It’s hard to calculate zakat without knowing which numbers to obtain.
Although zakat is not necessarily due in Ramadan, many Muslims choose to pay it during the holy month because it’s easier for them to keep track of each year. Giving charity is also an act of worship in Islam, so blessings from paying zakat (and sadaqah) are amplified during Ramadan.
For some, it’s as easy as filling out a Zakat Calculator. For others, it could take time going through the Zakat Resource Center to find out what types of wealth are zakatable, or zakat-eligible.
Zakat is payable on five types of material wealth:
Personal wealth and assets
Liquid and exploited assets
Agricultural produce
Livestock
Treasure
But let’s cover some basics. First, not every Muslim is obligated to pay zakat every year. This depends on financial standing — specifically, how much wealth (and which type or types of wealth) one has held for an entire lunar year. If a Muslim’s wealth does not pass and then stay past a threshold for one lunar year, then that Muslim does not have to pay zakat that year. That threshold is called nisab. Muslims whose wealth surpasses nisab for a lunar year are expected to pay zakat.
Nisab is determined based on the cash value of either gold or silver. The nisab calculated with silver is noticeably lower than the nisab calculated with gold. There are Islamic scholars who argue in favor of each calculation type. Zakat Foundation of America uses gold, as explained here.
One gram of gold is valued at 65.88 USD at the time of writing this piece. Nisab is valued at 85 grams of gold. Based on that, calculating nisab through gold today would look like this: