Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
Every tax-exempt nonprofit, including tiny booster clubs and PTOs, must file some version of Form 990 every year, even with $0 income. Which version depends on gross receipts and assets: 990-N (under $50,000), 990-EZ (under $200,000/$500,000 assets), full 990, or 990-PF for private foundations. The deadline is the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends, usually May 15.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations. It is not a bill. Nonprofits generally don't owe income tax, so the 990 exists to show the IRS (and the public) what money came in, what went out, and who controls the organization. Think of it as an annual report crossed with a public accountability document. The form comes in four flavors depending on your size: Form 990-N (the "e-Postcard"), Form 990-EZ, the full Form 990, and Form 990-PF for private foundations. The IRS states plainly that "most tax-exempt organizations are required to file an annual return" and that failing to file for three consecutive years results in automatic loss of tax-exempt status [1]. Here's the part that surprises new booster club and PTO treasurers every year: there is no minimum income exemption. A booster club that raised $600 last year from a bake sale still has to file something. The $50,000 threshold determines which form you file, not whether you file at all [2]. For background on the whole family of 990 forms, see our form 990 overview and the plain-English 990 tax form explainer.
What is the 990 tax form used for, exactly?
The IRS and state charity regulators use Form 990 to check that a tax-exempt group is actually operating for its stated exempt purpose, not funneling money to insiders. Donors, grantmakers, and watchdog sites like GuideStar/Candid also pull public 990 data to evaluate a nonprofit before writing a check. For a small booster club, the practical uses are narrower but real. Your 990 (or 990-N) is the proof you show a bank when opening an account under the EIN, the document a school district may ask for before letting you operate as the official booster organization, and the record that keeps your federal tax exemption alive year over year. It also creates a public paper trail. Full Form 990 and 990-EZ filings are posted publicly (redacted for donor names in most cases), and the IRS makes them searchable through its Tax Exempt Organization Search tool [3]. If your group ever gets asked "are you a real 501(c)(3)?", the 990 filing history is the answer. One wrinkle worth knowing: 990-N filings (the e-Postcard) are not public in the same downloadable-PDF way as the EZ and full 990, but the IRS still lists filing status and dates in its search tool.
Which version of Form 990 do I file? (990-N vs 990-EZ vs 990 vs 990-PF)
| 990-N (e-Postcard) | Small orgs | Gross receipts normally ≤ $50,000 [4] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 990-EZ | Mid-size orgs | Gross receipts < $200,000 AND total assets < $500,000 [5] | |
| Form 990 (full) | Larger orgs | Gross receipts ≥ $200,000 OR total assets ≥ $500,000 [5] | |
| 990-PF | Private foundations | All private foundations, regardless of size [1] | The IRS defines the 990-N eligibility this way: organizations "whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" may file the e-Postcard instead of a longer form [4]. "Normally" matters here; the IRS uses a rolling average over your current year and the two prior years for orgs that haven't been around three full years yet, so one unusually good fundraising year doesn't automatically bump you up. Most booster clubs, small PTOs, and youth sports leagues live in 990-N territory. A group that runs a big annual gala or sells a lot of raffle tickets can cross into 990-EZ range without anyone noticing until it's time to file. Check your total gross receipts every year, more than once when you got your exemption. See our breakdowns of the 990-N and form 990-n specifically if that's the form you'll be filing, and irs form 990 for the mid-size and full versions. |
Your filing threshold is based on gross receipts and total assets for the tax year, not net income after expenses. Gross receipts means everything that came in: ticket sales, concession revenue, raffle proceeds, membership dues, sponsorships, all of it, before subtracting costs. | Form | Who files it | Threshold |
How do I actually file Form 990-N (the e-Postcard)?
Filing the 990-N takes most treasurers under ten minutes once they have the right information in hand, and it costs nothing. You do it entirely online through the IRS website; there's no paper option for the 990-N. Here's what you need before you start: your organization's EIN (not the treasurer's SSN), the legal name and mailing address on file with the IRS, the name and address of a principal officer, your tax year (usually the calendar year or the fiscal year your bylaws specify), confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, and a statement confirming the organization hasn't terminated. The filing happens through the IRS's Form 990-N (e-Postcard) system, which the agency describes as the tool for organizations to "electronically submit Form 990-N" annually [6]. You'll need to create or use an existing IRS account (the agency moved 990-N filing to its main sign-in system in recent years). If you've never filed before, or you're not sure whether the group has an active IRS account, start early. Account setup snags are the number one reason treasurers miss the May deadline on what should be a five-minute task. Once submitted, you'll get an on-screen confirmation. Save it as a PDF. The IRS doesn't mail you anything, and there's no accepted paper substitute if you lose it.
