SHARÔÑAH ISSUES IN INTANGIBLE ASSETS

Abstract

Intangible assets are regarded as one of the most important asset classes for financial institutions, and their importance and consideration is rapidly increasing. There are existing, well established conventional standards on intangible assets (IA); however the SharÊÑah standard on IA is discussed rather minimally. Thus, this paper attempts to discuss the vital issues related to intangible assets: recognition and measurement, financing and trading, and zakat, which represent a grey area for the Islamic finance industry. The research employs critical analysis. It aims to provide clarification of the concept of intangible assets from the points of view of the SharÊÑah as well as an analysis of pertinent SharÊÑah issues on intangible assets. This research found the following: (i) there is an issue of gharar in the identification and determination of intangible assets due to non-existence of any physical substance and due to future benefit being a probabilistic matter; (ii) it is generally permissible to finance and trade IA except in the trading and exchange of receivables, options and futures; (iii) zakat is obligatory on intangible assets if the intention is to trade them either at sale price if they are sold or at market price if they are owned by a trader.