What is IRS Form 990? the filing every treasurer needs

Last updated 2026-07-24

what is IRS Form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations (churches are a notable exception) file with the IRS to report income, spending, activities, and governance. It's not a tax bill in most cases, since exempt orgs generally don't owe income tax on donations and normal program revenue. Think of it as the public accountability filing: the IRS uses it to confirm you're still behaving like the type of organization you said you were, and the public (donors, grant funders, watchdog sites) uses it to see where the money went. The IRS states plainly that "tax-exempt organizations, nonexempt charitable trusts, and section 527 political organizations file Form 990 to provide the IRS with the information required by section 6033" ^[1]. That's the legal hook: section 6033 of the Internal Revenue Code requires most exempt organizations to file annually, and Form 990 (in one of its versions) is how they do it. If you just inherited the treasurer binder for a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, this is probably the single most important recurring deadline on your calendar. Miss it and the consequences are not gentle. More on that below.

what is the 990 tax form actually used for?

The 990 tax form tells the IRS and the public four things: how much money came in, how much went out, what the org spent it on, and who's running the show. For a booster club that means concession stand revenue, sponsorship money, raffle proceeds, and how much went to uniforms, travel, or equipment versus admin costs. Beyond the IRS, the 990 becomes a public document. Sites like GuideStar/Candid and ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer post filed 990s so anyone, including a parent wondering where booster dues went, can look them up. Some grantmakers and corporate sponsors won't cut a check to an organization until they've pulled its 990 or confirmed 990-N filing status on the IRS's own Tax Exempt Organization Search tool ^[2]. So the honest answer to "what is the 990" is: it's both a compliance filing and a transparency document. Treat it as both when you fill it out. Sloppy numbers don't just risk IRS trouble, they look bad to the next parent who Googles your booster club's name.

which version of Form 990 does my booster club or PTO file?

990-N (e-Postcard)	Gross receipts normally $50,000 or less	Simplest, 8 questions online, no financial detail required [3]
990-EZ	Gross receipts under $200,000 AND total assets under $500,000	Short form with basic financial statements [4]
990 (full/long form)	Gross receipts $200,000+ OR total assets $500,000+	Full financial statements, program service detail, governance section [4]
990-PF	Private foundations	Different rules entirely, rare for booster clubs	Most small booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues fall well under $50,000 in gross receipts and file the 990-N. If your group is filing 990-N for the first time or has never filed anything, read our 990n guide and our form-990-n walkthrough before you start. One thing that trips people up: "gross receipts" means total money that came in before expenses, not net profit. A group that grossed $60,000 from concessions and spent $55,000 on uniforms and travel still has $60,000 in gross receipts, and that pushes it above the 990-N threshold into 990-EZ territory. Confirm the current thresholds with the IRS, since these numbers have shifted over the years and could again.

There are four main versions, and which one you use depends almost entirely on gross receipts and total assets. Get this wrong and you either overfile (wasting hours on paperwork you didn't need) or underfile (which can trigger penalties). | Form | Who files it | Threshold |

what does a treasurer do?

A treasurer keeps the organization's money organized, accounted for, and reported correctly, both internally to the board and externally to the IRS and state regulators. In a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, that usually means tracking deposits and expenses, reconciling the bank statement every month, preparing a budget, and making sure the group files whatever version of Form 990 it owes each year. Day to day, the job is less glamorous than people expect. It's counting concession stand cash after a Friday night game, logging it correctly, and depositing it promptly instead of letting it sit in someone's car. It's tracking which sponsor paid what, and issuing a thank-you letter or in-kind receipt when needed. It's making sure two people, not one, ever touch cash boxes and bank deposits together, because that single control prevents most of the accidental (and occasional intentional) money problems booster clubs run into. Once a year, the job gets bigger: pull together the year's financial activity and either file the 990-N yourself in about 15 minutes online, or hand organized numbers to whoever preps the 990-EZ or full 990. A treasurer who keeps clean monthly records makes that annual filing a non-event. A treasurer who lets receipts pile up in a shoebox turns it into a stressful scramble every spring.

what is a treasurer, exactly, and what's the difference from a bookkeeper?

