How to file the 990-n e-postcard: a treasurer's guide

Last updated 2026-07-24

what is the 990-n e-postcard?

The 990-N, nicknamed the e-Postcard, is the shortest annual filing the IRS offers to tax-exempt organizations. It replaced paper filing entirely; there's no PDF version and no mail-in option. You file it online, answer eight questions, and you're done. It exists because Congress required almost all tax-exempt organizations to file something annually, even tiny ones, starting with the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Before that law, groups under $25,000 in gross receipts didn't have to file anything, which meant the IRS had no idea which small nonprofits were still active. That's how so many booster clubs and PTOs ended up dormant on paper for a decade without anyone noticing ^[1]. The e-Postcard isn't a financial statement. It doesn't ask about your budget line items, your fundraiser profits, or your bank balance in any detail. It's a status check: are you still here, what's your EIN, who's your principal officer, and do you still qualify for the small-org exception.

who has to file form 990-n?

$50,000 or less	990-N (e-Postcard)
More than $50,000 and less than $200,000, and total assets under $500,000	990-EZ (or full 990)
$200,000 or more, or assets $500,000 or more	Form 990	Source: IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File [2] Gross receipts means everything that came in the door: ticket sales, concession revenue, raffle sales (more than profit), sponsorships, membership dues, the works. It is not net income. A booster club that grossed $60,000 in car wash and concession sales but only netted $12,000 after expenses still has to look at the $60,000 number, not the $12,000.

You qualify for the 990-N if your organization's gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less per year, and you're not required to file a different version of the 990 ^[2]. "Normally" is an IRS term of art, more than last year's number. For an organization in its first three years, the IRS uses an average of what you've actually received. For organizations older than three years, it looks at a rolling average of the current year plus the prior two. Here's the practical table most treasurers actually need: | Average annual gross receipts | Which form you file |

what information do you need before you start?

Gather these before you sit down, because the online system times out and you don't want to be hunting for your EIN mid-session: - Your organization's Employer Identification Number (EIN)

• Legal name and any "doing business as" name
• Mailing address
• Website URL if you have one
• Name and address of a principal officer
• Your tax year (usually the calendar year or a fiscal year ending June 30, common for school-affiliated groups)
• Confirmation that gross receipts are $50,000 or less
• A statement confirming the organization hasn't terminated or gone out of business That's the whole list. There's no revenue breakdown, no expense categories, no board member roster required for the 990-N itself. If your organization's records are a mess because the last treasurer vanished with a shoebox of receipts, the good news is the e-Postcard doesn't force you to reconstruct all of it just to file. You'll still want clean books for your own sanity and for handoff purposes, but this specific form is forgiving.

how do you actually file the 990-n?

You file through the IRS's Form 990-N (e-Postcard) system, accessed at irs.gov ^[1]. As of the current system, you register or log in using Login.gov credentials, then select your organization and answer the eight questions. Step by step: 1. Go to the IRS 990-N filing page and follow the link to the filing system. 2. Sign in or create a Login.gov account if you don't have one. 3. Search for your organization by EIN. 4. Confirm your tax year. 5. Enter or confirm the organization's mailing address, website, and principal officer. 6. Confirm gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less. 7. Confirm the organization hasn't terminated. 8. Submit. You'll get an on-screen confirmation and usually an email receipt. Print or save the confirmation as a PDF; that's your proof of filing, and the IRS doesn't mail you a paper receipt. If your filing gets rejected (usually because the EIN doesn't match IRS records, or the org name doesn't match exactly), the system tells you immediately and you can fix it and resubmit the same day.

when is the 990-n due, and what if you're late?

