The cut off for organizations being able to file a 199N with the California Franchise Tax Board instead of the longer 199 is gross revenue normally $25,000 or less. The cut off to file a 990-N instead of the longer 990-EZ with the IRS is $50,000.
What to do if your income is between 25,000 and 50,000?
In that situation the organization can file the very simple 990-N with the IRS but is required to file the longer 199 with the FTB. That makes reporting a bit more complicated, but not terribly so.
The same situation exists in Arizona. Kathy E. Hostetler, CPA, has a good discussion on this issue at the Nonprofit GPS blog: Why Nonprofit Organizations Should File Tax Returns. She explains the accounting to accumulate the information for the 990-EZ can be very simple. Organizations with income between $25,000 and $50,000 ought to be able to accumulate this basic information in order to maintain accountability for receiving public funds.