A treasurer is an elected or appointed officer, usually a volunteer, responsible for an organization's overall financial health, reporting to the board, and signing off on major money decisions. A bookkeeper (paid or volunteer) is the person entering transactions day to day. In most booster clubs and PTOs, one person wears both hats, but it's worth understanding the distinction, especially as the organization grows. The treasurer role usually comes with fiduciary duty, meaning the person is legally and ethically obligated to act in the organization's best financial interest, not their own. That's not a throwaway phrase. Many state nonprofit statutes explicitly hold officers to a duty of care and duty of loyalty standard. If you're stepping into the role for the first time, read your bylaws for what exactly the treasurer is authorized to do (sign checks alone? Need a co-signer above a dollar threshold? Report monthly or quarterly?) because that document, not tradition, defines your actual authority.

what do treasurers do in a club, day to day and month to month?

Daily and weekly, a club treasurer collects and deposits cash from events, records every transaction (dues, sponsorships, concession sales, fundraiser proceeds), pays approved invoices, and keeps receipts filed in a way the next person could understand without a phone call. Monthly, the job shifts to reconciliation: matching the checkbook or accounting software against the actual bank statement, catching errors or missing deposits early instead of at year-end. Most well-run clubs also require a monthly treasurer's report to the board, a simple one-page summary of income, expenses, and current bank balance. This isn't busywork; it's the paper trail that protects both the treasurer and the club if anyone ever asks "where did the money go?" Annually, the treasurer (or whoever takes over the filing) handles the big-ticket items: preparing or contributing to the Form 990 filing, renewing any state charitable solicitation registration, renewing raffle or gaming licenses if the club runs raffles, and often helping prep for an incoming treasurer's handoff if there's board turnover, which there almost always is in volunteer organizations. If your club is planning a raffle fundraiser, check our raffles-by-state hub, since raffle rules vary heavily by state and typically require a separate license from your state's charity office or attorney general, on top of anything the IRS requires.

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

A club treasurer (booster club, PTO, youth league) usually handles far less money, has far fewer controls in place by default, and relies almost entirely on volunteer trust rather than paid audit staff or accounting software with built-in approval chains. That combination is exactly why volunteer treasurer roles are higher-risk per dollar than a corporate treasury job, even though the dollar amounts are tiny by comparison. A company treasurer works with a finance department, internal audit, and often external CPAs reviewing the books. A club treasurer might be the only person who's ever looked closely at the bank statement all year. That's not a criticism of volunteers, it's just the reality of how these organizations are staffed. The practical fix is structural, not about finding a more trustworthy volunteer: require two signers on the bank account, require a second person to count cash at events, and require a board vote (recorded in minutes) for any expense over a set dollar threshold. See our financial-controls hub for specifics on setting these up in a small organization.

what happens if a booster club or PTO doesn't file Form 990?

If your organization fails to file the required Form 990 (in whatever version applies) for three consecutive years, the IRS automatically revokes its tax-exempt status. This isn't a warning-then-penalty system; the revocation is automatic under section 6033(j) of the tax code once the third year is missed ^[5]. The IRS's own guidance is direct about this: organizations that don't file "for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status" ^[1]. Once that happens, the organization owes federal income tax on its revenue going forward (starting from the revocation date), donations to it are no longer tax-deductible for donors, and the org's name shows up on the IRS's public Automatic Revocation of Exemption List ^[6], which is exactly the kind of thing a suspicious parent, a school district compliance officer, or a corporate sponsor's legal team can and does search. Getting reinstated is possible but takes real paperwork: filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again (yes, from scratch in most cases), paying the applicable user fee, and often demonstrating "reasonable cause" for the lapse if you want retroactive reinstatement back to the revocation date. The IRS lays out the streamlined and standard reinstatement procedures in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 ^[7]. It's a multi-week to multi-month process, not a same-day fix, so the much cheaper move is simply not missing three years in a row. Our 990-tax-form guide covers reinstatement in more depth if you're already past due.

when is the 990 deadline, and how do I find my organization's due date?

