Form 990 for nonprofits: what treasurers must file each year

Last updated 2026-07-24

what is form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return that most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's not an income tax return in the usual sense, since exempt orgs generally don't owe federal income tax on money raised for their mission. Instead, it's a disclosure document: revenue, expenses, assets, program activities, board members, and sometimes compensation for anyone getting paid. The IRS uses it to confirm your organization is still operating within its exempt purpose. The public (and GuideStar/Candid, and any parent nobody in your booster club listening) uses it to see where the money went. Form 990 filings are public record; the IRS is required to make them available for inspection ^[1]. There are four main versions, and which one applies to you depends almost entirely on how much money moved through your organization that year, not on how organized your paperwork is.

what is the 990 tax form, exactly, and why does it exist?

The legal name is "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax." Congress requires it under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033, which says tax-exempt organizations must file annual returns unless specifically excepted ^[2]. The IRS's own description: organizations exempt from income tax under section 501(a) must file an annual information return, and "the Form 990 series returns are due on the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's accounting period ends" ^[3]. For a booster club or PTO running on a calendar year (January to December), that means May 15. If your fiscal year ends June 30 (common for school-affiliated groups), your deadline is November 15. The form exists so the public and the IRS both have a way to check that a tax-exempt entity is actually behaving like one: no private benefit to insiders, no political campaign activity, spending roughly in line with mission. It's the tradeoff for the tax break. You get to skip federal income tax on donations and fundraising revenue, and in exchange you tell the government (and anyone who asks) what you did with it.

which version of the 990 does my organization file?

Form 990-N (e-Postcard)	Gross receipts normally $50,000 or less	Simplest, 8 basic info items, filed online only [4]
Form 990-EZ	Gross receipts under $200,000 AND total assets under $500,000	Short form, several pages
Form 990 (full)	Gross receipts $200,000+ OR total assets $500,000+	Full disclosure, schedules
Form 990-PF	Private foundations	Required regardless of size	The IRS states the 990-N threshold plainly: organizations "whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" may file the e-Postcard instead of a full return [4]. "Normally" is doing some work in that sentence: it's based on a 3-year average, not a single good (or bad) fundraising year, so a one-time golf tournament windfall won't necessarily bump you into a higher filing tier. Most small booster clubs and PTOs land in the 990-N bucket. If your group runs a big annual gala or holds substantial reserves, check the EZ or full 990 thresholds carefully. There's no form-shopping here: the thresholds decide it for you, not preference.

This is the part treasurers actually need memorized. The IRS sets thresholds based on gross receipts and total assets, and they change occasionally, so confirm current figures with the IRS before filing. | Filing | Who files it | Rough threshold |

what happens if you miss filing the 990 for your nonprofit?

This is the scary part, and it's the reason this topic matters to a first-time treasurer more than almost anything else in the job. The IRS states it directly: "Automatic revocation occurs when an organization does not file required Form 990-series returns for three consecutive years" ^[5]. Three years. Not three warnings. There is no notice mailed before the deadline, and by the time you get anything from the IRS, the exemption is already gone, retroactive to the original filing due date. Your organization is now legally a taxable entity, which means donations aren't tax-deductible to donors, and the org itself may owe corporate income tax on revenue going forward. This happens constantly to volunteer-run groups because the job rotates every year or two, filing deadlines fall in the middle of summer break, and the outgoing treasurer's login credentials walk out the door with them. Nobody hands off a checklist. Three years later, a parent googling the organization's name finds it on the IRS Auto-Revocation List and panics. The fix, if it happens to you, is Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement under Rev. Proc. 2014-11, available to organizations that were eligible to file 990-N or 990-EZ for the year revocation took effect, if they apply within 15 months of the revocation date using Form 1023 or 1023-EZ ^[6]. It costs a filing fee and some paperwork, but it's a known, survivable process. Don't panic. Do act.

what does a treasurer do?

