Shares you plan to sell
If you bought shares to sell them on, they are like trading stock. Count their full value on your Zakat date and pay 2.5%.
Shares you hold long term
When you own shares as a long-term investment, Zakat is due on your share of the company’s Zakatable assets, such as its cash, stock and money owed to it, not on the whole share price.
The most accurate way is to check each company’s balance sheet and work out your share of those assets. As this is hard for most people, the National Zakat Foundation recommends a simpler method: treat 25% of your portfolio’s current value as Zakatable, then pay 2.5% of that.
Example: a long-term portfolio worth £10,000 gives £2,500 Zakatable (25%), and Zakat of £62.50 (2.5%).
Only today’s value counts
Use the value on your Zakat date. Rises or falls earlier in the year do not matter.
Use our Zakat calculatorPay your Zakat
Source: National Zakat Foundation – Zakat on stocks and shares. Pensions, funds and cryptocurrency are treated differently by different scholars and are not covered here. Please ask a scholar about your own circumstances.