A number of 163 noncommercial organizations in September submitted applications for being registered as beneficiaries of the 2% law. The Ministry of Justice will determine if the applicants meet the eligibility criteria, IPN reports.

One of the eligibility criteria is the lack of debts to the national public budget. The organizations registered the previous years will have to pay the debts within ten days or will be struck off the list.

The Ministry of Justice will publish the list of beneficiaries for 2019 on its official website. Before being updated, the list included 594 public and religious organizations.

The 2% distribution mechanism is an indirect method by which taxpayers can financially support the activity of noncommercial organizations. The taxpayers indicate the fiscal code of one beneficiary in their tax returns for the previous year. Only the private individuals who do not perform entrepreneurial activities and do not have debts to the national public budget for the previous fiscal periods can do this.

The 2% law was adopted in 2016 and has been applied since 2017, for the revenues earned the previous year. Over 21,000 taxpayers directed 2% of the paid income tax or a total of almost 3 million lei to 302  beneficiaries for 2016.