A treasurer is the person legally and practically responsible for an organization's money: tracking it, reporting it, and making sure it's spent the way the group's members and bylaws intend. For a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, that means keeping the checkbook (or the online banking login), reconciling it monthly, and knowing at any moment how much cash is on hand and where it came from. Day to day, the job is smaller than people expect. You deposit money after fundraisers, pay invoices with two signatures if your bylaws require it, and keep receipts filed somewhere a stranger could find them. Once a year, the job gets bigger: you file whichever version of Form 990 applies, renew any state charitable solicitation registration, and hand a clean set of books to whoever audits or reviews them next. The honest answer to "what do treasurers do" most of the year is: nothing dramatic, just steady bookkeeping. The honest answer to what breaks organizations is treasurers who let that steady bookkeeping slide for six months and then can't reconstruct it.

what does a club treasurer do differently from a corporate one?

A booster club or PTO treasurer has a much smaller budget than a corporate CFO but often faces the same compliance requirements with none of the staff support. There's no accounting department to call. You are the accounting department, usually part-time, usually unpaid, usually also parenting a kid on the team. What's genuinely different: club treasurers deal in cash a lot more (concession stand money, raffle ticket sales, car wash proceeds), which means more physical handling of bills and coins and more risk of an honest counting error looking like something worse. Corporate treasurers rarely touch a cashbox. Club treasurers count one every Friday night in the fall. Club treasurers also inherit the job from someone else almost every single time, often with incomplete records. A corporate CFO gets a formal handoff with lawyers involved. A booster treasurer gets a shoebox and a Venmo password, if they're lucky.

what does a treasurer do in a club or PTO, specifically, month by month?

Breaking the year into a rough calendar helps new treasurers see the shape of the job instead of feeling like it's all deadline panic in April. Monthly: reconcile the bank statement against your own ledger. Deposit fundraiser proceeds within a few days, not weeks. Pay approved invoices, keep the receipts, log every transaction with a date and purpose, more than an amount. Quarterly: report to the board or PTO membership on income vs. expenses against budget. Flag anything unusual (a bounced check, a missing receipt, a fundraiser that underperformed). Annually: file the 990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990 depending on your gross receipts ^[4]. Renew your state charitable solicitation registration if your state requires one (many do; check with your state's attorney general or secretary of state charity office). Prepare a year-end financial summary for the outgoing/incoming board. If your bylaws require it, arrange an independent review or audit of the books before handoff. The 990 tax form filing is the single highest-stakes item on that list, purely because of the three-year auto-revocation cliff. Everything else is recoverable with some awkward conversations. That one has a hard federal deadline with no grace period built in.

what is a treasurer, legally, and what are they on the hook for?

Legally, a treasurer is an officer of the organization, usually named in the bylaws, with fiduciary duty to the org's members and its stated mission. "Fiduciary duty" sounds heavier than it usually plays out day to day, but it means real things: you can't use organization money for personal benefit, you have to keep accurate records, and you're expected to act with reasonable care, not perfection. Most booster clubs and PTOs are incorporated as nonprofit corporations under state law and recognized as tax-exempt under IRC Section 501(c)(3) (or occasionally 501(c)(4) or 501(c)(7) depending on the group). The treasurer isn't personally liable for the organization's debts in most cases, thanks to the corporate structure, but that protection can weaken if records are so bad that a court can't distinguish the org's finances from an individual's. Sloppy books aren't just an inconvenience; they're a legal exposure, even if a small one for a group this size. Practically, what you're on the hook for: keeping records good enough that if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, the next person could reconstruct the year from your files. That's the real test. Not perfection. Reconstructability.

what records does a treasurer need to keep for the 990?

You need enough detail to fill out whichever 990 version applies, and enough backup that if the IRS or a state charity regulator ever asks, you can show your work. The IRS's recordkeeping guidance for exempt organizations recommends keeping records that support items on your return, since good recordkeeping helps you prepare complete and accurate returns and identify sources of receipts ^[7]. At minimum, keep: bank statements and reconciliations for every month, a ledger or accounting software export showing every transaction, receipts for expenses over a reasonable threshold your bylaws set, board meeting minutes (990 asks about your board and governance practices), and copies of every 990 you've filed, plus the confirmation of acceptance. If your organization holds a raffle, keep the raffle records separately and per your state's charitable gaming rules; some states require gross receipts and prize payout detail that's more granular than what the 990 itself asks for. Check with your state's raffle licensing office before assuming your 990 records cover it.

does a small booster club or PTO really need to file anything with the IRS?