How do I file Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990?
If your gross receipts or assets push you above the 990-N threshold, you're filing either Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990, and both require actual accounting, more than a web form. Form 990-EZ is four pages plus schedules and asks for a summarized statement of revenue, expenses, and balance sheet, plus program service accomplishments and compensation of officers. The full Form 990 runs eleven core pages plus whichever of the sixteen possible schedules apply to your organization (Schedule A for public charity status, Schedule G for fundraising events and gaming, Schedule B for contributor information if you cross donation thresholds). As of the tax years beginning in 2021 and later, the IRS requires electronic filing for essentially all exempt organization returns, including 990-EZ and the full 990, under the Taxpayer First Act [7]. Paper filing is no longer accepted for most filers. You'll file through an IRS-authorized e-file provider; the IRS keeps a list of approved software companies on its site. This is the point where most volunteer treasurers hire a CPA or use nonprofit-specific tax software rather than DIY-ing it, and that's a reasonable call. A 990-EZ done wrong (misclassifying program vs. administrative expenses, missing a required schedule) can trigger IRS follow-up letters that eat a volunteer's whole spring. Budget $200 to $800 for a preparer familiar with small nonprofits, depending on your region and complexity; get a quote before you commit, since prices vary a lot by area and by how clean your books already are.
When is Form 990 due?
Form 990, in any version, is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's accounting period ends. For a calendar-year organization (year ending December 31), that's May 15 of the following year [1]. If your booster club or PTO runs on a school-year fiscal calendar (say, July 1 to June 30), your 990 is due November 15. Check your bylaws or your original IRS determination letter to confirm which fiscal year you're actually on; a surprising number of booster clubs discover mid-filing that nobody formally set this and different officers have assumed different years. You can request a single automatic six-month extension using Form 8868, which pushes a May 15 deadline to November 15. The IRS notes this extension is automatic, meaning you don't need to explain why, you just need to file it on time . There is no second extension available for Form 990 filers; miss the extended deadline and you're just late. Mark the date the moment you take over as treasurer. Set two reminders: sixty days out and two weeks out. This is the single easiest compliance failure to avoid and the most common one that leads to auto-revocation.
What happens if my nonprofit misses the Form 990 deadline?
A single late filing usually means a penalty, not loss of status. The IRS can assess penalties for late 990-EZ or full 990 filings (990-N has no late penalty because there's no dollar amount on it to calculate a percentage against), and those penalties accrue per day the return is late, up to a cap tied to the organization's gross receipts . The real danger is three years in a row. Section 6033(j) of the tax code, added by the Pension Protection Act of 2006, automatically revokes tax-exempt status for any organization that fails to file its required 990 form (in any version) for three consecutive years. The IRS is explicit about this: "Organizations that fail to file for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status" and revocation is effective as of the original filing due date of the third year, not the date the IRS notices [1]. This is exactly how so many booster clubs and PTOs end up revoked without anyone realizing it happened. A treasurer moves away, the next one doesn't know a 990-N was ever required, three years pass, and the IRS publishes the org's name on its Auto-Revocation List. Nobody gets a warning phone call first. If you're not sure whether your organization is already on that list, search your organization's name and EIN in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool before you do anything else [3]. That single check tells you whether you're filing a normal annual return or dealing with reinstatement, which is a very different process.
What if my organization has already been auto-revoked?
