ABSTRACT
Of the five fundamental pillars of Islam, Zakat and Holy Pilgrimage to Mecca are the less understood by Muslims, largely, because pilgrimage is only prescribed on those who are healthy and have the means to travel and Zakat equally is prescribed on those who have earned enough to save minimum of N80,000 for 12 months.
The subject of Zakat has even become less popular among the investing public as it is always wrongly associated with liquid cash not
only encompassing all growing assets. The contention, is not only limited to whether to pay Zakat on business assets, but more importantly the valuation framework, which many willing payers find to be very tasking and easy to avoid payment on such ground. The little contribution of this work is more of creating awareness on the Zakatability of business assets and also shedding more light in the complex valuation framework within the context of modern production mechanism and business arena.
We have reviewed the assessment and collection methods of Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and the Sudan, which # based fundamentally on shareholders fund (owner's equity) and networking capital concepts.
In order to effectively and religiously discharge Zakat obligation, working within the context of "it is better to overpay than deliberate underpay". It became imperative to reconsider the valuation of growing assets. The objective is to neutralise the effect of mingling of the sources and application of funds in business.
