Exempt Organizations Annual Reporting Requirements – Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations: Information Reported

The e-Postcard is easy to complete. All you need is the following information:

• Organization’s legal name –
  • An organization’s legal name is the organization’s name as it appears in the certificate of incorporation or the organization’s application for Federal tax-exempt status, unless a request was previously submitted to the IRS to have the name officially changed.
• Any other names your organization uses – If the organization is known by or uses other names to refer to the organization as a whole (and not to its programs and activities), commonly referred to as Doing-Business-As (DBA) names, they should be listed.
• Organization’s mailing address – The mailing address is the current mailing address used by the organization.
• Organization’s website address (if you have one).
• Organization’s employer identification number (EIN) –
  • Every tax-exempt organization must have an EIN, sometimes referred to as a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), even if it does not have employees. The EIN is a unique number that identifies the organization to the Internal Revenue Service. Your organization would have acquired an EIN by filing a Form SS-4 prior to requesting tax-exemption.  The EIN is a 9-digit number and the format of the number is NN-NNNNNNN (for example:  00-1234567). 
  • If you do not know your EIN, you may be able to find it on the organization’s bank statement, application for Federal tax-exempt status, or prior year return.
  • Please note that the EIN is not your tax-exempt number.  That term generally refers to a number assigned by a state agency that identifies organizations as exempt from state sales and use taxes.
  • If you do not have an EIN, see the Instructions for Form SS-4 for different ways to apply for an EIN.  DO NOT use the EIN of a parent or other organization.
• Name and address of a principal officer of your organization –
  • Usually president, vice president, secretary, or treasurer – often specified in the organization’s by-laws.
• Organization’s annual tax year –
  • Like any taxpayer, exempt organizations must keep books and reports and file returns based on an annual accounting period called a tax year.  A tax year is usually 12 consecutive months that can be either calendar year or fiscal year and is often specified in the organization’s by-laws.
• Answers to the following questions:
  • Are your gross receipts still normally $25,000 or less ($50,000 for tax years ending on or after December 31, 2010)?
  • Has your organization terminated or gone out of business?