Filing deadlines

Fiscal year ending in December

An exempt organization files its annual return or notice by the 15th day of the 5th month after its accounting period ends. A year ending December 31 puts that on May 15 — unless that day is a weekend or a federal holiday, in which case it moves.

The next five years

Worth knowing in advance: the deadline is not on the same date every year, because the 15th lands on a different weekday each time.

Form 8868 extends a Form 990-EZ by six months if it is filed by the original due date; filed later, it extends nothing. Form 990-N cannot be extended at all — the column is there because an organization that outgrows the 990-N threshold mid-way will need it.

Which form

It depends on gross receipts, not on the fiscal year end. Form 990-N, the e-Postcard, is for an organization whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less — and “normally” is an average that depends on how long the organization has existed, so a newer one may qualify well above that. Form 990-EZ is for gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000. At either of those ceilings exactly, the full Form 990 is required instead, which this service does not prepare.

If the date has already passed

There is no late-filing penalty on Form 990-N, and the penalty on a late 990-EZ is assessed per day. The thing that actually costs an organization its exemption is the three-year rule: miss the return or notice for three consecutive years and tax-exempt status is revoked automatically, by operation of law, on the due date of the third one. That is the deadline worth being afraid of, and it is why filing late still beats not filing.

If it has already happened, the reinstatement guide covers the four routes back — and why filing the missed returns does not, on its own, restore exemption.

A different year end

Or use the deadline calculator.

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