Zakat left unpaid until a second year passes

A question about someone who held the zakat minimum and did not pay until another year passed, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that zakat is due immediately and delaying it without excuse is a sin, and that the amount already due is not zakated again but is deducted from the following year's base. ¹

The questioner asked about someone who owned wealth at the zakat minimum and did not pay its zakat until another year came round: is the earlier zakat deducted from the zakatable base in the second year, or is it zakated again? ¹

The Department answered that zakat is an obligatory financial act of worship that must be paid immediately from the day it falls due, because it is the right of the poor, and that whoever delays it without excuse sins and becomes liable for it, quoting al-Nawawi in al-Majmu to that effect. ¹ It said that money set aside and kept as zakat is not subject to zakat again, because it has become the property of the poor, though the payer sins by delaying if he was able to pay and did not. ¹ It quoted Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi in al-Muhadhdhab that someone holding a minimum on which zakat fell due, who did not pay until another year passed, owes no second year's zakat on that amount, because the poor came to own the due share of the minimum. ¹ It concluded that the amount due as zakat is not zakated again: each year's zakat is set aside and deducted from the wealth's base in the following year. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3954, dated 5 March 2025. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.