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Zakat on salary and savings: when it is due and how much

By Sami Adham · Published: 2026-10-29

A salary arrives, is spent, and arrives again. Zakat, by contrast, is patient: it waits for wealth that stays. That is the whole key to this question. The money that passes through your hands each month is not where zakat usually falls; it falls on what remains, and on what has remained for a year.

Short answer: In the four Sunni schools, zakat is not charged on a salary the day it is paid. What you save from it joins your wealth, and once your savings stay at or above the nisab for a lunar year, you pay 2.5% of what you hold on your zakat date. Some contemporary scholars, and official bodies such as Indonesia's BAZNAS, also allow zakat on income as it is received. Both views are set out below.

Know your balance already? The free zakat calculator takes any currency, shows the gold and silver nisab side by side, and keeps every number on your device.

What do the four schools say about salary?

A salary is money you earn; until it is saved, it is not yet wealth that has been held for a year. So the classical rule is simple: there is no zakat on the pay cheque itself. What you spend on rent, food and family during the year is not counted. What is left on your zakat date is counted, together with your other savings, gold and investments.

The schools part ways on one detail: money that arrives during the year (in the books of fiqh, al-mal al-mustafad, "acquired wealth").

Hanafi school: new money of the same kind joins the savings you already hold above the nisab, and is counted with them on the same zakat date, even if it arrived last week.
Shafi'i and Hanbali schools: each new sum has its own year, starting from the day you received it.
Maliki school: money gained from your work or a gift starts its own year; profit from trading follows the year of its capital.

Counting a separate year for every pay day would be a burden few can carry. That is why many people simply pay on one date for everything they hold. Under the Shafi'i and Hanbali view, that is paying the newer sums early, which is allowed once you own the nisab in the Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools; the Maliki school allows only a short time early.

When does my zakat year start?

Your year starts on the day your savings first reach the nisab. If they fall below it during the year, the schools differ on whether the year restarts; many people simply check that they are still above the nisab on the zakat date and pay on everything then. Once you have a date, keep it: the same day of the same Hijri month, every year. A lunar year is about 354 days, so your date moves about 11 days earlier each solar year.

Zakat on savings in the bank

Count the whole balance on your zakat date: current accounts, savings accounts, fixed deposits, money in payment apps and cash at home. Money in any account you own counts.
Interest is not zakat. Scholars say interest earned should be given away to good causes without seeking reward, but it does not count towards your zakat and does not reduce it.
Debts: the schools differ. The Hanafi and Hanbali schools take debts off before the nisab test; the Maliki school takes them off cash, gold and silver unless spare goods could pay them; in its new view the Shafi'i school does not. One contemporary view takes off only what falls due in the next 12 months. Our calculator follows that view and says so.
End-of-service pay and pensions: not counted while you cannot take them (International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Res. 143, item 6(a)); a savings scheme you do not control is zakatable for one year when received (items 6(b)-(d)). Once received, the money joins your savings.

Do the numbers now. Type your balance into the zakat calculator: it fills a dated reference gold and silver price in 50 currencies, shows both nisab views, and gives a range where the views differ. It sends nothing anywhere.

The earned-income view (zakat on salary as it arrives)

Some contemporary scholars hold that zakat may be paid on earned income when it is received, much as zakat on crops is paid at harvest (al-Qaradawi, Fiqh al-Zakah, the chapter on earned income). Others answer that the classical schools did not treat wages this way and that the year is still required. We show both and do not choose.

The earned-income view is official practice in some countries. In Indonesia, BAZNAS sets the 2026 nisab for zakat on income and services at Rp91,681,728 a year or Rp7,640,144 a month, at 2.5% (SK Ketua BAZNAS No. 15 of 2026). BAZNAS bases it on 85 g of 14-karat gold at the average 2025 price, so it is lower than a nisab of 85 g of pure gold. If you follow this view, follow your zakat body's rules, and ask how it treats savings at the end of the year, so that the same money is not counted twice.

Worked example (our own figures, in US$, at reference prices taken on 29 October 2026: gold US$129.22 a gram, silver US$1.6889 a gram; the calculator's own reference prices refresh with each site update, so they may differ):

Gold nisab: 85 × 129.22 = 10,983.70. Silver nisab: 595 × 1.6889 = 1,004.90.
Salary 4,000 a month; about 1,000 saved each month. A year ago (last 1 Ramadan) the accounts held 2,000; on this zakat date (1 Ramadan) they hold 14,000. No debts fall due.

Classical view, silver nisab: the savings stayed above 1,004.90 all year, so zakat is 14,000 ÷ 40 = 350. Under the Hanafi view, the whole balance is due now; under the Shafi'i and Hanbali view, the sums saved in recent months are being paid early, which is allowed. Classical view, gold nisab: the balance first passed 10,983.70 only about three months ago, so its zakat year starts then and nothing is due on this date yet. Earned-income view: 2.5% of income as it arrives, under your zakat body's own nisab and rules.

Three mistakes we see often

Paying 2.5% of the whole annual salary, including what was spent on rent and food, while also believing it is the classical rule. It is not: the classical rule counts what is left.
Forgetting the money in payment apps, the cash at home, or the fixed deposit.
Counting end-of-service pay before you have received it.

A known right

The Quran describes believers as those in whose wealth there is a known right, for the one who asks and the one who has nothing (70:24-25). Many commentators read the known right as zakat itself (Qatada, Ibn Sirin); others as a set share beyond it (Mujahid, al-Sha'bi). Either way, the wage is yours, and a small part of what you keep belongs to someone else. Its Arabic text is at the end of this article.

Work it out

Open the zakat calculator, choose your currency and type your balance on your zakat date. Then see the official bodies on where to pay zakat.

Please note

This article explains common views for general learning. It is not a fatwa. For your own situation, ask a qualified scholar or your country's zakat authority. Mustahaqat does not collect or pass on zakat or charity.

هذا المقال للتعريف العام وليس فتوى. لحالتك الخاصة راجع عالماً مؤهلاً أو جهة الزكاة الرسمية في بلدك. موقع مستحقات لا يجمع الزكاة ولا الصدقات ولا يوصلها.

Compiled from cited sources; ask a scholar you trust for your own case. This is not a fatwa. Drafted with AI help and checked against the sources listed. Sami Adham is a professional name, not a scholar or mufti.

Quran cited

﴿وَٱلَّذِينَ فِىٓ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ حَقٌّ مَّعْلُومٌ﴾ [70:24]

Meaning (our own wording): And those in whose wealth there is a known right.

Sources

Corrections

2026-10-29: First published. Fiqh wording follows our source review; the example uses the calculator reference prices of 29 October 2026; BAZNAS figures read on its website the same day.
2026-10-29: Review: the worked example now gives the balance a year earlier and shows the gold-nisab result (no zakat due yet); BAZNAS's 14-karat gold basis added.