Form 990 (any version) is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's fiscal year ends. For a group on a calendar fiscal year (Jan 1 to Dec 31), that's May 15. For a school-year fiscal year (July 1 to June 30, common for PTOs and boosters tied to a school calendar), that's November 15 ^[3]. Extensions exist. Filing Form 8868 gets you an automatic 6-month extension for most 990 versions ^[8], though 990-N (the e-Postcard) has no extension option since it's just a short online form, there's simply nothing to extend, so late means late. If you don't know your organization's fiscal year off the top of your head, check the original IRS determination letter from when the group first got tax-exempt status, or look up the organization on the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool, which shows filing history and can help you reconstruct the deadline pattern even if the paper trail from prior treasurers is thin.

do small booster clubs and PTOs really have to file anything with the IRS?

Yes, almost always, if the organization has 501(c)(3) or other tax-exempt status. The 990-N threshold is generous (gross receipts normally $50,000 or less) but the filing requirement itself has almost no floor: there's no "too small to file" exception once you're recognized as tax-exempt ^[3]. There's a common myth that small clubs are exempt from filing anything. That's not accurate. Even a tiny booster club that raised $8,000 last year from bake sales and car washes still owes a 990-N unless it's specifically exempted (a small number of categories, like certain church-affiliated groups, are exempt from the 990 filing requirement generally) ^[1]. If you're not sure whether your specific group falls under the IRS's group exemption (some PTOs file under a state PTA's group ruling rather than individually), check with your state PTA office or your district's parent organization guidance, since that changes who files what. The upside: 990-N takes most treasurers under 20 minutes once you have the organization's EIN, legal name, and a rough gross receipts figure. That's a small price for staying off the automatic revocation list.

what records does a treasurer need to keep to file the 990 accurately?

At minimum: a running ledger of every deposit and expense with dates and descriptions, monthly bank statements, receipts or invoices for anything over a small dollar threshold (many clubs use $25 or $50 as the line), and a simple annual summary of total income and total expenses by category (concessions, sponsorships, dues, equipment, travel, etc). For 990-N specifically you don't submit financial detail to the IRS, just confirm gross receipts are under the threshold. But you should still have the detail on hand, both because a board member or auditor might ask, and because if receipts unexpectedly cross $50,000 you'll need that detail fast to file the 990-EZ instead. Good recordkeeping habits matter more than fancy software. A shared spreadsheet, updated monthly and backed up somewhere besides one person's laptop, beats an expensive accounting package nobody actually opens. What actually prevents problems is consistency: same categories every month, same reconciliation process every month, and a habit of writing a one-line description on every transaction instead of relying on memory six months later. This is exactly the gap a State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close, a one-time $99 tool that sets up the ledger categories, filing calendar, and handoff checklist specific to your state and organization type, so a brand-new volunteer treasurer isn't reinventing the wheel from a blank spreadsheet in April.

what should a new treasurer do in the first 30 days?

Pull the last three years of filed 990s (search the org's EIN on Tax Exempt Organization Search) to confirm the group is actually current and hasn't already been auto-revoked without anyone noticing. This single step catches more problems than anything else a new treasurer can do in week one. Next, find the bylaws and read the treasurer section specifically. Confirm who has bank signing authority, whether a co-signer is required, and what dollar threshold requires board approval before spending. Then get added to the bank account (and removed the prior treasurer if they've left the role) and confirm online banking access. Finally, figure out the org's fiscal year end and set a calendar reminder 60 days before the 990 deadline, not 5 days before. If the organization runs raffles, confirm the state raffle license status too, separate from anything IRS-related, since that's a state charity office or attorney general filing, not a federal one. Our irs-form-990 piece and ^[990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) overview are good next reads once the basics above are handled.

Frequently asked questions

What is IRS Form 990 in simple terms?

