Form 990 - wikipedia Form 990 Jump to : navigation , search Form 990 , 2015 Form 990 ( officially , the `` Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax '' ) is a United States Internal Revenue Service form that provides the public with financial information about a nonprofit organization . It is often the only source of such information . It is also used by government agencies to prevent organizations from abusing their tax - exempt status . Certain nonprofits have more comprehensive reporting requirements , such as hospitals and other health care organizations ( Schedule H ) . Contents ( hide ) 1 Variants 1.1 Form 990 - EZ 1.2 Form 990 - N 1.3 Form 990 - PF 2 Schedules 3 Filing requirements 3.1 Fiduciary reporting 3.2 Who must file ? 3.3 Filing modalities 4 Penalties 5 Public inspection regulations 5.1 Form 990 data published by IRS 5.2 Third - party sources of Form 990 6 History 7 Use for charity evaluation research 8 See also 9 References Variants ( edit ) Form 990 - EZ ( edit ) There is a variant of Form 990 called Form 990 - EZ ( `` Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax '' ) . This form can be used instead of Form 990 for organizations with gross receipts less than $200,000 and total assets less than $500,000 ( there are some exceptions ) . Form 990 - N ( edit ) Small organizations whose annual gross receipts are `` normally $50,000 or less '' must file the electronic Form 990 - N ( officially , `` Electronic Notice ( e-Postcard ) for Tax - Exempt Organizations Not Required to File Form 990 or Form 990EZ '' ) . There is no paper form for 990 - N , but it is possible to file instead Form 990 or Form 990 - EZ . Form 990 - PF ( edit ) Form 990 - PF is filed by private foundations in the US . It includes fiscal information and a complete list of grants , among other information . The form is due to the IRS 4.5 months after the end of the foundation 's fiscal year . Schedules ( edit ) In addition to Form 990 , tax - exempt organizations are also subject to a variety of disclosure and compliance requirements through various schedules which are attached to Form 990 ( and , in some cases , 990 - EZ or 990 - PF ) . Filing of schedules by organizations supplements , enhances , and further clarifies disclosures and compliance reporting made in Form 990 . Often , filing of schedules is mandatory , but there are situations where organizations not otherwise subject to filing requirements may consider completing certain schedules despite not being technically obligated to . Type Name Number of pages Can be filed with Form 990 - EZ ? Schedule A Public Charity Status and Public Support Yes Schedule B Schedule of Contributors 8 Yes Schedule C Political Campaign and Lobbying Activities Yes Schedule D Supplemental Financial Statements 5 No Schedule E Schools Yes Schedule F Statement of Activities Outside the United States No Schedule G Supplemental Information Regarding Fundraising or Gaming Activities Yes Schedule H Hospitals No Schedule I Grants and Other Assistance to Organizations , Governments , and Individuals in the United States No Schedule J Compensation Information No Schedule K Supplemental Information on Tax - Exempt Bonds No Schedule L Transactions With Interested Persons Yes Schedule M Noncash Contributions No Schedule N Liquidation , Termination , Dissolution , or Significant Disposition of Assets Yes Schedule O Supplemental Information to Form 990 No Schedule R Related Organizations and Unrelated Partnerships No Filing requirements ( edit ) Form 990 is due on the 15th of the 5th month after the fiscal year , with up to 6 months of extensions . The Form 990 disclosures do not require but strongly encourage nonprofit boards to adopt a variety of board policies regarding governance practices . These suggestions go beyond Sarbanes - Oxley requirements for nonprofits to adopt whistleblower and document retention policies . The IRS has indicated they will use the Form 990 as an enforcement tool , particularly regarding executive compensation . For example , nonprofits that adopt specific procedures regarding executive compensation are offered safe harbor from excessive compensation rules under section 4958 of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulation section 53.4958 - 6 . Fiduciary reporting ( edit ) According to section 1223 ( b ) of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 , a nonprofit organization that does not file annual returns or notices for three consecutive years will have its tax - exempt status revoked as of the due date of the third return or notice . An organization 's tax - exempt status may be reinstated if it can show reasonable cause for the years of nonfiling . Who must file ? ( edit ) Form 990 is to be filed by tax - exempt organizations under section 501 ( a ) . This includes organizations in section 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) ( excluding private foundations ) and most organizations in other subsections of 501 ( c ) . Tax - exempt organizations with annual gross receipts of $200,000 or more or assets of $500,000 or more must file Form 990 . Churches ( including houses