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Fatwa CenterPaying taxes and customs from usurious interests
Question
I want to ask you about the many taxes, insurance money and customs which Allaah The Almighty Did not Prescribe. Is it permissible to pay them from the usurious money earned from bank interests in order to be able to perform the obligation of Zakaah that costs me a lot of money?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
A Muslim may not pay unfair taxes, customs and business insurances if he has the choice. He may not pay them unless he is obliged to do so. If he can use trickery to be exempted therefrom or to reduce them, he should do so. The ruling on paying them from usurious interests depends on the details of each case. A rich person who possesses usurious money should get rid of it by spending it on the public interest of Muslims or by paying it to the poor and needy. It is impermissible for him to spend it in his own interest like paying it in customs and taxes because this money does not belong to him so he does not have the right to spend it in his own interest. Rather, it is the money of the poor. Along with the obligation of getting rid of this money in the aforementioned fields, he should repent to Allaah The Almighty and determine never to return to such a sin and never to deal in usury.
If the possessor of this money is poor, he may spend from it to serve his own interest according to the extent of his need, while at the same time he should repent to Allaah The Almighty. The questioner should know that paying taxes, customs and the like does not exempt him from paying Zakah.
Allaah Knows best.
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