Book

Description

India's direct tax system was built for a paper economy that no longer exists. In The Wealth Declaration Model (WDM), policy writer Parveen Aggarwal proposes a structural alternative: a tax base built on a citizen's longitudinal net wealth rather than annual income, using India's existing digital public infrastructure to reduce both compliance burden and adversarial litigation. The book sets out the model's mathematics, its unrestricted deferral mechanism for illiquid wealth, its treatment of farmers, small businesses, salaried employees and retirees, and a candid discussion of the international precedents both for and against wealth-based taxation. Written for policymakers, tax professionals and engaged citizens alike, this monograph is an invitation to rethink how India taxes wealth in a digital age.