Part VII lists every current officer, director and trustee, paid or not, so your name is on a public return. The form asks for your name and title, your average hours per week, one position box and your pay, with “-0-” if you were not paid. Pay is for the calendar year that ends with or within the organization’s tax year. Good practice is for each director to check their own line before the return is filed.
If you serve on a nonprofit board, your name appears in Part VII of its Form 990, and the return is open to public inspection. No one knows your hours, your titles and what you were paid better than you do. This article shows who Part VII lists, what each column asks and how to check your own line in a few minutes. It is based on the 2025 Form 990 and its instructions. For the whole return in a 15-minute read, see how to read a Form 990.
Who must be listed in Part VII?
The form says to list all current officers, directors and trustees regardless of the amount of compensation. It adds that you enter “-0-” in the pay columns if no compensation was paid. Other people are listed only if their pay passes a threshold, as the table shows.
| Who | When they are listed |
|---|---|
| Current officers, directors and trustees | Always. There is no minimum pay |
| Current key employees | Over $150,000 of reportable compensation, and the person meets a responsibility test and a top 20 test |
| Five highest compensated employees (other than those above) | Over $100,000 of reportable compensation |
| Former officers, key employees and highest compensated employees | Over $100,000 of reportable compensation, with special rules for former highest compensated employees. “Former” uses a five-year look-back |
| Former directors and trustees | Over $10,000 of reportable compensation for serving as a director or trustee |
Source: IRS Instructions for Form 990 (2025), Part VII, Section A. Dollar limits change, so check the instructions for your tax year.
You can be listed as “current” after you leave. The instructions say a current officer, director or trustee is a person who held the position at any time during the organization’s tax year. A director who left in March still appears for that year. The “Former” box is not checked for that person.
What should your own line say?
Check your line column by column. The table gives what the instructions say for each column and what a director can verify.
| Column | What the instructions say | What you can check |
|---|---|---|
| (A) Name and title | Name on top and title or position on the bottom. If you hold more than one title, list all of them. Each person is on one line only | Is your name right? Does the title list every office you held? |
| (B) Hours | An estimate of average hours per week devoted to the organization. A specific number is required, or “-0-” if it applies. Do not write “as needed,” “as required” or “40+.” Under one hour, use a decimal rounded to the nearest tenth, such as 0.2 | Is it a number? Is it a fair estimate of your year? |
| (C) Position | Check one box, unless you were both an officer and a director or trustee. A former person checks only “Former” and says so in the title | Is the box right? If you are an officer and a director, are both checked? |
| (D) Pay from the organization | Reportable compensation: generally the greater of box 1 or box 5 of Form W-2, plus box 1 of Form 1099-NEC and box 6 of Form 1099-MISC | If you were not paid, does it say “-0-”? If you received a W-2 or 1099 from the organization, is the amount here? |
| (E) Pay from related organizations | Reportable compensation from related organizations, such as a parent, a subsidiary or a supporting organization | Do you also serve a related organization? Is your pay from it here? |
| (F) Other compensation | Compensation not reported in column (D), including nontaxable benefits and deferred compensation. Enter “-0-” if none. A reasonable estimate is allowed | Did you receive any benefit or deferred amount? If not, does it say “-0-”? |
Source: IRS Instructions for Form 990 (2025), Part VII, Section A, columns (A) to (F), and IRS Form 990 (2025), Part VII.
Your line may not be where you expect. The instructions say to list people from the highest to the lowest total compensation, using columns (D), (E) and (F). Ties are broken by position. So an unpaid director is not listed first because of rank. The order is by pay.
One estimate you can make. If you are unsure what to put for hours, add up the time you gave the organization during the year and divide by 52. That is our suggestion, not an IRS formula. The instructions only require a specific number.
Which year does the pay cover?
The form says to report compensation for the calendar year ending with or within the organization’s tax year. If the organization uses a fiscal year, the instructions use the fiscal year to decide who is a current officer, director or trustee, but they still report compensation for the calendar year ending within the fiscal year. This is why the pay in Part VII can differ from Part IX, line 5, which covers compensation of current officers, directors, trustees and key employees in the expense statement. The instructions give a different accounting period or method as reasons the two may differ.
What does Part VII lead to?
Part VII questions can require Schedule J, the compensation schedule. After the table, the form asks whether any former officer, director, trustee, key employee or highest compensated employee was listed (line 3), whether anyone listed has reportable and other compensation from the organization and related organizations above $150,000 (line 4) and whether anyone listed received compensation from an unrelated organization or person for services to the organization (line 5). A “Yes” to any of them sends the organization to Schedule J, and Part IV, line 23 repeats the question.
Call a specialist if a director is paid for work other than board service, or if pay for any listed person looks high for the organization. Payments to a director can also affect whether that director counts as independent in Part VI. We do not decide those questions here.
How do you check your own line before the return is filed?
Good practice is to ask for the Part VII page and check it in five minutes. These steps are practice, not law:
- Ask the board secretary or finance lead for the draft Part VII page, and the year-end roster to compare it with.
- Check your name and every title you held during the year.
- Replace any words in the hours column with a specific number.
- Check your position box or boxes, and that your pay says “-0-” if you were not paid. If you received a W-2 or 1099 from the organization or a related one, ask finance whether the amount is in column (D) or (E).
- Send any correction to the finance lead in writing before the return is filed, and ask that it be noted in the minutes.
What does checking your own line look like?
Here is a fictional example. River Arts Collaborative is the made-up calendar-year public charity from our other Form 990 articles. A director reads her own line on the draft and finds three problems.
| Column | What the draft said | What she asked for |
|---|---|---|
| (A) Name and title | “Director” | She was also the board treasurer, so both titles should be listed |
| (B) Hours | “As needed” | A number. She adds up about 78 hours for the year, divides by 52 and asks for 1.5 |
| (C) Position | Only “Individual trustee or director” checked | Both that box and “Officer,” because she was an officer and a director |
Fictional example for illustration. The facts and numbers are made up.
The teaching point: every fix was a fact only she could supply, and none required tax knowledge. The free download below includes the 15-minute scan sheet, which has a stop for your own line, and the checklist that gives each question an owner.
Based on the 2025 Form 990 and its instructions, checked against the IRS pages on October 31, 2026. The IRS has posted a draft 2026 form, which keeps Part VI, lines 11a and 11b at the same numbers, but drafts can change and other line numbers may move. Dollar limits and tests can change from year to year. Filing rules depend on your organization’s classification, facts, tax year and state. Use the current IRS instructions and ask a qualified exempt-organization adviser about your situation.