Filing Form 990-N online is free on the IRS website and takes about five minutes once you have an IRS.gov account and eight pieces of basic information ready. Small tax-exempt organizations use this electronic notice, called the e-Postcard, to confirm they’re still active. There is no fee, no paper form, and no postage.
Can Your Organization Use the E-Postcard
Form 990-N is for organizations exempt under Section 501(c) whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6033 – Returns by Exempt Organizations That covers more than 501(c)(3) charities. Social welfare groups, social clubs, and other 501(c) subsections can use it as long as they meet the income threshold.2Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations FAQs: Who Must File
Newer organizations get more room. If yours is a year old or less, first-year gross receipts must be $75,000 or less. Between one and three years old, the two-year average must be $60,000 or less. Three years and older, the three-year average must be $50,000 or less.3Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations – Form 990-N (e-Postcard)
Two types of organizations cannot use the e-Postcard no matter how small. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, and Section 509(a)(3) supporting organizations file Form 990 or 990-EZ.4Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2011-15 If you’re over the gross receipts threshold, you’ll file Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990 instead.
When It’s Due
The e-Postcard is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after your tax year ends. For a calendar-year organization, that’s May 15. If the date falls on a weekend or federal holiday, it moves to the next business day.5Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations FAQs: When to File You can’t file until after your tax year has closed.
There is no extension for Form 990-N. The IRS also doesn’t charge a penalty for filing late, though it may send a reminder notice.5Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations FAQs: When to File The real risk is missing three years in a row, which triggers automatic revocation of your tax-exempt status.
What to Have Ready
Gather everything before you sign in so the session doesn’t time out. The e-Postcard asks for eight items:3Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations – Form 990-N (e-Postcard)
- Your nine-digit Employer Identification Number (EIN).
- The tax year you’re reporting, calendar or fiscal.
- The organization’s legal name, matching IRS records exactly.
- Any “doing business as” names.
- The organization’s current mailing address.
- Name and address of a principal officer.
- Website URL, if you have one.
- Confirmation that gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less.
The legal name has to match what the IRS has on file. If it doesn’t, the filing gets rejected. A recent name change or a typo when the EIN was first issued are common culprits.
Set Up Your IRS.gov Account
Before you can reach the filing system, you need an IRS.gov account verified through ID.me, the identity service the IRS uses.6Internal Revenue Service. Creating an Account for IRS.gov Have a government photo ID handy (driver’s license, state ID, or passport). The system asks you to take a short video selfie and matches it to the ID.
Self-service verification usually takes five to ten minutes. A video call option is available if the automated route fails. If you’ve already verified through ID.me for another IRS purpose, those same credentials work here, so this is a one-time setup.
Filing the E-Postcard Step by Step
Open the IRS Form 990-N Electronic Filing System page and sign in with your ID.me credentials.3Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations – Form 990-N (e-Postcard) From the dashboard, choose to create a new filing for the current tax period. The system moves you through a short sequence of screens where you enter or confirm each of the eight items.
Review each screen before advancing. A final summary page shows everything in one view. Read it carefully. Clicking submit transmits the filing to the IRS. Let the page finish loading; double-clicking can create a duplicate submission and confuse processing.
Once you have your information ready, the whole thing runs about five minutes. There’s no financial data to enter, no schedules, and no separate signature beyond the identity verification you completed to sign in.
After You Submit
The system assigns a Submission ID as soon as you file. Save or print it. Your filing shows as “Pending” while IRS systems validate the data.7Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations FAQs: After You File The IRS doesn’t email you when the status changes, so log back in later to check.
If the status turns to “Rejected,” click the Submission ID for the reason. The two most common issues are a mismatch between the EIN and the legal name on file, and trying to file for a tax year that’s already been covered. Fix the problem and resubmit.
You cannot amend a Form 990-N. If the filing is accepted but you entered something wrong, you’ll correct it on next year’s e-Postcard.7Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations FAQs: After You File
Anyone can confirm your filing history through the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool, which also shows current exempt status.8Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search Donors and grantmakers sometimes check it before funding. Keep your Submission ID and accepted status as your compliance record for the year.
Why You Don’t Want to Skip a Year
One missed year carries no penalty. Three missed years in a row triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status, effective on the filing due date of the third missed year.9Internal Revenue Service. Automatic Revocation of Exemption After that, the organization is no longer exempt from federal income tax, donations may not be deductible for donors, and the revocation appears on a public IRS list. Getting reinstated means filing a new exemption application and paying a user fee that starts at $275 for Form 1023-EZ.10Internal Revenue Service. Form 1023 and 1023-EZ: Amount of User Fee
A calendar reminder tied to your fiscal year end is the cheapest insurance against losing exempt status over a free, five-minute filing.