Work out your zakat on one page

Before you start

1. Zakat is due once a lunar year on wealth that has been with you for that year: cash, savings, gold and silver, trade goods and money you are owed. Your home, car, clothes and the tools of your trade are not counted.

2. The nisab is 7.5 tola (87.48 g) of gold or 52.5 tola (612.36 g) of silver. When wealth is mixed, scholars in Pakistan commonly measure it against the silver nisab, which is lower and reaches more of the poor; the state’s bank deduction uses silver too.

3. The rate is 2.5% of the zakatable total after the debts due within the year.

4. Jewellery in daily use: the Hanafi view, followed by most in Pakistan, counts gold and silver jewellery; other schools differ. Follow the scholar you trust.

The worksheet

Good to know

• This sheet is a help, not a fatwa. For anything unusual, a business, property bought to sell, loans you have given, a provident fund, ask a scholar.
• In Pakistan, banks deduct zakat from eligible accounts on the first of Ramadan at the nisab the ministry announces that year. If it was deducted from your account, count it as paid.
• Pay where it reaches: the eight categories named in the Qur’an (9:60). Relatives in need whom you do not already support come first, then neighbours, then organisations that keep zakat separate. The Give wisely page has more.

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