In the house
Zakat on salary and monthly pay
Updated 6 September 2026
The paycheque is not a third rate
Zakat on cash savings is 2.5% after nisab and, in the classical model, a hawl. A salary does not create a new percentage. It creates a timing argument: when does this month’s pay join the pot you measure?
One common method: live on the paycheque, and at your zakat date count what is left in cash and bank accounts. That leftover, if you are above nisab, is what the 2.5% applies to. Another method, used by some contemporary bodies: once you already have nisab, incoming money is zakatable without waiting a new hawl on each deposit. Those are different published approaches. This site will not merge them into a cute monthly slider.
What to type in the calculator
The calculator has a cash box. Put the number your method says is zakatable. Do not put gross annual salary because a video said “2.5% of income”. Income tax, rent you already paid, and food you already ate are not sitting in the account. Zakat is not a second income tax unless the method you follow has explicitly treated it that way.
Pensions and investments
Money you cannot spend yet is not the same as the current account. That is the stocks and retirement page. Do not double-count a workplace pension as cash in the kitchen-table box.
Quick answers
- Do I pay 2.5% of every payday?
- Only if the method you follow treats incoming pay that way. Many people only pay on what is left after a hawl.
- Does the calculator do salary?
- It adds the cash you type. It does not know what arrived this month. You decide what belongs in the box.
- What about tax and pension deductions?
- You generally calculate on wealth you hold, not on a gross headline. Retirement pots have their own page.
General information, not a fatwa. Where scholars differ, we try to say so. For your situation, ask a scholar you trust.