Gold, silver and cash

Zakaat on gold for previous years

Q: Kindly help by giving us the amount to be paid as Zakaat for the following jewellery (Kindly note that the owner never had any excess cash all these years, people would assist her financially; the jewellery was given to her as a gift in 1985, she now wishes to sell it in order to pay for the Zakaat of the past years). 21 crt bangles - 75.80 gr, 18 crt bangles - 66.90 gr, 18 crt broken gold - 116.50 gr. ( For my information I would like to know if the quantity/amount of gold will be reduced each year when calculating, as the lady never had any excess cash, and if she had to sell the jewellery to pay for the Zakaat then the quantity of gold on would decrease each year by 2.5 percent).

Calculating one's Zakaat after deducting liabilities

Q: Zaid contacts his travel agent on the 1st of Shabaan and obtains a quote to travel for umrah on the 1oth of Ramadaan. He immediately confirms and accepts this quotation of 100 000 but subject to him obtaining an Umrah visa. He may also cancel the booking at any time before 2nd of Ramadaan without any cost. His Zakaat year end is 15 Shabaan. May he deduct this 100 000 as a zakaat liability when calculating his Zakaat?

Zakaat on an investment

Q: I'm the executor of my dads estate. One of the bequests was to pay my younger sister a stipulated accumulative amount on maturity of a fund that's held at Oasis. During this period of maturity which might take a few more years to earn. The amounts accumulated over the last 4 years,do we have to pay zakaat on the current amount, and the amounts over the last 3 years? The account is on my sisters name who is of age, although i'm in control of the account.

Upon which price should zakaat be calculated?

Q: I am in possession of a collector's coin set of several silver coins that I need to include in my Zakaat calculation. I understand that the value of the coin set is dependent on the current market value of the particular coin set, and not on the market value of silver. Searching online, authentic retailers are selling this coin set at several prices, with the lowest price being R3 250.00 and the highest at R3 600.00. There are several different prices in between. I have emailed other popular retailers whose prices are not mentioned online, requesting their prices for this particular coin set. Insha-Allah, they should respond soon. Depending on the response of the other retailers and the current pricing information, how should I calculate the 'market value' of this coin set for my Zakaat calculation?

Zakaat on retirement fund

Q: I have a retirement fund called 401K where I contribute certain amount of money every bi-week and the employer matches certain percentage. I can withdraw the money if I wish but before the age of 59 and half if the money is withdrawn there is a penalty and tax burden involved. The question is whether I have to pay zakaah on the this and if I have to what would be the correct way to do this?

Zakaat on prepaid expenditure and deposits

Q: Please advise if the following items (which are treated as assets in the Annual Financial Statement) are included under zakaatable assets for the purposes of calculating your zakaat:

1)Prepaid Expenditure

2)Deposits held by Suppliers or service providers eg. The municipality

Will "Income received in advance" (normally treated as a liability in the Annual Financial Statement) be included in determining your zakaat?

Paying Zakaat in gold

Q: Can zakat be paid off in gold? Instead of selling some of the jewellery to pay zakat can we distribute some of the gold as zakat? For example we have to pay Rs, 52,000 in zakat, so we distribute 4 gold bangles equalling 1 tola of gold which would equal Rs.52,000 (assuming market rate is 1 tola=52,000.). Is this okay? Or do we have to sell the 4 gold bangles then pay the zakat in cash?