of worship such as synagogues and mosques ) and their integrated auxiliaries , associations of churches , and any religious order that engages exclusively in religious activity are not required to file . Filing modalities ( edit ) The Form 990 may be filed with the IRS by mail or electronically with an Authorized IRS e-file Provider . Penalties ( edit ) There is a penalty of $20 per day that the organization fails to make its Forms 990 publicly available , which is capped at a maximum of $10,000 for any single failure . Any person who willfully fails to comply will be subject to an additional penalty of $5,000 . There are other penalties for e.g. omitting information . In 1998 , over $10 million was collected by the IRS for penalties on over 9000 forms . Public Inspection regulations ( edit ) Public Inspection IRC 6104 ( d ) regulations state that an organization must provide copies of its three most recent Forms 990 to anyone who requests them , whether in person , by mail , fax , or e-mail . Form 990 data published by IRS ( edit ) The IRS publishes Form 990 data in two main forms , as part of the Statistics of Income program : An annual extract of tax - exempt organizational data , which covers selected financial data from filters of Form 990 , 990 - EZ , and 990 - PF , with data available from calendar year 2012 to the most recent year for which filing and statistics compilation is complete . This is also available as a public dataset on Google BigQuery . As a public dataset on Amazon S3 , hosted in the US East region . The dataset includes index files for each year that list nonprofits that filed Form 990 in that year ( possibly for a previous year ) along with the identifier for their filing . This identifier can be used to fetch their filed Form 990 as a XML file . Data covers returns filed from 2011 to the present and is regularly updated . This dataset is used by Charity Navigator . Third - party sources of Form 990 ( edit ) Google BigQuery , which has IRS Form 990 data as a public dataset . This is based on statistics published by the IRS from 2012 to the most recent completed year . Charity Navigator , which maintains a `` 990 Decoder '' website with over 2.5 million tax returns . This is based on forms filed from 2011 to the present , and uploaded by the IRS to Amazon S3 . Citizen Audit provides PDF copies of annual returns , signatures not blacked out . Economic Research Institute provides PDF copies of annual returns , signatures not blacked out . Foundation Center IRS Form 990 lookup tool ; provides PDF copies of annual returns , signatures blacked out . Guidestar IRS Form 990 's and other information for selection of nonprofits , free and fee based NCCS IRS Form 990 search tool and nonprofit organization profiles , signatures blacked out . BoardSource Governance requirements in 990 . History ( edit ) Form 990 was first used for the tax year ending in 1941 . It was as a two - page form . Organizations were also required to include a schedule with the names and addresses of payees who had given the organization at least $4,000 during the year . The form reached four pages ( including instructions ) in 1947 . In 1976 this was increased to 5.5 pages ( including instructions ) , with 8 pages for Schedule A. By 2000 this was 6 pages for Form 990 , 42 pages for instructions , 6 pages for Schedule A , and at least 2 pages for Schedule B . This increase is due to use of a larger font and inclusion of sections that are only required for some organizations . Starting in 2000 , political organizations were required to file Form 990 . In June 2007 , the IRS released a new Form 990 that requires significant disclosures on corporate governance and boards of directors . These new disclosures are required for all nonprofit filers for the 2009 tax year , with more significant reporting requirements for nonprofits with over $1 million in revenues or $2.5 million in assets . In 2010 , the minimum threshold of when an organization is required to file Form 990 was increased : the minimum annual gross receipts was increased from $100,000 to $200,000 and the minimum assets was increased from $250,000 to $500,000 . With the availability of the internet , access to the Form 990 of an organization has also become easier . Originally Form 990 had to be requested through the IRS . This was changed to allow access to the form directly through the organization , although in some cases organizations refused to provide access . Use for Charity evaluation Research ( edit ) Charity Navigator uses IRS Forms 990 to rate charities . In February 2017 , Charity Navigator launched the Digitized Form 990 Decoder , a free and open - source software dataset and tools to analyze Form 990 filings . At launch , more than 900,000 forms had been processed . Meanwhile Holden Karnofsky of the nonprofit charity evaluator GiveWell has criticized Form 990 for not providing sufficient information about what a charity does or where it operates . However GiveWell does still use Form 990 to answer some questions when investigating charities . Data from Form 990 was used by Sarah Reckhow as an information source for her book Follow the Money : How Foundation Dollars Change Public School Politics . Reckhow expressed concern about the lack of corresponding public data available if philanthropic funders moved away from nonprofits to LLCs such as the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative . There was a website called Quality 990 that advocated for higher quality Form 990s . See also ( edit ) United States non-profit laws Philanthropy in the United States Form 1040 Form 1120 Form 1023 References ( edit ) Jump up ^ `` Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax '' ( PDF ) . Internal Revenue Service . Retrieved January 28 , 2016 . Jump up ^ `` Instructions for Form 990 - EZ '' ( PDF ) . Internal Revenue Service . 