116Furthermore, the financing costs chargeable to the EAGGF must be calculated on the assumption that the time-limits laid down by the applicable agricultural rules have been observed. Accordingly, when national authorities pay aid after expiry of the time-limit, they are charging irregular and thus non-eligible expenditure to the EAGGF, as confirmed by the fourth recital in the preamble to Regulation No 296/96 (see, to that effect, Case C-253/97Italy v Commission [1999] ECR I-7529, paragraph 126). Consequently, the Member State must organise its system of checks taking into account the time-limit set for payment of aid by Article 8(1) of Regulation No 1251/1999 (see, by analogy, Case T-251/04Greece v Commission, not published in the ECR, paragraph 76). In addition, the 4% margin laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation No 296/96 is intended precisely to give Member States the opportunity to carry out additional checks whilst stating that the number of months' delay does not affect payments which do not exceed that threshold.