I want to ask about zakaah, I have a store selling stationery and offering services for students. I have read about zakaah on trade goods when one year has passed, but there is a question about student services – should photocopying equipment be included when calculating zakaah, as it is very costly?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
You have to pay zakaah
on all the wealth that you have in the form of cash or products offered for
sale in the stationery store after one full (Hijri) year has passed, if
their value meets the minimum threshold for zakaah (nisaab).
Fataawa
al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 9/313.
Secondly:
The nisaab
is twenty mithqaal of gold, i.e., eighty-five grams; or one hundred and
forty mithqaal of silver (i.e., 595 grams). The equivalent in Saudi dirhams
of silver is fifty-six riyals.”
Fataawa
al-‘Uthaymeen, 18/93.
If the value of the
goods offered for sale, plus the cash money that you have is equal to one of
these two nisaabs, gold or silver, then you have to pay zakaah.
Fataawa
al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 9/257.
Thirdly:
How zakaah
is to be calculated.
If one year has passed
for the threshold, you should calculate how much money you have, and add to
that the value of the goods offered for sale in the stationery store, then
pay one-quarter of one-tenth (i.e., 2.5%) of the total, which you should
give to those who are entitled to it of the groups mentioned in the verse
(interpretation of the meaning):
“As-Sadaqaat (here it
means Zakaah) are only for the Fuqaraa’ (poor), and Al-Masaakeen (the poor)
and those employed to collect (the funds); and to attract the hearts of
those who have been inclined (towards Islam); and to free the captives; and
for those in debt; and for Allaah’s Cause (i.e. for Mujaahidoon — those
fighting in a holy battle), and for the wayfarer (a traveller who is cut off
from everything); a duty imposed by Allaah. And Allaah is All-Knower,
All-Wise”
[al-Tawbah 9:60]
The value of
the goods on sale in the stationery store should be based on the price for
which they are sold, not the price for which they were bought. See question
no. 26236.
Fourthly:
With regard
to the photographic equipment, there is no zakaah on it, unless you have
prepared it for sale.
Shaykh Ibn
Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
There is no zakaah on
items that are for use, whether they are tools or other things. The basic
principle is that whatever is prepared for sale is that on which zakaah is
due. Tools or equipment used in the store are not subject to zakaah.
Fataawa
Ibn Baaz, 14/184.
And Allaah
knows best.
