Filing deadlines
Fiscal year ending in January
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 January 31 puts that on June 15 — unless that day is a weekend or a federal holiday, in which case it moves.
Tax year 2025 was due
June 15, 2026
Covering February 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026.
That date has passed. A return not yet filed can still be filed late, and should be. The next one is tax year 2026, due June 15, 2027.
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.
| Tax year | Period | Due | With Form 8868 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | February 1, 2025 – January 31, 2026 | June 15, 2026 | closed — the due date has passed |
| 2026 | February 1, 2026 – January 31, 2027 | June 15, 2027 | December 15, 2027 |
| 2027 | February 1, 2027 – January 31, 2028 | June 15, 2028 | December 15, 2028 |
| 2028 | February 1, 2028 – January 31, 2029 | June 15, 2029 | December 17, 2029 |
| 2029 | February 1, 2029 – January 31, 2030 | June 17, 2030June 15, 2030 is a Saturday and then a Sunday, so the deadline is the next business day. | December 16, 2030 |
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.