📋 WRITTEN ABILITY TEST (WAT)/ESSAY ANALYSIS GUIDE

🌐 Topic: Should Countries Impose Wealth Taxes to Reduce Income Inequality?

📚 Understanding the Importance

“Wealth taxes serve as a mechanism to address growing income disparities, fund social programs, and promote fairness, but their effectiveness depends on nuanced policy design.”

⏱️ Effective Planning and Writing

• Time Allocation (30 minutes):
• Reading & Planning: 5 minutes
• Writing: 20 minutes
• Review: 5 minutes
• Preparation Tips:
• Note examples of countries with and without wealth taxes, emphasizing outcomes.
• Highlight benefits, challenges, and potential alternatives to wealth taxes.

🖋️ Introduction Techniques for Essays

• Contrast Approach: “While wealth taxes can address inequality, concerns about capital flight and administrative inefficiencies pose significant challenges to their implementation.”
• Global Comparison Approach: “From Norway’s effective wealth tax system to France’s abandoned experiment, the global experience offers valuable lessons on the impact of such policies.”

🏗️ Structuring the Essay Body

• Achievements: Discuss how wealth taxes have reduced inequality and generated revenue in countries like Norway and Denmark.
• Challenges with Comparative Analysis: Analyze issues like capital flight, valuation difficulties, and policy inefficiencies in countries like France and Spain.
• Future Outlook: Suggest coordinated international frameworks, use of technology for asset tracking, and hybrid taxation models.

✅ Concluding Effectively

• Balanced Approach: “Wealth taxes, when globally coordinated and efficiently implemented, can serve as a tool to address inequality while fostering inclusive growth.”
• Global Comparison: “Countries can learn from Norway’s successes and France’s challenges to design wealth taxes that are fair, feasible, and impactful.”

📝 Sample Short Essays

• Balanced Perspective: “Wealth taxes can reduce inequality and fund social welfare, but their success requires careful design and global coordination.”
• Solution-Oriented: “Governments should adopt hybrid approaches, combining wealth taxes with digital enforcement mechanisms to reduce inequality effectively.”
• Global Comparison: “Norway’s success and France’s failure in wealth taxation highlight the need for balanced, globally harmonized policies to address economic disparities.”