Form 990-EZ and 990-N
The threshold between a short return and an electronic postcard determines how much of a small organisation the public can actually see.
- Instrument
- Form 990-EZ and Form 990-N
- Obliges
- Smaller filers, by receipts and assets rather than by choice.
Plate 01 · 990-EZ eligibilitygross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000
Two tiers below the full 990
Organisations with gross receipts below $200,000 and total assets below $500,000 may file Form 990-EZ ↗, a four-page condensed version of the full return. The EZ captures revenue, expenses, a balance sheet, officers and their compensation, and a handful of programme descriptions — enough for a researcher to build a working picture of the organisation. Schedules attach where required: Schedule A for public charity status, Schedule B for major donors, others as triggered.
Below a second threshold — gross receipts normally under $50,000 — the organisation files the 990-N, known informally as the e-Postcard. It is an electronic notice rather than a return, and it asks for eight data points: legal name, any doing-business-as name, principal address, EIN, name of a principal officer, website if one exists, confirmation that receipts are still under the threshold, and a statement that the organisation has not terminated. No financials, no programme descriptions, no compensation disclosures. The IRS accepts it; the public sees almost nothing.
That visibility gap matters. Candid and similar aggregators can populate a profile from a 990-EZ. From a 990-N, they can confirm existence and not much else. An organisation sitting just below the $50,000 line and filing the e-Postcard is, functionally, opaque to outside scrutiny in a way that a slightly larger neighbour filing the EZ is not.
One administrative consequence follows every filer regardless of form size: three consecutive years without any filing triggers automatic revocation ↗ of exempt status. The 990-N's simplicity makes it easy to forget, which is precisely why small organisations lose status at a disproportionate rate. Filing the e-Postcard takes minutes; failing to file costs the organisation its exemption and requires a formal reinstatement process to recover it.