Short answer
Yes, if it is still yours. Gold you are keeping to give your daughter later is your wealth, so you pay its zakat each year. If you have already given it to her as hers, the zakat is hers: in the Hanafi school none is due while she is a child, and she pays once she is an adult.
Zakat is on the owner. Gold meant as a future gift remains the parent's until the gift is actually made. A gift to a minor child is completed by the father holding it on the child's behalf, after which no zakat is due on it until the child reaches puberty.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- A child's wealth is zakatable and the guardian pays from it. Jewellery kept for permitted wear is exempt, for a girl as for a woman.
- Maliki
- A child's wealth is zakatable and the guardian pays from it; jewellery kept for permitted wear is exempt.
- Hanbali
- A child's wealth is zakatable and the guardian pays from it; jewellery kept for permitted wear is exempt.
Explanation
Many families buy gold over the years for a daughter's wedding. While you are keeping it to give her one day, it is still yours. A plan to give something is not a gift. So it is added to your zakatable wealth and you pay 2.5 percent on it each year, in the Hanafi school, which also counts jewellery that is worn.
If you have truly given it to her, it is hers:
- An adult daughter owns it and pays its zakat herself, if her wealth reaches the nisab.
- For a young daughter, the father can complete the gift by holding the gold for her as her guardian. In the Hanafi school there is then no zakat on it until she reaches puberty; see do children pay zakat.
A real gift means treating the gold as hers from then on: you may not wear it as your own, sell it for your own needs, or take it back. The Hanafi fatwa, following Imam Muhammad, is that moving wealth to someone else only to escape zakat is disliked, so do it because you mean it, not as a trick.
Write down what is whose, especially when there are several children, so that it is clear later and no one is wronged in the inheritance. For the carat maths, see the zakat on gold calculator, and for worn gold, zakat on jewellery you wear.
The evidence
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.
Stored gold carries Allah's right, whoever it is being saved for.
Sunan Abi Dawud 1573
Graded sahih... فإذا كان لك عشرون دينارا وحال عليها الحول ففيها نصف دينار ...
"When you have twenty dinars and a year has passed over them, half a dinar is due on them."
Zakat is due from whoever owns the gold for the year.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Hiba. A gift is completed by taking possession; a father's possession on behalf of his minor child completes it.
- Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Zakat, opening section on the conditions of zakat. No zakat on the wealth of a minor.
- al-Majmu', Kitab al-Zakat. The Shafi'i view that a child's wealth is zakatable.
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.