Zakah on Shares

Question : A questioner asks about contributions that take five years or less, or more. What is the method of zakah on them? Is zakah paid every year, or when they are received? Is it paid for the years that have passed, or is the entire period taken as the zakah of one year?

Answer : As for contributions that a person intends for trade, meaning he trades with the shares themselves, selling these shares today and buying others, and so on, making his trade an exchange of shares in companies. We say that it is obligatory for this man to pay zakah on these shares, both the capital and the profit, every year.
Because they have become trade goods. However, if the shares are ones in which a person participates to keep them, utilizing them and benefiting from their profit, and he does not want to sell the shares, then he owes no zakah on the shares if they are non-currency assets, but he owes zakah on the profit. This is all provided that the state is not the one taking the zakah. If the state takes zakah from these shares, then the person is content with what the state takes, for Allah has not obligated a person to pay two zakahs on his wealth.