Is it permissible to pay due taxes from Zakat funds?

It is not permissible to count taxes paid on wealth as part of the obligatory zakat due on it. Rather, zakat must be given and spent on its lawful recipients as specified in the Holy Qur’an: "Zakat expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakat] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler."