A nonprofit hasn't filed a Form 990 in years. Should that worry you?
Free, no login. Checks IRS recognition, deductibility, revocation history and filing recency.
The lag is real and large
A return filed today covers a fiscal year that may have ended eighteen months ago, and it takes months more to appear in the public e-file index. "No 2025 filing" in mid-2026 is usually normal.
Not everyone has to file
Churches, integrated auxiliaries, and certain governmental units are not required to file annual returns. Flagging them for non-filing is simply wrong, and it is a common failure in automated tools. This checker reads the IRS filing-requirement code and marks these organizations as "no filing expected" rather than penalising them.
The smallest organizations file a postcard
Organizations under $50,000 in gross receipts file the 990-N e-Postcard — a handful of fields, not a full return. Tools that only index full 990s make these organizations look like non-filers. This checker indexes 1.5 million e-Postcard filings alongside 3.2 million full returns for exactly that reason.
When to actually worry
An organization required to file, with no return of any kind on record for more than three years, is at genuine risk of automatic revocation — or has already been revoked and the list has not caught up. That is the case to raise before releasing funds.