Yes, almost certainly, if you have federal tax-exempt status. The common myth is that small, all-volunteer groups are too small to bother the IRS with. That's backwards: the smallest orgs get the simplest form (990-N), but simplicity doesn't mean optional. The IRS's list of exceptions to the annual filing requirement is narrow, covering things like certain church-related organizations and government-affiliated entities; almost no booster club, PTO, or youth sports league qualifies ^[3]. If you have an EIN and you've been recognized as tax-exempt (or you're operating as if you are, which many small groups do informally without ever confirming status with the IRS), you likely need to file something every year. A genuinely useful gut check: if your organization has an EIN, go to the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool and look yourself up. If you're not there, or you're listed as revoked, that's your first fire to put out, before worrying about this year's fundraiser.

what's the difference between form 990 and other 990 variants people ask about?

People searching "irs form 990" often actually mean one of the variants, so it's worth naming them plainly. Form 990-N is the e-Postcard: eight data fields, filed entirely online through the IRS's own site, no paper option, no financial detail beyond confirming you're under the gross receipts threshold ^[4]. Form 990-EZ is a multi-page short form for mid-size orgs, asking for a summarized income statement and balance sheet plus some governance questions. Form 990 (the full version) is what larger nonprofits file: detailed financials, executive compensation disclosure, extensive schedules on everything from lobbying to related organizations. Form 990-PF is a different animal entirely, filed by private foundations regardless of size, with its own disclosure rules around grants and investment income. When someone says "the ^[990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990)," in booster-club and PTO contexts they usually mean 990-N, since that's the tier most small volunteer organizations fall into. But don't assume; check your organization's actual gross receipts before picking a form.

how do you actually file the 990, step by step?

For 990-N: go to the IRS's e-Postcard filing system online (accessible through irs.gov), register or log in, confirm your EIN and tax year, and enter eight basic items: legal name, mailing address, website if you have one, name and address of a principal officer, tax year, confirmation your gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, and a statement if the organization has terminated ^[4]. It takes most treasurers under fifteen minutes once they have the EIN and prior-year confirmation handy. For 990-EZ or full 990: these require either commercial tax software that supports the form, a paid preparer familiar with nonprofit returns, or (for confident treasurers with clean records) careful manual preparation using the IRS instructions for that specific form. Given the schedules and governance questions involved, most booster clubs at this size bring in outside help rather than DIY it. Whichever form applies, file before the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends, mark the date on next year's calendar the same day you file, and save the confirmation. That confirmation is the single most valuable piece of paper in your entire treasurer binder.

where boosterledger fits into all this

None of this is legal or tax advice, and nothing here guarantees your filing will be accepted or your exempt status preserved; the IRS and your state charity office make those calls, and rules change. What a new treasurer usually needs most isn't more explanation, it's a starting checklist built for their specific state and organization type. That's what the $99 one-time State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is for: it walks through your state's specific charitable registration and raffle rules alongside the federal 990 basics, so you're not piecing together a checklist from a dozen different .gov pages during your first month on the job. Build one at the treasurer kit builder once you know your organization's filing tier.

Frequently asked questions

what is form 990 for nonprofits?

Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS, disclosing revenue, expenses, assets, and governance details. It's public record, not a tax bill; most small exempt orgs owe no federal income tax. Which version you file (990-N, 990-EZ, 990, or 990-PF) depends on your gross receipts and total assets ^[3][4].

what is a 990 tax form used for?

It's used by the IRS to confirm a tax-exempt organization is still operating consistently with its exempt purpose, and by the public to see how a nonprofit spent its money. Donors, journalists, and watchdog sites like Candid pull data straight from filed 990s, so accuracy and timeliness both matter.

what does a treasurer do in a booster club or PTO?

