Paying Zakah as taxes

27-2-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

Is it permissible to file the charity (Zakah) as a tax deduction (Contribution) in order to receive tax credit for a tax refund?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

As for paying Zakah as a form tax deduction to a government, we state that such an action is not sufficient for Zakah, since Zakah is a Divine obligation that should be taken from one's property; channels of spending it are specified in the Qur'an and cannot be spent in other channels. In addition, paying it according to tax deduction system helps one protect one's property from obligatory tax that he/she has to pay by any means. So, this is not permissible even though taxes are taken unjustly.
Allah knows best.