If one sells land, is the debt owed deducted before calculating zakah?
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Question:
He also says: If a person has land prepared for sale and he has a debt, does he deduct the value of the debt from the value of the land and pay zakah on the remainder, or does he pay zakah on the full value of the land without considering the amount of the debt?
Answer:
If a lunar year has passed over land that was intended for sale, or if a lunar year has passed over its value for which it was purchased for sale, then he pays zakah on it. He appraises it and pays zakah on what it is worth. Even if the seller pays zakah on its value, because a lunar year has passed over it and zakah has become obligatory on it, he does not deduct the debt from that. Rather, he pays zakah on it, because zakah has become obligatory on it, or on its value, so he pays zakah on it.
He also says: If a person has land prepared for sale and he has a debt, does he deduct the value of the debt from the value of the land and pay zakah on the remainder, or does he pay zakah on the full value of the land without considering the amount of the debt?
Answer:
If a lunar year has passed over land that was intended for sale, or if a lunar year has passed over its value for which it was purchased for sale, then he pays zakah on it. He appraises it and pays zakah on what it is worth. Even if the seller pays zakah on its value, because a lunar year has passed over it and zakah has become obligatory on it, he does not deduct the debt from that. Rather, he pays zakah on it, because zakah has become obligatory on it, or on its value, so he pays zakah on it.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [78] من باع أرضا هل يخصم ما عليه من الدين قبل إخراج الزكاة؟ - صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.