The e-Postcard is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's tax year ends ^[2]. For a calendar-year organization (tax year ending December 31), that's May 15. For a fiscal year ending June 30, common for school booster clubs syncing with the school year, the deadline is November 15. There's no monetary penalty for filing the 990-N late, which surprises a lot of new treasurers. The IRS doesn't charge a late fee for this particular form the way it does for the 990 or 990-EZ. But there's a much bigger consequence sitting behind the scenes: miss it for three consecutive years and the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status, no warning letter required beyond what's already public law ^[3]. That's the trap. A booster club that skips filing for a couple of years because "nothing happened, no penalty showed up" can wake up on year three having lost tax-exempt status entirely, and not even know it until a bank or a grant application asks for a determination letter that no longer applies.

what happens if you don't file for three years (auto-revocation)?

Automatic revocation is written directly into the tax code. Section 6033(j) of the Internal Revenue Code states that an organization "shall have its tax-exempt status revoked" if it fails to file the required annual return or notice for three consecutive years ^[3]. The IRS publishes a searchable Auto-Revocation List, and once you're on it, you're treated as a taxable entity from the filing due date of that third missed year forward. Practical fallout: donations made to your organization during the revoked period may not be tax-deductible for donors. Your organization may owe federal income tax on revenue during that window. Many grant funders, school districts, and banks require proof of active 501(c)(3) or 501(c) status before they'll cut a check or renew a facility-use agreement, and a revoked org fails that check instantly. The fix is Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement (Revenue Procedure 2014-11), available to small organizations eligible to file the 990-N or 990-EZ, that lets you file Form 1023 or 1023-EZ with the correct user fee and get reinstated retroactive to your original exemption date, as long as you apply within 15 months of revocation or the later of the two relevant notice dates ^[4]. Miss that window and reinstatement gets more expensive and more paperwork-heavy. If your group is already on the revocation list, check our irs and 990 hub for the reinstatement path before you do anything else.

what is form 990, and how is it different from the 990-n?

Form 990 is the umbrella name for the IRS's series of annual information returns for tax-exempt organizations. It's not one form; it's a family: the full Form 990, the shorter Form 990-EZ, and the electronic-only Form 990-N. Each version reports the same basic idea (who you are, what you took in, what you spent, who runs the place) at different levels of detail depending on your size ^[5]. The full Form 990 is a multi-page return covering revenue by source, expenses by function, executive compensation, governance policies, and a long list of schedules for things like fundraising events, related organizations, and lobbying. It applies to organizations with $200,000 or more in gross receipts or $500,000 or more in total assets ^[2]. Form 990-EZ sits in the middle: a four-page return for organizations between $50,000 and $200,000 in gross receipts (and under $500,000 in assets). It asks for real financial detail, revenue and expense breakdowns, a balance sheet, program service descriptions, but it's far shorter than the full 990. The 990-N is the bottom tier: eight data points, no financials, filed entirely online. If your booster club or PTO grows past $50,000 in gross receipts, even for one unusually good fundraising year, you may need to bump up to the 990-EZ for that year, then check again the next.

what is a 990 tax form used for?

A 990 tax form (in any version) is an information return, not an income tax return in the traditional sense. Its main job is public accountability: the IRS uses it to confirm an organization still qualifies for tax-exempt status, and the public (donors, grantmakers, journalists, competitors, nosy parents) can use it to see how a nonprofit spends its money ^[5]. All versions of the 990 are, by law, open for public inspection. Sites like the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search and third-party databases post them once filed. That transparency requirement is part of why board members and treasurers should treat the numbers carefully; a sloppy 990 (or 990-EZ) becomes a permanent public document. For most parent-run booster clubs and PTOs under $50,000 in gross receipts, this whole system reduces to the 990-N, which sidesteps the public financial detail question because there isn't any financial detail on the form. That's a relief for privacy but it also means the 990-N alone tells a donor almost nothing about your organization's actual finances. Some booster clubs still choose to publish a simple annual summary for parents even when the IRS doesn't require it, purely for trust.

what does a treasurer do (and how does 990-n filing fit in)?

