address of a current principal officer [3]. If you're filing 990-EZ or full 990, you also need a full income and expense breakdown by category, a year-end balance sheet, a list of officers and any compensation paid, and details on any single fundraising event that grossed more than certain thresholds (raffle, gaming, and gala income often needs its own schedule). Pull your bank statements, your fundraiser reconciliation sheets, and last year's filed 990 (if one exists) as your starting reference point. Filing goes faster every single time you have last year's copy to compare against, because most line items repeat with only the numbers changed.
do state charity registration or raffle rules affect my 990 filing?
Not directly, the 990 is a federal IRS filing, but many states have separate charitable solicitation registration requirements that run on their own schedule and sometimes require a copy of your federal 990 as an attachment. This is a completely separate system from the IRS one, run by your state attorney general or secretary of state's charity office, and the rules differ by state. If your group runs a raffle, bingo night, or other gaming fundraiser, that almost always triggers a separate state gaming or raffle license requirement too, on top of whatever the 990 asks for federally (Schedule G territory if you're filing 990-EZ or full 990 and gaming receipts cross the IRS's reporting threshold). Confirm both your state charity registration requirement and your state raffle licensing requirement with your state attorney general's charity office before your next fundraiser, because federal exemption and state compliance are not the same box to check.
can I file the 990 myself, or do I need a CPA?
For 990-N, yes, file it yourself. It's designed for volunteers, takes under 15 minutes, and requires no financial statements at all [3]. There's genuinely no reason to pay someone for this one. For 990-EZ, plenty of treasurers with a decent grasp of their own books file it themselves the first year or two, especially with last year's return as a template. It gets harder once you have Schedule G (gaming/raffle) or Schedule A (public support test) complications. For the full 990, most volunteer-run organizations at that size benefit from at least a consultation with a nonprofit CPA, even if you do the data-gathering yourself and they just review before submission. The full 990 has enough judgment calls (program service accomplishments, related-organization disclosures, compensation reporting) that a second set of trained eyes is worth the cost for most groups filing it for the first time. This article and BoosterLedger generally are not accountants or a law firm, and nothing here is tax or legal advice. There's no guarantee about outcomes, exempt status, or how a specific state or the IRS will treat your specific filing. Confirm anything with real money or real deadlines attached directly with the IRS and your state charity office.
Frequently asked questions
what is form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations. It reports income, expenses, and activities so the IRS and the public can confirm the organization still operates within its exempt purpose. Which version you file (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) depends on your gross receipts and total assets.
what is the 990 tax form used for?
It's used to report a nonprofit's financial activity and confirm continued eligibility for tax-exempt status. It is not an income tax return since most exempt organizations owe no federal income tax; it's a disclosure and compliance document that the IRS and the public can view.
what does a treasurer do in a booster club or PTO?
A treasurer tracks all money in and out, reconciles the bank account, pays vendors and reimburses volunteers, keeps receipts organized, reports finances to the board, and files the group's annual 990 with the IRS. In smaller groups it's a few hours a month; in larger ones, several hours a week.
what is a 990-N and who has to file it?
The 990-N, or e-Postcard, is for tax-exempt organizations with $50,000 or less in gross receipts. It's filed entirely online through the IRS's e-Postcard system, needs no financial statements, and takes most treasurers under 15 minutes once they have their EIN handy.
when is the 990 due?
The 990 (any version) is due the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. Calendar-year filers owe it by May 15. A July-to-June fiscal year, common for school booster clubs, owes it by November 15. If that date falls on a weekend or holiday, it moves to the next business day.
what happens if a nonprofit doesn't file its 990 for three years?
The IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status for any organization that fails to file a required 990 (in any form) for three consecutive years. This is automatic under federal law, not discretionary, and reinstatement requires refiling exemption paperwork, sometimes with a new user fee.
can I get an extension on my 990 filing?
Yes, for 990-EZ and full Form 990, file Form 8868 before your original due date for an automatic 6-month extension. There is no extension available for Form 990-N; it must be filed on time regardless.
what does a club treasurer do differently from other officers?
The treasurer is the officer specifically responsible for money: collecting dues and fundraiser income, paying bills, reconciling accounts, and reporting balances to the board. Other officers may handle programming or membership, but the treasurer is accountable for financial records and the annual 990 filing.
how much does it cost to file a 990?
Form 990-N is free to file directly through the IRS website. Form 990-EZ and full Form 990 have no IRS filing fee either, but many groups pay a CPA or e-file service, and prices vary widely depending on your organization's complexity and location.
does a small booster club with under $5,000 in income still need to file?
Yes. There is no minimum income exemption from filing; even organizations with very small or zero gross receipts still need to file at least the 990-N e-Postcard annually, as long as they hold IRS tax-exempt status. Skipping it for three years triggers automatic revocation.
what's the difference between 990-N, 990-EZ, and full 990?
990-N is for gross receipts under $50,000, no financial detail required. 990-EZ is for gross receipts under $200,000 and assets under $500,000, requiring a real financial breakdown. Full 990 is required above those thresholds and includes extensive schedules on governance and compensation.
what is a treasurer of a club responsible for if the club is auto-revoked?
The treasurer typically leads the reinstatement process: confirming revocation status through the IRS, refiling exemption paperwork, and checking whether state charity registration or sales tax exemption is also affected. It's a multi-step process and details should be confirmed directly with the IRS.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Due Date: 990 filings are due the 15th day of the 5th month after the fiscal year ends
- IRS, Annual Filing and Forms: which version of Form 990 to file based on gross receipts and total assets thresholds
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations, Form 990-N (e-Postcard): 990-N eligibility, required information, and filing process
- IRS, Notice 2020-23 and related e-file guidance for exempt organizations under the Taxpayer First Act: electronic filing is required for Form 990-EZ under the Taxpayer First Act
- IRS, About Form 8868: Form 8868 provides an automatic 6-month extension for 990-EZ and full 990 filers
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status after three consecutive years of not filing required 990 forms
- 26 U.S. Code Section 6652(c), failure to file certain information returns: daily penalty amounts and caps for late 990/990-EZ filing
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2014-11, Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement: organizations can apply for streamlined retroactive reinstatement within 15 months of revocation