IRS Request for Electronic Form 990-N (e-Postcard)

Has your tax-exempt organization received the following letter from the IRS informing you that they did not receive your Form 990-N? Read EVERYTHING on this page carefully!

If you have received one or more of these notices, you only need to worry if your organization has failed to submit Form 990-N (electronic postcard) for three years in a row (consecutive years). In that case, your organization automatically loses its tax-exempt status by operation of law. Otherwise, relax.

Some facts:

There is no penalty for submitting Form 990-N late.

There is no penalty for not submitting Form 990-N for one year or even for two consecutive years.

Form 990-N can be filled out and submitted electronically (there is NO PAPER FORM) at the Urban Institute's web site: http://epostcard.form990.org/

You cannot file an e-Postcard for a prior year through the epostcard web site. For example, if the organization’s tax year ended on December 31, 2008 and you attempt to file your 2008 e-Postcard after the close of your 2009 tax year (December 31, 2009), the filing system only will allow you to file for 2009. (Although not required by the IRS, you can file an e-Postcard for a recent prior year through an approved e-file service provider.) However, the IRS does not continue to accept e-filed returns forever.

[Note: The IRS has been sending out notices to organizations demanding that a 2008 (or earlier year) Form 990-N be submitted by a certain date. However, the IRS has stopped accepting the 2008 Form 990-N.  There is no way to submit a 990-N for 2008 or earlier. The IRS has confirmed to me that this is a glitch in their system. (They are asking for a return that they cannot accept). You need to respond to the notice either by calling 877.829.5500, or by writing to them at the address on the notice. If none of the other required responses on the notice apply to your situation, you need to confirm that your organization's gross receipts for the year in question were normally $25,000 or less ($50,000 for tax years ending on or after December 31, 2010) so they will stop sending requests for that 990-N. This assumes that you were not required to file a Form 990-EZ or full Form 990. If you are a CPA, you can call on behalf of your client without a POA. The IRS will accept information from you but will not give you any info about the client.

Refer to my information on Form 990-N for more facts about the form, or visit the IRS website.

Visit the IRS's frequently asked questions page about 990-N.

In summary, if you've received the above notice you can respond by:

• Submitting the requested Form 990-N through the epostcard web site or through a professional tax preparer (unless it is for a prior year that the IRS is no longer accepting).
• Sending a written response to the notice. If the IRS is no longer accepting that return electronically, respond to the IRS notice in writing, telling them that you tried to file the return electronically but the IRS is no longer accepting that year. Say that your organization still qualifies as tax-exempt and that its gross receipts are normally less than $25,000 (if that is the case).
• You could probably safely ignore the notice as long as you do not put your organization in a position of not filing Form 990-N, 990-EZ, or 990 for three consecutive years. However, it is best practice to respond to ALL IRS inquiries and notices. If you don't respond, the IRS will continue sending the notices until their printer runs out of ink. (It is always best to respond to all IRS notices. This establishes the fact that you are acting in good faith and are not ignoring your filing requirements).

IMPORTANT: The IRS does not know which form you are required to file. It is requesting Form 990-N because it has probably never received a 990-EZ or Form 990 from your organization, so it is assuming that you fall beneath the $25,000 filing threshold for Form 990-EZ. Therefore it is letting you know that you still need to at least file Form 990-N. It is your responsibility to determine which form your organization is required to file!