Short answer
Zakat is due on wealth that grows or is kept to grow: cash and bank balances, gold and silver, business stock, shares and investments, money owed to you, grazing livestock, and crops. It is not due on things you own for personal use, like your home, car, clothes and furniture. The four schools agree on this outline.
In the Hanafi school zakat is due on gold and silver in any form, cash, trade goods and freely grazing livestock, once a nisab is held for a lunar year, and ushr is due on crops at harvest. Gold, silver, cash and trade goods are added together by value to reach the nisab.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Jewellery worn in a permitted way carries no zakat, and gold and silver are not added together to reach the nisab.
- Maliki
- Worn jewellery is exempt, and camels, cattle and sheep are zakatable even when fed fodder or used for work.
- Hanbali
- Worn jewellery is exempt; otherwise the list matches the Hanafi one in outline.
Explanation
The jurists call zakatable wealth nami: wealth that grows, or is kept so that it can grow. Money can be traded or invested, stock is meant to be sold, and herds breed. Things you keep in order to use them are outside zakat.
Zakat is due on:
- Cash and savings: at home, in the bank, in apps and in foreign currency (see zakat on savings), and crypto you hold (see zakat on crypto).
- Gold and silver: in the Hanafi school including jewellery you wear (see zakat on jewellery and zakat on silver).
- Trade goods: anything bought to resell, including property and stock in storage (see zakat on stored goods).
- Shares, funds and pensions: see zakat on stocks and zakat on 401k and pensions.
- Money owed to you that you expect back (see money owed to you).
- Livestock and crops: each with its own rules (see zakat on animals and zakat on crops).
Zakat is not due on your home, car, furniture, clothes, phone, tools, the building of a rental property (the saved rent is zakatable), or gems and platinum kept for use (see zakat on platinum).
You do not pay item by item. On your zakat date, add up everything zakatable, subtract debts that are due, and pay 2.5 percent if the total reaches the nisab. The zakat calculator does this for you.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:267
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَنفِقُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّآ أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا۟ ٱلْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُم بِـَٔاخِذِيهِ إِلَّآ أَن تُغْمِضُوا۟ فِيهِ ۚ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌ ﴿٢٦٧﴾
O you who have believed, spend from the good things which you have earned and from that which We have produced for you from the earth. And do not aim toward the defective therefrom, spending [from that] while you would not take it [yourself] except with closed eyes. And know that Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy.
Both earned wealth and produce of the earth carry a due.
Quran, Surah At-Tawba 9:34
۞ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِنَّ كَثِيرًۭا مِّنَ ٱلْأَحْبَارِ وَٱلرُّهْبَانِ لَيَأْكُلُونَ أَمْوَٰلَ ٱلنَّاسِ بِٱلْبَٰطِلِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱلَّذِينَ يَكْنِزُونَ ٱلذَّهَبَ وَٱلْفِضَّةَ وَلَا يُنفِقُونَهَا فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ فَبَشِّرْهُم بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍۢ ﴿٣٤﴾
O you who have believed, indeed many of the scholars and the monks devour the wealth of people unjustly and avert [them] from the way of Allah. And those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah - give them tidings of a painful punishment.
Gold and silver kept without paying their due are condemned.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1447
Sahih... وليس فيما دون خمس أواق صدقة وليس فيما دون خمسة أوسق صدقة ...
"There is no zakat on less than five awaq of silver, and no zakat on less than five wasq of produce."
Silver and crops are zakatable once they reach a set amount.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1463
Sahih... ليس على المسلم في فرسه وغلامه صدقة ...
"A Muslim owes no zakat on his horse or his servant."
Things kept for personal use carry no zakat.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Zakat, chapters on livestock, silver, gold and trade goods. The kinds of wealth that carry zakat and their nisabs.
- Bada'i al-Sana'i, Kitab al-Zakat, on the conditions of the wealth. Growth (nama'), actual or potential, is a condition; items of personal need are exempt.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.