Is there zakah on retirement money?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : He asks: Is there zakah on the retirement benefit taken from the salary?
The Shaykh : The retirement benefit taken from the salary does not have zakah, because its owner cannot withdraw it except under certain conditions. It is like a debt owed by a person in financial difficulty, and there is no zakah on a debt owed by a person in financial difficulty.
The presenter : Look.
The Shaykh : For example, if you lent a person one thousand riyals, and this person is in financial difficulty, then there is no zakah on you for this thousand, even if it remains in this man’s liability for ten years. But if you receive it, do you pay zakah on it for one year or not?
The presenter : Definitely.
The Shaykh : There is a difference of opinion among the scholars, and the safest course is to pay zakah on it once for one year. Yes.
The Shaykh : The retirement benefit taken from the salary does not have zakah, because its owner cannot withdraw it except under certain conditions. It is like a debt owed by a person in financial difficulty, and there is no zakah on a debt owed by a person in financial difficulty.
The presenter : Look.
The Shaykh : For example, if you lent a person one thousand riyals, and this person is in financial difficulty, then there is no zakah on you for this thousand, even if it remains in this man’s liability for ten years. But if you receive it, do you pay zakah on it for one year or not?
The presenter : Definitely.
The Shaykh : There is a difference of opinion among the scholars, and the safest course is to pay zakah on it once for one year. Yes.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[63 من 145] هل على مال التقاعد زكاة؟ الشيخ ابن عثيمين - مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.