Short answer
Zakat is due when a full lunar (Hijri) year has passed since you first owned the nisab. In the Hanafi school only the start and the end of that year count: if your wealth dips below the nisab in between but is back above it on the day, you pay on everything you hold then.
Zakat becomes due, and paying it promptly becomes obligatory, on the Hijri anniversary of the day your wealth first reached the nisab. New money of the same kind that comes in during the year joins the pool and is zakated on that same date.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- The nisab must be held for the whole year; if wealth drops below it at any point, the year restarts. Money from a separate source, such as a salary or a gift, starts its own year.
- Maliki
- New money from a separate source, such as a gift or an inheritance, starts its own year, though trade profit follows the year of its capital.
- Hanbali
- The nisab must be held for the whole year, and money from a separate source starts its own year from when it is received.
Explanation
Your zakat date is personal. It is the day, by the Islamic calendar, on which you first owned the nisab, and it comes round every lunar year after that. If you never noted it, make your best estimate, pick a date, and keep to it. The Islamic calendar helps you track it.
In the Hanafi school, what matters is that you own the nisab at the start and at the end of the year. If your balance drops below the nisab in the middle and recovers, the year carries on. Only if your zakatable wealth is wiped out completely does the year start again. Money that comes in during the year, from a salary, a gift or a sale, is not given a year of its own: it joins what you have and is zakated on your date, even if it arrived a day before.
Example: you first had the nisab on 10 Rajab. Over the year your savings went up and down. On the next 10 Rajab you hold double the nisab. You pay 2.5 percent of everything you hold that day.
Once zakat is due, pay it without delay. The relied-upon Hanafi fatwa is that putting it off without an excuse is sinful, though the zakat stays owed and is valid whenever it is paid. Paying before the date is allowed: see paying zakat early.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:110
وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ ۚ وَمَا تُقَدِّمُوا۟ لِأَنفُسِكُم مِّنْ خَيْرٍۢ تَجِدُوهُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌۭ ﴿١١٠﴾
And establish prayer and give zakah, and whatever good you put forward for yourselves - you will find it with Allah. Indeed, Allah of what you do, is Seeing.
Zakat is a standing duty, and what is given is kept with Allah.
Sunan Ibn Majah 1792
Graded sahih... لا زكاة في مال حتى يحول عليه الحول ...
"There is no zakat on wealth until a year has passed over it."
Zakat on money falls due only when a year (hawl) has passed.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Zakat, section on wealth acquired during the year (al-mal al-mustafad). New wealth of the same kind joins the existing nisab and its year.
- Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Zakat, on the nisab being complete at both ends of the year. A drop in the middle does not break the year unless the wealth is lost entirely.
- Minhaj al-Talibin, Kitab al-Zakat, chapter on the zakat of gold and silver. The Shafi'i requirement that the nisab last the whole year.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. 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.