A treasurer's core job is keeping the organization's money honest and its paperwork current: tracking income and expenses, reconciling the bank account, presenting financial reports to the board, and making sure required filings (state and federal) go in on time. Filing the 990-N is one recurring item on that list, not the whole job. What a club treasurer does day to day usually includes: depositing fundraiser and dues income promptly, paying vendor invoices and reimbursing volunteers, keeping receipts organized enough to survive a board question or an audit, maintaining a simple ledger or spreadsheet, and reporting a balance and recent activity at each meeting. What a treasurer of a club does annually adds the bigger-picture items: confirming gross receipts to know which 990 version applies, filing the 990-N (or handing financials to whoever prepares the 990-EZ), renewing any state charitable registration, and checking whether a raffle license needs renewal. New treasurers taking over mid-year often inherit a mess: no idea if last year's 990-N got filed, a bank account with a signer who graduated three years ago, receipts in a shoebox. The 990-N part of the fix is usually the easiest piece: log in, check the 990n filing history using your EIN on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool, and see what's actually on record before assuming the worst.

how do you check if your organization's tax-exempt status is still active?

Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which lets you search by EIN or organization name and shows current exempt status, filing history (including whether 990-N filings show up), and whether the organization appears on the Auto-Revocation List . This is the single most useful five-minute task for any new treasurer walking into an unfamiliar set of books. What you're looking for: does the search show your organization as "eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions"? Does the filing history show a 990-N for each of the last several years, or are there gaps? Is your organization's name on the Auto-Revocation list at all? If you find a gap of one or two missed years, the fix is simple: file the current year's 990-N right now, going forward, and don't worry about the missed years retroactively since there's no separate penalty for the 990-N specifically (the risk is only the three-strikes automatic revocation). If you find your organization already revoked, stop and read the reinstatement section above before doing routine filings, because you may need Form 1023 or 1023-EZ first, not another 990-N.

does filing the 990-n cost anything?

No. Filing Form 990-N costs $0. The IRS doesn't charge a filing fee for the e-Postcard itself ^[1]. That's different from Form 1023-EZ (the streamlined application for 501(c)(3) status), which currently carries a user fee, or full Form 1023, which carries a higher one; check the current fee schedule on irs.gov since these numbers get adjusted periodically. Where organizations do spend money is on state-level compliance that often runs parallel to the federal 990-N: state charitable solicitation registration fees (which vary by state, commonly in the $10 to $400 range depending on the state and your revenue tier), raffle license fees if you run raffles, and any accounting help you hire if your books are behind. None of that is required by the IRS for the 990-N itself; it's a separate layer most treasurers discover the hard way. This is a spot where a State-Personalized Treasurer Kit can save real time: instead of hunting down your specific state's charity registration office, raffle licensing rules, and filing calendar separately from the federal 990-N deadline, a $99 one-time kit maps out what applies in your state so you're not guessing which agency wants what by when.

what if your booster club or pto has never filed anything?

This happens more than anyone likes to admit. A booster club forms informally, opens a bank account under a coach's or parent's Social Security number instead of an EIN, and nobody ever applies for tax-exempt status or files anything with the IRS. Technically, if you don't have recognized tax-exempt status, the 990-N doesn't even apply to you yet, because it's only for organizations already recognized as exempt (or those that self-declare as exempt under certain subsections without applying, which is legally possible for some categories but risky in practice). The fix path is usually: get an EIN for the organization itself (never use a personal SSN for an ongoing club account), determine which exempt category fits (most booster clubs and PTOs aim for 501(c)(3), some qualify instead as 501(c)(4) or other categories depending on activities), and apply using Form 1023-EZ if eligible or full Form 1023 if not. Once recognized, the 990-N filing clock starts from your exemption effective date. This is bigger than a 990-N question and worth getting actual guidance on, ideally from a local accountant familiar with nonprofit setups or your state attorney general's charity division, since "which exemption category and how to apply" is where DIY approaches tend to go wrong. Confirm specifics with the IRS and your state charity office before assuming your existing setup is fine.

Frequently asked questions

What is form 990?

