Paying zakat on an end-of-service gratuity

A question on zakat on an end-of-service gratuity, in which Egypt's Dar al-Ifta answered that zakat is due only after it is received, after which it either starts a new zakat year or joins savings that already have a running year. ¹

The questioner said a man received an end-of-service gratuity above the zakat threshold on reaching retirement age, and asked whether zakat is owed on it for the years before he received it, and how it is paid. ¹

Dar al-Ifta answered that zakat does not attach to the gratuity until it is received, because ownership is not complete before then. ¹ It said that someone with no other savings starts a new zakat year from the date of receipt, while someone whose savings already have a running year adds the gratuity to them and pays on the whole at the end of that year, at one fortieth (2.5%), once the conditions are met. ¹ It defined the gratuity as a sum the worker earns under his contract or the regulations in recognition of his years of service, referring to article 172 of Egypt's Labour Law no. 14 of 2025. ¹

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta published this fatwa on its site as no. 9025, dated 27 July 2026, among the fatwas of Grand Mufti Nazir Ayyad. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.