- Which gold price to choose for calculations, to buy or to sell.
- I am responsible for my mom’s everyday expenses, do I have to pay her zakat or she has to break gold to pay zakat. It is her gold and I don’t have control of it. She has 97 grm 22k gold.
- My company has two land properties less than a year old, I am keeping them to sell later for profit. Does that come under zakat obligation.
- My checking account balance is 8k, my monthly expenses is 6k, i have 5 kids. How much of the 8k should be included in zakat calculations.
Bismillahi Ta’ala
Walaikum Assalam Warahmatullah
- You will use the price at which the market is willing to buy the gold from you. It will be the scrap metal melted price for gold at 24kt. In our indices provided on monthly basis, this amount is indicated at the bottom. For jewellry which is 22kt or less, you will calculate the actual gold content in grams in it, and then calculate its value according to the above scrap metal price.
- The primary liability of dispensing zakat is upon your mother. Regardless of you being a caretaker for her, her financial obligations remain upon herself. In order to dispense zakat on her behalf she needs to know that you are dispensing on her behalf and must give her permission. [See our fatwa about zakat on behalf on wife: https://fatwa.ca/discharging-zakat-for-a-wife-without-a-specific-intention/ ] That being said, if she has given you permission directly or implicitly, then you may dispense the value of zakat on her possessed gold.
- Yes, a land kept with the intent to sell later is zakatable. If the company is your corporation, then it’s assets and liabilities are also yours. You will add the valud of the land as a zakatable asset in your calculation, despite it being less than a year. This is because if you had given zakat last year, and then acquired more zakatable assets during the year, we will only look at your value of zakatable assets at the end of the zakat-year. Whatever increase or decrease happens during the year will not be seen.
- You will accumulate all of your zakatable assets. This would include your cash in account, properties you mentioned in #3 as well as any other receivables you have. Then you will deduct the expenses which are due at the time of calculation from these zakatable assets. This amount will be your nett-zakatable assets (NZA). If this NZA is higher than the benchmark (of Nisab) value, then you will give 2.5% of this NZA in zakat.
Assuming, your question is independent of the previous questions,
and then that the $6K is currently due (i.e. has been invoiced to you and is being sought), then your net Zakatable assets will be $8K – $6K = $2K. This is more than current Nisab Value of silver. So you will need to pay 2.5% of $2K = $50.
The Presence of kids does not affect your zakat calculations.
Wallahu A’lam
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Faisal al-Mahmudi