A treasurer tracks all incoming and outgoing money, reconciles the bank account monthly, deposits fundraiser proceeds promptly, pays approved bills with documentation, reports finances to the board, and files the organization's annual Form 990 and any required state charitable registration renewal.

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

Other officers handle programming, membership, or communications; the treasurer is the only one with legal and financial custody of the org's money and records. They're named in bylaws, hold fiduciary duty over funds, and are the person the IRS and state regulators expect to hear from on filings.

what happens if a nonprofit doesn't file form 990 for three years?

The IRS automatically revokes tax-exempt status after three consecutive years of missed filings, with no advance warning notice required ^[5]. The revocation is retroactive, meaning donations may no longer be tax-deductible and the organization could owe back taxes. Reinstatement is possible through Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement under Rev. Proc. 2014-11 if you act within 15 months ^[6].

which 990 form does a small PTO or booster club file?

Most small booster clubs and PTOs with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less file Form 990-N, the e-Postcard, entirely online ^[4]. Groups with receipts up to $200,000 and assets under $500,000 generally file 990-EZ. Larger organizations file the full Form 990. Confirm your exact tier with the IRS since thresholds can shift.

is form 990 the same as a nonprofit's income tax return?

Not exactly. It's an information return, not a bill for taxes owed on program revenue, since exempt orgs generally don't pay federal income tax on mission-related income. But it discloses financials in detail and any unrelated business income may still trigger a separate tax form (990-T).

how much does it cost to file form 990-N?

Filing Form 990-N itself costs nothing; it's free through the IRS's online e-Postcard system ^[4]. Costs come in if you need a paid preparer for a 990-EZ or full 990, or if you've missed filings and need to pay reinstatement fees to recover revoked tax-exempt status.

what does a treasurer of a club actually need to keep track of?

Bank statements and monthly reconciliations, a full transaction ledger, receipts for expenses, board meeting minutes, copies of every 990 filed, and any state charitable solicitation or raffle license paperwork. The test isn't perfect bookkeeping; it's whether a stranger could reconstruct the year from your files.

can a treasurer be personally liable for a nonprofit's tax problems?

Usually not, since most booster clubs and PTOs are incorporated nonprofits with limited liability protection for officers. That protection weakens if records are so disorganized a court can't separate personal and organizational finances, so keeping clean, separate books matters beyond just IRS compliance.

when is the form 990 deadline?

The 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's fiscal year ends. For a calendar-year organization (January to December), that's May 15. For a fiscal year ending June 30, common for school-affiliated groups, the deadline is November 15 ^[3].

what is the 990 called officially, and where do you file it?

Officially it's the "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax." Form 990-N is filed online only through the IRS's e-Postcard system. Forms 990-EZ and 990 can be filed electronically through IRS-authorized e-file providers or commercial nonprofit tax software; paper filing options have narrowed in recent years.

Sources

1. IRS, "Exempt Organizations Public Disclosure and Availability of Exemption Applications and Returns" (Publication 4573 / disclosure regulations, 26 CFR 301.6104(d)-1): Form 990 filings are public record and the IRS makes them available for inspection
2. 26 U.S.C. Section 6033, annual returns by exempt organizations: tax-exempt organizations must file annual returns under Section 6033 unless excepted
3. IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Due Date: Form 990 series returns are due the 15th day of the 5th month after the accounting period ends, and the narrow filing exceptions
4. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations - Form 990-N (e-Postcard): organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less may file Form 990-N and what it requires
5. IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: automatic revocation occurs after three consecutive years of not filing required Form 990-series returns
6. Rev. Proc. 2014-11, 2014-3 I.R.B. 411 (Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement procedures): organizations can apply for streamlined retroactive reinstatement within 15 months of revocation
7. IRS, Publication 4221-PC, Compliance Guide for 501(c)(3) Public Charities: IRS recordkeeping guidance recommends exempt organizations keep records supporting return items and gross receipts
8. 26 U.S.C. Section 6652(c), failure to file certain information returns (penalties tied to Form 990 series): statutory basis for penalties tied to late or missing Form 990-series filings