In the house

Zakat on stocks and retirement accounts

Updated 6 September 2026

Trading versus holding

A share you bought to sell is, for many scholars, trade inventory. You value it at today’s price on your zakat date and apply 2.5%, the same way this site treats crypto you still hold. Purchase price does not matter. An unrealised loss does not create a special exemption; it just lowers today’s number.

A share you bought to hold for years is the disputed case. Some contemporary bodies still apply 2.5% to market value. Others try to look through to the company’s zakatable assets, or focus on dividends you actually received. Those methods need company information you will not find in our calculator. We will not ship a fake “look-through percentage”. If you hold a simple index fund and want that method, ask a zakat institution that already publishes a method for funds.

Retirement accounts

Workplace pensions and locked retirement accounts add a control question: is this wealth you can give now? Some scholars treat inaccessible pots as not yet zakatable, or zakatable only when you can draw. Others include the current value. Tax wrappers (ISA, 401(k), and their local equivalents) do not, by themselves, change the fiqh. They change the paperwork.

What to type

If your method says “market value of what I trade”, that number can go in the calculator’s business/trade box. If your method says “ask the institution about this fund”, do that instead of inventing a line item. This is not a fatwa and not a brokerage.

General information, not a fatwa. Where scholars differ, we try to say so. For your situation, ask a scholar you trust.