Form 990-N (e-Postcard): Who Files It, When, and How
If your nonprofit's gross receipts are small, this is the only IRS filing you owe every year. It takes about ten minutes online and costs nothing, but the rule for who qualifies is more specific than "under $50,000," and missing it three years running has a consequence with no warning shot.
Who has to file Form 990-N
Form 990-N, commonly called the e-Postcard, is available to tax-exempt organizations whose annual gross receipts are "normally $50,000 or less." Every 501(c)(3) that isn't a private foundation and isn't required to file the longer Form 990 or 990-EZ is expected to file something every year, and for small organizations, this is that something.
The word doing the real work in that sentence is "normally." The IRS doesn't look at a single year in isolation; it uses an averaging test, and the test is different depending on how long your organization has existed. Most guides gloss over this and just say "under $50,000," which is close but not quite right for a brand-new organization.
The exact "normally $50,000 or less" test
| Organization's age | Threshold to qualify for 990-N |
|---|---|
| In existence 1 year or less | $75,000 or less received (or pledged) in that first tax year |
| In existence between 1 and 3 years | Averaged $60,000 or less in gross receipts during each of the first two tax years |
| In existence 3 years or more | Averaged $50,000 or less over the immediately preceding 3 tax years, including the year being calculated |
In plain terms: a brand-new organization gets more room in its first year ($75,000, not $50,000), a little less room in year two ($60,000 average), and only settles into the familiar $50,000 average once it's been around three years or longer. If your organization is young and running close to these numbers, don't assume the flat $50,000 figure applies to you; check which row you're actually in.
If your organization is a private foundation, it cannot file Form 990-N regardless of size; private foundations file Form 990-PF every year, no exceptions. This page is about public charities and other exempt organizations eligible for the small-filer exception.
What Form 990-N actually asks for
The e-Postcard is short by design. There are exactly eight items, and if you have your paperwork handy, you can fill it out faster than you can read this section:
- Employer Identification Number (EIN), the number the IRS uses to identify your organization. If you don't have one yet, our FAQ covers how to get one free directly from IRS.gov.
- Tax year. The 12-month accounting period your organization uses, calendar or fiscal.
- Legal name and mailing address, exactly as it appears on your articles of incorporation or organizing document.
- Any other names your organization does business under, if different from the legal name.
- Name and address of a principal officer, usually whoever your bylaws name as president, vice president, secretary, or treasurer.
- Website address, if you have one (leave it blank if you don't).
- Confirmation that your annual gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less, using the table above to check which threshold actually applies to your organization's age.
- A statement that the organization has terminated or is terminating, only if that applies to you.
That's the entire form. There's no financial statement to attach, no schedule of expenses, no board list. It exists specifically so the smallest organizations aren't buried in paperwork just to stay in the IRS's system.
How to file it
Form 990-N is filed electronically only; there is no paper version. The IRS's e-Postcard system is accessed through the IRS's Submit Form 990-N (e-Postcard) tool, and you'll need to sign in with a Login.gov or ID.me account to access it. If you don't already have one of those accounts, creating one takes a few extra minutes the first time you file; after that, it's the same account you'll reuse every year.
Once you're signed in, the form walks through the eight items above. There's nothing to upload and nothing to mail. Filing is free directly through the IRS; you never need to pay a third-party service to file a 990-N on your behalf, though some accounting or compliance tools bundle it into a broader service if you're already paying for one.
When it's due
Form 990-N is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after your tax year ends. For a calendar-year organization (tax year ending December 31), that's May 15. If your fiscal year ends on a different month, count forward five months and use the 15th of that month.
There's no extension form for Form 990-N specifically, since there's nothing to calculate and no payment involved. If you're going to be late, file as soon as you can rather than waiting; see the next section for why the deadline matters less for any single year and much more for the pattern.
What happens if you miss it (the part that surprises people)
Here's the detail that trips people up in both directions: there is no monetary penalty for filing Form 990-N late. Unlike the full Form 990, where late filing can trigger daily dollar penalties, missing your 990-N deadline by itself costs you nothing. No fine, no interest, no letter demanding payment.
That doesn't mean it's safe to ignore. The real consequence is structural, not financial, and it's severe: if your organization fails to file for three consecutive years, the IRS automatically revokes your tax-exempt status. This isn't a discretionary decision by an IRS employee reviewing your file; it happens by operation of law, on the filing due date of that third missed year, with no separate warning notice required first.
Automatic really means automatic. There's no penalty for one late year, and none for two. But the day the third consecutive deadline passes without a filing, your 501(c)(3) status is gone; not "at risk," gone. Your organization gets added to the IRS's public Auto-Revocation List, donations made after that date are no longer tax-deductible, and you'd need to reapply for exemption from scratch.
This is exactly why the deadline matters even though the penalty doesn't: a single missed year is a paperwork slip with zero cost, but it's also the first domino. Most organizations that get automatically revoked didn't intend to stop filing; a fiscal sponsor changed hands, a treasurer left, a "we'll get to it" turned into three years without anyone noticing.
If you've already been revoked: the recovery path, briefly
If your organization's status has already been automatically revoked for missing three consecutive years, it's fixable, though not instant. The IRS's streamlined retroactive reinstatement process, laid out in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 (still the current governing guidance as of this writing), is built for exactly this situation.
The short version: an organization that was eligible to file Form 990-N or Form 990-EZ for all three of the missed years, and that has never previously been automatically revoked, can apply for reinstatement effective back to the original revocation date by submitting Form 1023 (or Form 1024 for non-501(c)(3) organizations), paying the applicable user fee, and applying within 15 months of the revocation letter or the date the IRS posted the organization on the Auto-Revocation List. One genuinely helpful detail: if you were only ever eligible to file 990-N for those missed years, you are not required to go back and file the prior-year 990-Ns to qualify for streamlined reinstatement.
Reinstatement is its own multi-step process with its own paperwork, so treat this section as the roadmap, not the full instructions. If your organization has actually been revoked, working from IRS.gov's reinstatement page directly, or with a nonprofit-savvy attorney or accountant, is worth it before you file anything.
Never miss your 990 deadline
Tell us your fiscal year end and email. We'll send the First 90 Days checklist as a PDF now, and remind you before your Form 990-N is due each year (miss three years in a row and the IRS revokes your status automatically).
No spam. A few genuinely useful emails a year, and you can leave anytime.
Related reading: see the First 90 Days checklist for where your first 990-N deadline fits into everything else you're setting up, and our FAQ for the quick-reference version of this same rule alongside other common early questions.