Your monthly salary: what balance do you pay Zakat on?

A balance that changes doesn't need a complicated ledger — just one clear rule, the one your school already recommends.

By the Namup team · Updated July 2026

You save part of your salary each month. The balance climbs, then dips when an unexpected bill lands, then climbs again. When your Zakat anniversary arrives, one simple question appears: which amount do you apply the 2.5% to? The start of the year? The end? The lowest point? Does each amount you added have to wait for its own year?

The good news: the schools settled this long ago, and they converge. Here are the two paths that genuinely exist — and the one Namup applies.

The common rule: the closing balance

By far the most widely followed path — and the one the fatwa bodies recommend — is the simplest: you look at what you hold on your Zakat anniversary, and you pay 2.5% on that amount, once a full lunar year has passed since you first reached the threshold (the nisab).

And the fresh money, added mid-year, that hasn't "lived" a full twelve months? It still enters the calculation — the scholars treat it as Zakat paid in advance (taʿjīl): paying a little ahead of time on a recent sum is permitted, and even counted as a good thing.

That is exactly what Saudi Arabia's Permanent Committee for fatwas states: the one who "wants ease and takes the path of leniency" pays Zakat on everything he owns when the year completes on the first threshold he owned, the surplus counting as advance¹. The same committee confirms elsewhere that paying ahead on a sum whose year is not complete "is good"². Egypt (Dar al-Iftāʾ) likewise permits advancing Zakat once the threshold is owned³; the AAOIFI standard takes the closing balance-sheet position⁴; and Morocco's High Council of Scholars gives the same dominant answer: you zakat everything in hand, from the completion of the threshold to the completion of the year⁵.

An example makes it clear. Your Zakat year opens at 60,000, you save steadily, and at the end of the twelve lunar months you hold 100,000:

You pay on 100,000 — what you actually hold on the day. It is more generous to the recipients, and it is the path the Committee itself calls "greater in reward"¹.

See the method in action, school by school — free. Open the calculator →

The other path: each sum, its own year

There is a second path, more demanding, and it would be dishonest to leave it out — especially since it comes from the very same fatwa as the first. For the one who "is keen on thoroughness in his obligation," the Committee describes the per-deposit method: keep a schedule of accounts, give each sum its own year from the day it was received, and pay the Zakat of each separately when its own year completes¹.

This is not a "rival" opinion contradicting the first: it is the meticulous path, offered by the same text, for those who prefer exactness to the last unit. It is perfectly valid. It is simply impractical for most people: you would have to date every transfer of the year and track twelve clocks at once. That is precisely why the Committee, in the same breath, offers the closing-balance path as the way "of ease."

The shortcut that doesn't exist

One intuition comes up often: "I'll pay on my lowest balance of the year — that way I'm sure to pay only on what stayed the whole time." It is tempting, but none of the schools teach it. Not the lowest point, not the minimum of start-and-end, not an average: these shortcuts have no basis in the texts. They understate your Zakat — and so the share owed to the recipients — the moment your balance rose during the year. Namup does not use them.

What Namup chose, and why

Namup applies the closing balance for all four referentials it offers (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, AAOIFI) — each one's dominant, sourced position. Concretely: on your Zakat anniversary, the app calculates on what you actually hold, and money added mid-year is counted as advance, exactly as the fatwas describe.

Three reasons, and they are honest:

• It is what the sources recommend — the path "of ease," which the Committee judges "greater in reward and more attentive to the right of the poor"¹.
• It is computable — you don't have to date every transfer of the year; the app knows your balance, the rest follows.
• It never understates your Zakat, unlike the "lowest balance" shortcut.

And because clarity is all we owe you: the strict per-deposit path exists, it is valid, and Namup does not hide it. If your school or your scruple leans you toward it, you know — that's your choice, not a tool's. A tool calculates and keeps the record; it does not decide for you.

See the method in action, school by school — free. Open the calculator →

Frequently asked questions

Which balance is Zakat calculated on when my account fluctuates?

On the closing balance: what you hold on your Zakat anniversary, once a full lunar year has passed since you reached the threshold (nisab). Money added mid-year enters the calculation, treated as Zakat paid in advance.

Do I owe a separate Zakat for each salary I save?

That is the strict "per-deposit" path — valid but demanding (each sum follows its own year). Most schools offer, and recommend, the simpler closing-balance path, which amounts to gathering everything at a single date.

Can I pay on my lowest balance of the year?

No: no school adopts that method. It understates Zakat as soon as your balance has risen. The reference is the closing balance (or, for the meticulous, the per-deposit calculation).

What if my balance drops BELOW the nisab during the year?

Here there are two readings, depending on your school. The more common one: if your wealth falls below the threshold (nisab) during the year, the year (hawl) restarts — you begin counting again once you're back above it for good. The other (Hanafi) looks mainly at the start and end of the year. A balance that moves but stays above the nisab throughout doesn't raise this question — you pay on the closing balance. To settle your case, your school is the reference.

Does this calculation replace a scholar's opinion?

No. It applies published rules and the referential you choose, to inform you. For a particular case, the authority remains your trusted scholar.

1. Permanent Committee for fatwas (Saudi Arabia), Fatāwā al-Lajna al-Dāʾima, first collection, vol. 9, fatwa no. 282 (pp. 279-280): one fatwa, two paths — per-deposit for "thoroughness" ("a schedule of accounts … each with its own year from the day owned") and closing balance for "ease" ("he zakats all the money he owns when the year completes on the first threshold … the surplus counts as advance Zakat"). Text (Committee collection, transcription). ↩
2. Same Committee, fatwa no. 2192 (vol. 9, p. 282): paying in advance on a sum whose year is not complete, intending to advance the Zakat, "is good." Text. ↩
3. Dar al-Iftāʾ (Egypt), fatwa no. 4084, "the ruling on advancing Zakat": the majority of jurists (Hanafi, Shafiʿi, Hanbali) permit advancing Zakat once the threshold is owned. Text. ↩
4. AAOIFI, Zakat standard no. 9 (SS-35): the base is the closing balance-sheet position (the "both ends of the year" doctrine; a mid-year dip does not lower it). Standard. ↩
5. High Council of Scholars (Morocco), Q&A no. 311: "we zakat everything in hand, from the completion of the threshold to the completion of the year." Official authority. ↩