2015 . Retrieved February 3 , 2016 . Jump up ^ `` Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations -- Form 990 - N ( e-Postcard ) '' . Internal Revenue Service . Retrieved February 2 , 2016 . Jump up ^ `` Demystifying the 990 - PF '' . Foundation Center . Retrieved February 3 , 2016 . ^ Jump up to : Grace Allison . `` The New Form 990 for Tax - Exempt Organizations : Revolution in Progress '' . 2010 . Estate planning . Vol. 37 . Issue 3 . pg 14 -- 20 . Jump up ^ `` Annual exempt organization return : Due date '' . IRS . Retrieved 2014 - 05 - 17 . Jump up ^ IRS ( 2008 - 02 - 04 ) . `` Governance and Related Topics - 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) Organizations '' ( PDF ) . Online.irs.gov . Retrieved 2009 - 06 - 05 . Jump up ^ `` Pension Protection Act of 2006 , Section 1223 ( b ) '' . Government Printing Office . August 17 , 2006 . Jump up ^ `` Notice 2011 - 43 : Transitional Relief Under Internal Revenue Code § 6033 ( j ) for Small Organizations '' . Internal Revenue Bulletin : 2011 - 25 . Internal Revenue Service . June 20 , 2011 . Jump up ^ `` Instructions for Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax '' ( PDF ) . Internal Revenue Service . 2015 . Retrieved February 3 , 2016 . Jump up ^ 26 U.S. Code § 6033 - Returns by exempt organizations , Section ( 3 ) Jump up ^ `` Penalties for Failing to Make Forms 990 Publicly Available '' . IRS . Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 07 . ^ Jump up to : Cheryl Chasin , Debra Kawecki and David Jones ( 2002 ) . `` G. Form 990 '' ( PDF ) . Internal Revenue Service . Archived from the original ( PDF ) on July 2 , 2015 . Retrieved January 29 , 2016 . CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter ( link ) ^ Jump up to : `` SOI Tax Stats - Annual Extract of Tax - Exempt Organization Financial Data '' . Internal Revenue Service . Retrieved October 14 , 2017 . ^ Jump up to : `` IRS Form 990 Data '' . BigQuery . Retrieved October 14 , 2017 . ^ Jump up to : `` IRS 990 Filings on AWS '' . Retrieved October 14 , 2017 . ^ Jump up to : `` 990 Decoder -- Charity Navigator . ETL toolkit for 2.5 million electronic nonprofit tax returns released by the IRS '' . Charity Navigator . Retrieved October 14 , 2017 . ^ Jump up to : `` Charity Navigator Publishes Software for Decoding Nonprofit Data '' . Charity Navigator . February 3 , 2017 . Retrieved February 10 , 2017 . Jump up ^ `` Nonprofit Form 990 Search '' . Citizen Audit . Retrieved 2014 - 05 - 18 . Jump up ^ `` Nonprofit Organization Information '' . Economic Research Institute . Retrieved 2014 - 05 - 17 . Jump up ^ `` Archived copy '' . Archived from the original on 2013 - 05 - 23 . Retrieved 2011 - 08 - 21 . Jump up ^ `` guidestar.org '' . guidestar.org. 2014 - 03 - 06 . Retrieved 2014 - 04 - 23 . Jump up ^ `` nccs.urban.org '' . nccs.urban.org. 2008 - 07 - 15 . Retrieved 2014 - 04 - 23 . Jump up ^ `` Learning Center and Store '' . BoardSource . Archived from the original on 2012 - 02 - 19 . Retrieved 2014 - 03 - 17 . Jump up ^ `` More Income Tax Data : Most Exempt Concerns Must File Information Return '' . The New York Times . March 24 , 1942 . p. 34 . Jump up ^ `` FAQ for Donors '' . Charity Navigator . Retrieved 2014 - 04 - 23 . Jump up ^ Miniutti , Sandra ( February 3 , 2017 ) . `` First Open Source Release of Code that Reads Digitized IRS Form 990 Data '' . Charity Navigator Blog . Retrieved February 10 , 2017 . Jump up ^ Karnofsky , Holden ( May 23 , 2007 ) . `` Do n't talk to me about the Form 990 '' . The GiveWell Blog . Retrieved January 28 , 2016 . Jump up ^ `` Guide to GiveWell 's financial metrics '' . GiveWell . Retrieved January 28 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Reckhow , Sarah ( January 26 , 2017 ) . `` Philanthropic Data And The Rise Of LLCs ; Or , What Happens When Scholars Can No Longer Follow The Money '' . HistPhil . Retrieved April 25 , 2018 . Jump up ^ `` Background for Quality 990 Efforts '' . Archived from the original on May 15 , 2008 . Retrieved January 29 , 2016 . Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Form_990&oldid=838287403 '' Categories : IRS tax forms Hidden categories : CS1 maint : Uses authors parameter Talk Variants Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 26 April 2018 , at 02 : 30 . About Wikipedia

Question: what is the irs form 990 used for

to prevent organizations from abusing their tax-exempt status