Reinstatement is possible, but it's a real project, not a form you fill out in an afternoon. The path depends on how long you've been revoked and your organization's size, and the IRS lays out four different reinstatement procedures in Revenue Procedure 2014-11, including streamlined retroactive reinstatement for organizations that were eligible to file 990-N or 990-EZ and apply within 15 months of revocation . In practice this means filing a new Form 1023 (or 1023-EZ if you qualify) exemption application, paying the associated user fee, and often filing the delinquent 990s for the missed years, even though your status was already revoked for those years. The user fee for Form 1023-EZ is currently $275, and for the full Form 1023 it's $600, though the IRS updates these periodically, so confirm the current fee on the IRS site before you file . During the revocation period, any donations made to your organization were not tax-deductible to the giver, which is an awkward conversation if parents claimed booster club dues or donations on their taxes during that window. This is exactly the kind of mess a new treasurer inherits and needs to untangle carefully, ideally with a CPA who has done nonprofit reinstatements before.
What records do I need before I sit down to file?
Gather these before you touch the form, whether it's a five-minute 990-N or a full 990 with a preparer: - Your EIN and the legal name exactly as it appears on your IRS determination letter
- Total gross receipts for the year, broken out by source (dues, concessions, fundraisers, sponsorships, raffle proceeds)
- Total expenses, broken into categories (program spending like uniforms and equipment vs. administrative costs)
- A year-end balance: bank balances, any reserve accounts, outstanding liabilities
- Names and addresses of current officers and directors
- Copies of the prior year's 990 or 990-N confirmation, if one exists
- Any state charity registration renewal filed the same year, since many states ask for a copy of the federal 990 as part of their own paperwork If your books are a shoebox of receipts and a bank statement, get them into a simple spreadsheet with monthly income and expense totals before filing season. This is also the moment a lot of treasurers realize their bank reconciliation has drifted from what the outgoing treasurer told them. Fix that first; don't file a 990 built on numbers you don't trust.
Do state charity registration rules affect my 990 filing?
Yes, and this trips people up constantly. Filing Form 990 with the IRS satisfies your federal obligation, but most states run a separate charitable solicitation registration system that often requires its own annual renewal, and many states specifically ask for a copy of your federal 990 as an attachment. Around 40 states require charities that solicit donations from their residents to register before fundraising and to file annual renewals, according to the National Association of State Charity Officials, which maintains contact information for each state's charity regulator . Requirements, fee amounts, and thresholds differ by state; some exempt small organizations under a certain revenue amount, others don't exempt anyone. Confirm with your state charity office (usually housed in the Attorney General's office or Secretary of State) whether your booster club or PTO needs to register, and whether that registration needs annual renewal alongside your 990. Don't assume federal 501(c)(3) status covers you at the state level; it doesn't.
What does a treasurer do, day to day, around all this?
A treasurer is the officer responsible for an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping bank accounts reconciled, reporting the financial picture to the board or members, and making sure required filings (federal 990, state charity registration, sometimes raffle licensing paperwork) actually get done on time. What does a treasurer do in a club, specifically? In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, the treasurer usually handles: depositing fundraiser and dues income, paying vendor invoices (uniforms, tournament fees, equipment), maintaining a simple ledger or spreadsheet, presenting a financial report at meetings, and filing (or making sure someone files) the annual 990 and any state paperwork. What does a club treasurer do that a regular member doesn't? Signing authority on the bank account and legal responsibility for the organization's financial records, mainly. Most booster club and PTO treasurers are volunteers with no accounting background who inherited a binder (or a shoebox) from whoever did the job before them. That's normal, and it's exactly why the 990 filing deadline catches so many groups off guard: nobody trained the new treasurer, and the outgoing one already moved on. If that's you right now, the first two things to do are (1) find the EIN and last filed 990 or 990-N, and (2) check the IRS Auto-Revocation List [3] before anything else. This is the kind of gap a State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: a one-time $99 packet with your state's specific charity registration steps, a 990 filing calendar built around your actual fiscal year, and the recordkeeping templates a new volunteer treasurer needs on day one, instead of piecing it together from a dozen different .gov pages under deadline pressure.
What's the fastest way to check my filing status and get organized going forward?
Start with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool [3]. Search your organization's name and EIN. This tells you three things in under a minute: whether you're currently listed as tax-exempt, whether you're on the Auto-Revocation List, and what your last filed return was. From there, build a simple annual calendar: your fiscal year end date, the 990 due date (15th day of the 5th month after), a note of which form version you filed last year and your gross receipts trend, and your state charity registration renewal date if one applies. Put it in whatever calendar system the organization actually uses, more than in the treasurer's head, because treasurers rotate out constantly in these volunteer roles. If you're setting up a new booster club or PTO fiscal year system from scratch, our [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) hub page walks through the broader picture of ongoing IRS compliance beyond just the annual filing, including recordkeeping habits that make next year's 990 take twenty minutes instead of two weekends.
