Start your Form 990 from last year's return

• Start my Form 990 online
• Start my Form 990-EZ online
• Start my Form 990-PF online

To see whether the IRS lists last year's return, search for your organization by name or EIN.

We look first for last year's return your organization filed with us. Otherwise, we use the copy of last year's return that the IRS publishes as data on their Form 990 series downloads page. Exempt organizations' returns are public, so we can use that copy wherever you filed.

“Last year” means your organization's previous tax year, by its own year end. An organization with a June year end starts from last year's June return.

When last year's return is the same form, these entries come across:

• The organization's name and address.
• Answers to yes/no questions and checkboxes, apart from the boxes that described last year's return.
• The mission, program descriptions, the books-in-care-of name and the states where the return is filed.
• Officer names, titles and hours, without compensation.
• Program and grant-application descriptions, without their amounts.
• The activity code, year of formation and voting-member counts.

Last year's end-of-year balances become this year's beginning-of-year balances. On Form 990, last year's current-year figures also fill Part I's prior-year column. On Form 990-PF, last year's undistributed income fills Part XII, line 2a.

This year's amounts start blank, including revenue, expenses, grants paid and compensation, and so do dates. Other tables, such as contractors, grants paid and investments, don't come across. Neither do last year's name-change, address-change, initial, final or amended-return boxes.

Each entry that came across is labeled with last year's tax year, such as “From 2024”, until you change it, and a banner says where the entries came from. Check each one against this year's return, the yes/no answers and officer details included.

The officer who signs types their own name when they sign. You're responsible for the return, whatever it started from.

With Form 990 or 990-EZ, Schedule A's public support history and prior-year percentages can come across too, moved forward one year. You enter the current year's figures.

Schedule A is a separate choice. When you add it after paying the filing fee, you can choose “Fill in from your 2024 return” beside “Fill in online” when last year's return had a Schedule A to start from.

You can start a Form 990 from last year's 990-EZ, or a 990-EZ from last year's 990. Then only the basics the two forms share come across: the organization type and status boxes, the mission, programs and officers.

A Form 990-PF starts only from last year's 990-PF.

Starting from last year's return is part of entering the form online, with no extra fee. Starting the return is free, and one fee per return unlocks schedules, signing and e-filing. It doesn't apply to a PDF upload, since this year's completed PDF already has your figures, or to Form 990-N, Form 8868, corrections or amended returns.

To see whether last year's return is listed, search for your organization by name or EIN at the top of this page. The result says so and offers a button to start from it.

1. Sign up, and enter your organization's EIN.
2. Choose your form.
3. On the “Enter it online” card, leave “Start with your 2024 Form 990-EZ filled in” (or your form's) ticked. It's ticked when we find last year's return.
4. Choose “Start filling it in”.

• Fill in my Form 990 online
• Fill in my Form 990-EZ online
• Fill in my Form 990-PF online

The IRS publishes returns some months after they're filed, so a return filed recently may not be there yet.

If we can't find or read last year's return, the form starts blank, as it would have otherwise, and you enter the return online as usual.