I Never Paid Khums before
Adopted from the Book : "Khums; An Islamic Tax" by : Sayyid Mohammad Rizvi
A person who has never paid khums in his life and then, by the grace of Allah, decides to pay khums, for such a person there are the following possibilities :
1. It is wajib on him to pay the khums from every item which he has bought, built or planted and which is also in excess to his needs. For example, an apartment bought for renting purpose or a taxi for transportation business.
2. If such items are among his needs (for example, his own house or his own car) then :
• if he has come to own these items from the profit or the surplus of the income of that same year, then there is no khums on them. For example, in 1965, he earned $ 25,000 and in the same year he bought a car for $ 7,000 from that income, then there is no khums on his car.
• if he has come to own these items from the accumulated surplus of previous years, then it is wajib to pay khums from those items also. For example, from 1960 to 1965, a person annually earned $ 20,000. Then at the end of 1965, he buys a house of $ 80,000. It is obvious that this house was not bought from the income of a single year. In this case, he has to pay khums on $ 60,000 which was definitely from the savings of the previous years.
3. If a person's income was not stable, in some years he had profited and in some he had been in loss, and he cannot determine whether he bought his various properties in the year of profit or loss—then, such a person should explain his circumstances to the mujtahid and come to a compromise with him about the amount of khums. This can be done by personal contact with the mujtahid or by corresponding with him or his authorized representative. (Most leading mujtahids have their authorized representatives in major parts of the Shi`ah world.)