Frequently asked questions
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations, including tiny booster clubs and PTOs. It reports income, expenses, and leadership, and it's how the IRS and public track whether a nonprofit is operating as claimed. Failing to file any version for three straight years triggers automatic loss of tax-exempt status under IRS Code Section 6033(j).
What is a 990 tax form used for?
It shows the IRS and the public what a nonprofit earned, spent, and who runs it. Despite the name, it's not a tax bill; most exempt organizations owe no income tax. Donors, grantmakers, school districts, and banks also use it (or the 990-N confirmation) to verify an organization's tax-exempt status before working with it.
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks an organization's money: recording income and expenses, reconciling bank accounts, reporting financials to the board, and handling required filings like the annual 990 and state charity registration renewals. In small nonprofits like booster clubs, the treasurer often also manages fundraiser cash handling and vendor payments directly.
What does a club treasurer do differently from a regular officer?
The club treasurer usually has bank signing authority and direct legal responsibility for financial recordkeeping, which most other officers don't have. That includes depositing income, paying bills, keeping a ledger, and making sure the organization's federal 990 and any state charity filings happen on schedule each year.
Do I have to file a 990 if my booster club has no income this year?
Yes. There's no minimum-income exemption from filing; the $50,000 gross receipts threshold determines which version of Form 990 you file (990-N versus 990-EZ versus full 990), not whether you file at all. Even a group with $0 in activity still needs to file the 990-N e-Postcard if it holds tax-exempt status.
How much does it cost to file Form 990?
Form 990-N is free and filed directly through the IRS website. Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990 usually requires a paid preparer or nonprofit tax software; expect roughly $200 to $800 depending on your area and complexity, though this varies widely, so get a quote first.
What happens if my nonprofit is on the IRS Auto-Revocation List?
You'll need to apply for reinstatement, typically by filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again and often the delinquent 990s for missed years. The IRS outlines four reinstatement paths in Revenue Procedure 2014-11, including a streamlined retroactive option for small organizations applying within 15 months of revocation.
Can I file Form 990 on paper?
Generally no. Under the Taxpayer First Act, the IRS requires electronic filing for essentially all exempt organization returns for tax years beginning in 2021 and after, including 990-EZ and the full Form 990. Form 990-N has always been online-only, with no paper version ever offered.
What's the difference between Form 990-N and Form 990-EZ?
Form 990-N (the e-Postcard) is for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less; it's a short online form with basic identifying information and takes minutes. Form 990-EZ is for organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000, and requires actual revenue, expense, and balance sheet detail.
When is Form 990 due each year?
The 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's fiscal year ends. For calendar-year organizations, that's May 15. A single automatic six-month extension is available via Form 8868, pushing that deadline to November 15, with no second extension option after that.
Does filing Form 990 with the IRS cover my state requirements too?
No. Most states run a separate charitable solicitation registration system, and around 40 states require annual renewal for charities that fundraise from their residents, often requesting a copy of the federal 990 as part of that renewal. Confirm with your specific state charity office or Attorney General's office.
What is a treasurer in a club, in plain terms?
The treasurer is the volunteer or elected officer who manages the club's money: bank accounts, recordkeeping, reporting to the group, and required filings. In booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues, this is usually an unpaid parent volunteer who inherits the role with little formal training.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Due Date: 990 due date is 15th day of 5th month after fiscal year end; three consecutive years of non-filing triggers automatic revocation
- IRS, Annual Filing and Forms overview: most tax-exempt organizations must file an annual return regardless of income level
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: tool to check current exempt status and auto-revocation listing
- IRS, e-Postcard (Form 990-N) overview: 990-N eligibility is for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less
- IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: 990-EZ threshold: gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000
- IRS, About Form 8868: automatic six-month extension available via Form 8868 with no need to state a reason
- IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: four reinstatement procedures for organizations that lost exemption via automatic revocation, including streamlined retroactive reinstatement within 15 months