Form 990 is the IRS's annual information return for tax-exempt organizations. It comes in three sizes based on gross receipts and assets: the full Form 990, the shorter Form 990-EZ, and the electronic-only Form 990-N (e-Postcard) for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. All versions report on the organization's activity and finances to keep exempt status current.

What is the 990?

"The 990" usually refers generically to whichever version of the IRS annual return an organization files: full 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N. Full 990 covers organizations with $200,000+ in gross receipts or $500,000+ in assets; 990-EZ covers the middle tier; 990-N covers organizations normally under $50,000 in gross receipts, per IRS filing thresholds.

What is a 990 tax form?

A 990 tax form is an information return, not an income tax bill. It reports a tax-exempt organization's revenue, expenses, and (for larger versions) governance details to the IRS and the public. It confirms continued eligibility for tax-exempt status rather than calculating tax owed, since most exempt organizations owe no federal income tax on program activities.

What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer tracks the organization's income and expenses, reconciles the bank account, reports finances to the board, pays bills and reimbursements, and handles required filings like the 990-N and any state charitable registration or raffle license renewal. It's part bookkeeper, part compliance officer, part board reporter.

What does a club treasurer do?

A club treasurer manages day-to-day money (deposits, reimbursements, ledger entries), presents a financial report at meetings, and handles annual obligations like confirming gross receipts, filing Form 990-N or handing data to whoever prepares a 990-EZ, and renewing any state registrations. The scope grows with the club's budget size.

What does a treasurer of a club do differently from a regular member?

Unlike other officers, a club treasurer has signing authority (or oversight) on the bank account, holds records the IRS or state may request, and carries personal responsibility for accurate reporting even though the club itself is the filer. That's why handoff documentation between treasurers matters so much.

Who is required to file Form 990-N?

Tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less per year file Form 990-N, unless they choose to file the 990-EZ or full 990 voluntarily. "Normally" means an averaged figure over the current year and prior two (or all prior years for organizations under three years old), per IRS guidance.

When is the 990-N e-Postcard due?

It's due the 15th day of the 5th month after your organization's tax year ends. Calendar-year organizations file by May 15. Organizations on a July-to-June fiscal year, common for school booster groups, file by November 15.

What happens if I file the 990-N late?

There's no direct monetary penalty for a single late 990-N filing. The real risk is cumulative: missing it for three consecutive years triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j), with no separate warning letter beyond that statutory rule.

How do I check if my nonprofit lost its tax-exempt status?

Search your organization's EIN or name on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov. It shows current exempt status, filing history, and whether you appear on the Auto-Revocation List. This takes about five minutes and is the first thing any new treasurer should do.

How do I get tax-exempt status back after auto-revocation?

Small organizations eligible for the 990-N or 990-EZ can use Streamlined Retroactive Reinstatement under Revenue Procedure 2014-11: file Form 1023 or 1023-EZ with the required fee within 15 months of the revocation notice date to get reinstated retroactive to your original exemption date. Miss that window and the process gets more complicated.

Does the 990-N cost money to file?

No. The IRS charges $0 to file Form 990-N. It's the cheapest and shortest of all the annual filing options, though separate state charity registration or raffle license fees may still apply depending on your state.

Can a treasurer file the 990-N, or does it need a board vote?

The treasurer or any authorized officer with the organization's EIN and basic details can file the 990-N directly online; the IRS doesn't require board pre-approval for this specific filing. Many boards still like a treasurer to report that it's done, since it's the organization's legal record.

Sources

1. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): The 990-N was created by the Pension Protection Act of 2006, requiring small exempt organizations to file annually for the first time.
2. IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: Gross receipts thresholds determine which version of Form 990 (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) an organization must file, and the 990-N deadline formula.
3. 26 U.S.C. Section 6033(j), Internal Revenue Code: Organizations that fail to file required annual returns or notices for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status.
4. IRS, Exempt Organizations Annual Reporting Requirements overview: The Form 990 series serves as a public accountability information return distinct from an income tax return.
5. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: Organizations and the public can check current exempt status, filing history, and auto-revocation status using this IRS tool.