Zakat on salaries, pensions and savings
Question:
1) Does one have to pay 5%, 10%, or 20% of his monthly income irrespective of how much he earns? And should a pensioner pay Zakat at 20% on his pension because, for this income, he neither made an investment nor worked for it?
2) Shall he be liable to pay annual Zakat if he saves something out of the income on which he has already paid Zakat?
Response:
1) My understanding is that Zakat should be 10% on salaried persons and pensioners. The pensioners get what they worked for all throughout their lives, so it's not their unearned income. Also, there has to be a minimum income that needs to be defined above which salaried persons should be obliged to pay Zakat. In the absence of any reliable ijtihad, I would suggest the minimum taxable income of the country one is living in to be that threshold.
2) If you have a saving of more than Rs. 10,000 (assuming that's the value of 52 tolas of silver) on the day when you calculate the value of your wealth for zakat, you will pay zakat on that amount as well.
Views: 396