Savings in a Wife's or Child's Name — Who Pays?

Short answer: Real ownership is the criterion, not the name on paper. (1) Money parked in your wife's name but effectively yours — your wealth: zakated in your books. (2) What you genuinely gifted her — her wealth: zakated against her own nisab and hawl, and paying it is her duty (a husband paying on her behalf is assistance, with her consent). (3) Each spouse's wealth is reckoned separately — husband and wife are never combined to reach nisab. Details: A wife's property is fully independent in Islam — marriage does not transfer it. A gift takes effect only with handover and relinquished control; 'in her name but I take it back at will' is no gift — it remains yours. Warning: scattering wealth across names to dodge zakat or inheritance is a forbidden device — 'combined property is not separated for fear of sadaqah', and violating heirs' rights is graver still. As for her worn jewellery: the weightier evidence-based view (the two-bangles hadith) is that it is zakatable — as this platform's calculator assumes. Evidence: Quran 4:32 (women's independent ownership); Abu Dawud 1563 (sahih per al-Albani); Sahih al-Bukhari 1450. For complex individual cases, consult a qualified scholar.