No asset class matters more to Turkish zakat than gold. Bilezik on the wrist, quarter and full coins from weddings and births, bullion under mattresses: gold is how Turkish households actually store wealth, which makes the gold rules the load-bearing part of most family calculations. They are also where the official methodology has real technical content: a nisab defined in gold grams, karat conversion, and a pricing detail that favors recipients. Here is the complete treatment, per the Din Isleri Yuksek Kurulu methodology implemented in the TDV calculator.
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The threshold: 80.18 grams
The DIYK nisab is 80.18 grams of gold: if your total zakatable wealth (gold plus cash plus the rest) is at or above the value of 80.18 grams and has been for a lunar year, zakat is due at 2.5 percent. Note what the threshold is not: it is not a gold-only test. A household with 60 grams of gold and substantial cash still clears nisab on the combined total; the gold figure prices the line, and everything zakatable counts toward crossing it. The dual-check detail: IHH's calculator also tests the silver equivalent (612.36 grams), a more conservative threshold that more households cross; our nisab explainer covers when that matters.
Karat conversion: the step everyone fumbles
Zakat applies to gold content, not shop weight. Turkish jewelry spans 14, 18 and 22 karat; coins (ceyrek, yarim, tam, and Republic gold) have their own standards. The principle: convert each item to its pure-gold equivalent (karat divided by 24, times weight), sum the equivalents, and value the total at current prices. The official calculator does the karat handling natively, which is one of its genuine advantages over generic tools: enter your items by karat and weight, and the conversion is done to the DIYK standard. Practical inventory tip: weigh or record items once, keep the list in your zakat file, and update it when pieces enter or leave; the annual calculation then takes minutes.
The pricing detail that favors recipients
The TDV methodology documents a rule most calculators worldwide ignore: nisab determination uses gold buying prices, while the payable amount is valued at selling prices. Buying prices run lower, so the threshold is easier to cross; selling prices run higher, so the amount paid is larger. Both asymmetries favor the poor, deliberately. When calculating by hand, use the jeweler's buy quote to test the 80.18 gram line and the sell quote to value what you owe. When using the official calculator, the rule is built in.
The jewelry question, answered honestly
Is worn jewelry zakatable at all? The classical schools genuinely differ: the Hanafi position holds gold and silver zakatable regardless of use, including jewelry worn daily, while other schools exempt customary personal-use jewelry. Turkey's official methodology follows the Hanafi mainstream: the calculator takes your jewelry by karat and weight, full stop. Our editorial view matches the official one for a practical reason beyond fiqh loyalty: in Turkey, jewelry is not ornament that happens to hold value, it is the household savings account, given at weddings precisely as wealth transfer, and exempting it would exempt the primary store of family wealth from the wealth tax of Islam. Muslims following another school's position should apply it knowingly, for jewelry genuinely in personal use, not warehoused; and where doubt remains, Alo 190 exists, and paying is the safer side of every close call.
Worked example
| Item | Calculation |
|---|---|
| Two 22k bilezik, 30g total | 30 x 22/24 = 27.5g pure equivalent |
| Five ceyrek coins (by standard weight and fineness) | Convert per coin standard; the calculator handles it |
| 18k necklace set, 20g | 20 x 18/24 = 15g pure equivalent |
| Total pure-gold grams | Sum the equivalents |
| Nisab test | Total zakatable wealth (gold value at buy price + cash + rest) at or above 80.18g x buy price? |
| Payable | 2.5% of net zakatable wealth, gold valued at sell price |
Paying zakat on gold: in kind or in lira?
Both are valid. Classical practice paid gold zakat in gold, and nothing stops a household from handing 2.5 percent of its grams to an eligible recipient directly. The modern institutional channels take lira: value the gold at sell prices, compute 2.5 percent, and pay the lira figure through TDV or IHH, both of which apply this exact methodology in their calculators. The lira route has a practical virtue in Turkey's gold culture: it lets the family keep the physical pieces, which often carry sentimental weight beyond their metal value, while discharging the obligation fully. What matters is the valuation date discipline: price the gold and pay within a reasonable time of your calculation date, not months later at a different price.
Special cases from real Turkish households
- Wedding gold: gifted gold belongs to the recipient (commonly the bride) and counts in her calculation, not the family's collectively. Whose wrist, whose zakat.
- Gold accounts and gram-gold savings at participation banks: zakatable identically to physical gold; the bank app shows your gram balance, convert and include it.
- Gold jewelry held for resale (a trader's stock): that is trade goods, valued at market like any inventory; see the (business assets guide).
- Mixed metals and stones: zakat attaches to the gold content; substantial gemstone value is not gold, though a trader's stones are again trade goods.
- Children's gold: held for the child, it is the child's wealth; the mainstream Hanafi position does not levy zakat on a minor's wealth, though other views differ. Ask Alo 190 for your case.
The business inventory rules are at our business assets guide, and the rest of the calculation framework, categories, debt netting and the hawl, is in the step-by-step guide.
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Bottom line
Turkish gold zakat has an official answer at every technical fork: the 80.18 gram threshold, Hanafi treatment of jewelry, karat conversion, and the buy-sell asymmetry favoring recipients. The one thing no methodology can do is inventory your household's gold; do that once, honestly, including the pieces so familiar they stopped feeling like wealth, and the rest is arithmetic the calculator finishes in minutes. Wealth the family wears is still wealth; the third pillar treats it accordingly.