Short answer
No. Zakat is on the owner, not the person holding the money. If you keep money in trust for a relative, a client or a group, it is not your wealth, so leave it out of your zakat; the owner pays on it. Funds that belong to a mosque or a waqf have no individual owner, so no zakat is due on them.
Zakat requires full ownership (milk tamm) by the payer. Money held in trust (amanah) is zakated by its owner, not the holder. Funds of a mosque or waqf, owned by no individual, carry no zakat.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Zakat follows ownership, and the four schools agree on this. Holding or controlling money is not the same as owning it. Some common cases:
- Your parents' savings kept in your account: theirs, so they pay on it if they own the nisab.
- Money collected from friends for a group gift or trip: it belongs to them until spent.
- Client money held by a business, or rent collected for a landlord as his agent: not yours.
- Zakat or sadaqah others gave you to distribute: not yours, and it is already their charity, so no one zakats it again.
- A mosque, madrasa or waqf fund held by its treasurer: no individual owner, so no zakat.
Keep such money clearly separate in your records, so that you and the owner both know what is whose. Return trusts when they are due.
If you borrow from money held for someone, with their permission, it becomes a debt you owe them, and the owner treats it as money owed to them; see zakat on money owed to you. Money you hold for your own young child is the child's; see do children pay zakat.
The evidence
Quran, Surah An-Nisaa 4:58
۞ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا۟ ٱلْأَمَٰنَٰتِ إِلَىٰٓ أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا۟ بِٱلْعَدْلِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ نِعِمَّا يَعِظُكُم بِهِۦٓ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ سَمِيعًۢا بَصِيرًۭا ﴿٥٨﴾
Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice. Excellent is that which Allah instructs you. Indeed, Allah is ever Hearing and Seeing.
Money held in trust belongs to its owner and must be returned.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Zakat, opening section on the conditions of zakat. Zakat is due only on full ownership of the nisab.
- Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Zakat, opening section. No zakat on waqf property or on what one holds for another.
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.