Is it conceivable that a person would give away camels to escape zakah?
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Question : Yes, he asks: Is it conceivable that a person would give away camels to escape zakah?
Answer : Yes. It is possible for him to give away something that reduces his wealth below the nisab, in which case the obligation falls off. Yes, this is what the jurists say. There may be motives that cannot be fully enumerated. A person might give them away because he sees that if the wali (guardian) finds that he has reached the nisab for zakah, he will impose a tax on him, as happens in some countries where they impose taxes on wealth, so people hide their wealth. In that case, he gives it away out of fear of that. Also, there are differences of opinion, but if it actually happens, the jurists mention the matter as a hypothetical case. It is like mentioning, for example, if a person dies leaving twenty grandmothers, who inherits from one who dies leaving twenty grandmothers?
Answer : Yes. It is possible for him to give away something that reduces his wealth below the nisab, in which case the obligation falls off. Yes, this is what the jurists say. There may be motives that cannot be fully enumerated. A person might give them away because he sees that if the wali (guardian) finds that he has reached the nisab for zakah, he will impose a tax on him, as happens in some countries where they impose taxes on wealth, so people hide their wealth. In that case, he gives it away out of fear of that. Also, there are differences of opinion, but if it actually happens, the jurists mention the matter as a hypothetical case. It is like mentioning, for example, if a person dies leaving twenty grandmothers, who inherits from one who dies leaving twenty grandmothers?
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 3635 - 4600 هل يتصور أن شخصاً يهب الإبل فراراً من الزكاة؟ ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.