Prayer TimesA share/stock is a security that represents a certain portion of a company's capital and grants its holder partnership rights in proportion to that amount. A person who owns shares in a company indirectly becomes a partner in all the company's tangible assets, cash/financial assets, rights and liabilities, as well as in the profits and losses arising from these assets.
Accordingly—regardless of whether the shares are traded on the stock exchange or not—a person who owns shares in a company must pay zakat at the rate of 2.5% if the sum of their share of the company's cash and cash-equivalent assets (such as gold, checks, etc.), collectible trade receivables, commercial goods in the form of raw materials, finished or semi-finished products, movable or immovable properties held for sale, and financial investment assets (after deducting their share of the company's debts), either alone or together with their other zakatable assets, reaches the nisab amount and a year has passed over it. If the shareholder does not know the exact amount of zakatable assets corresponding to their shares, they should investigate and pay zakat based on their prevailing assumption resulting from this research.
On the other hand, shares purchased for trading purposes (to make a profit by buying and selling on the stock exchange) are considered as trade goods in terms of zakat and are subject to zakat at the rate of 2.5% of their value.
Source: T.C. Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, Din İşleri Yüksek Kurulu
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