It's the annual report tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS showing money in, money out, and how the group operates. It's not usually a tax bill; it's an information return required under Internal Revenue Code section 6033. Most small booster clubs and PTOs file the simplest version, Form 990-N, once a year.

What is a 990 tax form used for?

The 990 tax form lets the IRS confirm an organization is still operating within its tax-exempt purpose, and lets the public (donors, sponsors, grantmakers) see financial activity. Versions range from the simple 990-N e-Postcard for small orgs to the full Form 990 for larger ones with $200,000+ in gross receipts.

What is a treasurer?

A treasurer is the officer, usually elected or appointed, responsible for an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, reconciling bank accounts, reporting to the board, and making sure required filings like Form 990 get done. Bylaws define the exact authority and reporting requirements for the role.

What does a treasurer do in a club?

A club treasurer deposits and records income, pays approved expenses, reconciles the bank account monthly, prepares a simple financial report for the board, and handles the annual Form 990 filing (or hands organized records to whoever preps it). In clubs that run raffles, the treasurer usually also tracks the state gaming license status.

What does a club treasurer do differently from a company treasurer?

A club treasurer typically works alone with volunteer-level tools (a spreadsheet, a shared bank account) and little built-in oversight, unlike a company treasurer who has finance staff and audit processes behind them. That's why simple controls like requiring two signers and a second person to count event cash matter more, not less, in volunteer organizations.

Do PTOs have to file Form 990?

Yes, if the PTO holds its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, unless it operates under a state PTA's group exemption, in which case the group files on its behalf. Confirm which situation applies with your state PTA office, since the filing obligation differs.

What happens if a nonprofit misses the Form 990 deadline?

One missed year usually triggers a late notice but not loss of status. Miss three consecutive years and the IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j), no warning letter required at that point. Reinstatement means reapplying for exemption from scratch.

How do I know which version of Form 990 my organization needs?

It depends on gross receipts and total assets. Under $50,000 gross receipts normally means Form 990-N; under $200,000 gross receipts and under $500,000 total assets usually means Form 990-EZ; above those, the full Form 990. Confirm current thresholds with the IRS since they can change.

Is Form 990 public information?

Yes. Filed 990s (990-EZ and full 990, not the 990-N e-Postcard's underlying data beyond basic confirmation) are public documents, available through the IRS and sites like ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer and Candid's GuideStar. Donors and sponsors often check them before giving.

Can I file Form 990-N myself as a volunteer treasurer?

Yes. Form 990-N is filed online directly through the IRS system, takes about 15 to 20 minutes, and requires no financial statements, just basic organization info and confirmation that gross receipts are under the threshold. You don't need an accountant for this specific version.

What's the difference between Form 990 and Form 990-EZ?

Form 990-EZ is a shorter version for organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000. The full Form 990 requires more detailed financial statements, program service descriptions, and governance disclosures, and applies once an organization exceeds those thresholds.

What does a treasurer of a club actually get held accountable for?

Accuracy of the financial records, timely filings (Form 990 and any state charity registration), safeguarding cash and bank access, and reporting honestly to the board. Most bylaws also hold the treasurer to a fiduciary duty, meaning decisions must serve the organization's interest, not personal convenience.

Sources

1. IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: Organizations file Form 990 under section 6033 and lose exemption after three consecutive years of non-filing
2. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: Public tool to verify filing status and history of a tax-exempt organization
3. IRS, e-file for Charities and Non-Profits (Form 990-N): 990-N threshold is gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, and general 990 deadline rules
4. IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: Thresholds for Form 990-EZ (under $200,000 receipts, under $500,000 assets) versus full Form 990
5. 26 U.S. Code section 6033: Statutory basis for annual information return requirement and automatic revocation after three years
6. IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption List: Public list of organizations that lost tax-exempt status through automatic revocation
7. IRS, Revenue Procedure 2014-11: Procedures for reinstatement of tax-exempt status after automatic revocation
8. IRS, About Form 8868: Form 8868 provides an automatic 6-month extension for most Form 990 filings