OPP 1%

The page below follows the previous website, which talks about 1% of income tax. Whether to update that wording to 1.5% is a decision for the foundation. The percentage in the text has not been changed.

Your 1% — someone’s life

WE ARE A PUBLIC-BENEFIT ORGANISATION, WHICH MEANS THAT

• we do not work in order to make a profit,
• we use all of our income for our statutory purposes,
• we do not distribute a profit to our staff.

The EMS PL Foundation in Opole works across the Opole Voivodeship, in the counties of Brzeg, Głubczyce, Głuchołazy, Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Kluczbork, Krapkowice, Namysłów, Nysa, Olesno, Opole, Prudnik and Strzelce Opolskie. It was established in 2016. We received public-benefit (OPP) status in 2019, after the National Court Register in Opole examined our financial and reporting documents.

OPP status means that the foundation:

• meets every requirement of the Act for becoming a public-benefit organisation, and
• has had that fact confirmed in the National Court Register (KRS).

We obtained OPP status by applying to the KRS. The court checks whether every condition in the Act is met. Confirmation is an entry in the KRS: on the extract, the “OPP status” field says “YES”.

Being a public-benefit organisation brings privileges (for example the chance to receive 1% of personal income tax — the previous page linked to poradnik.ngo.pl) and duties (for example stronger internal controls, and transparency of activity and finances).

The Act of 24 April 2003 on public-benefit activity and volunteer work defines public-benefit activity as socially useful activity carried out by non-governmental organisations in the sphere of public tasks set out in the Act.

It is therefore activity by non-governmental organisations for the public good, in the areas the Act calls public tasks (in our case, protection and promotion of health — searching for missing people and first aid training). The kind of activity is described in the organisation’s statute, which is why we speak of statutory public-benefit activity.

Statutory public-benefit activity may be unpaid or paid. Organisations may offer their statutory services free of charge, or they may charge for them, without having to register a business.

A body may become a public-benefit organisation if it has carried out public-benefit activity without interruption for at least two years and if it meets all of the following conditions:

1. Its statutory activity is addressed to the public at large, or to a defined group, provided the group is distinguished by a particularly difficult life or material situation. Acting for the public at large means acting for a wide circle of people, distinguished for example by territory (a housing estate, a village or a town) or by community (a school, a university, a religious community, or an ethnic community such as the Roma in Poland). The condition is also met if the organisation does not limit itself to one community and acts for society as a whole (for example by supporting civil society, or public order and safety). The amended Act also requires that an association seeking OPP status must not limit its statutory activity to its own members.

2. A non-governmental organisation may carry on business activity only as something additional to its public-benefit activity.

3. The organisation’s entire income (the surplus of revenue over costs) is used for public-benefit activity.

4. The organisation has a statutory collective control or supervision body, separate from the managing body and not subordinate to it in internal control or supervision. Members of the control body:

• must not be members of the managing body, or be their spouse or cohabiting partner, or be related or connected by affinity or by employment;
• must not have a final conviction for an intentional offence prosecuted by public indictment, or for a fiscal offence;
• may receive reimbursement of justified costs, or pay no higher than the average monthly pay in the enterprise sector announced by the President of Statistics Poland for the previous year;
• In associations, members of the internal supervision body (the audit committee) must not be paid for the office, because under the associations Act they serve voluntarily. The association’s statute therefore does not provide for such pay.

5. Members of the managing body must not have a final conviction for an intentional offence prosecuted by public indictment, or for a fiscal offence.

6. The statute (or another internal document, if the organisation does not operate under a statute) must prohibit:

• making loans, or securing obligations with the organisation’s assets, for its members, members of its bodies or employees, and for people close to them;
• transferring assets to members, members of bodies or employees, and people close to them, on terms other than those for third parties, in particular free of charge or on preferential terms;
• using assets for members, members of bodies or employees, and people close to them, on terms other than those for third parties, unless the use follows directly from a statutory purpose;
• buying goods or services from entities in which members, members of bodies or employees, and people close to them, take part, on terms other than those for third parties or at prices above the market.

7. If an organisation seeking OPP status intends to carry on, or already carries on, both unpaid and paid public-benefit activity, information about the objects of that activity should be placed in the statute. That condition comes not only from the Act on public-benefit activity and volunteer work, but also from the Regulation of the Minister of Justice of 21 December 2000 on the official forms for entry in the National Court Register. The kind of public-benefit activity is reported on form KRS-W-OPP, which separates unpaid and paid public-benefit activity.