We live in a world where asset prices outpace wages year after year. If you work a 9-to-5 job, your paycheck barely covers rent and inflation, let alone buys you a stake in the companies shaping the future. Meanwhile, capital compounds quietly in the background, concentrating wealth into fewer hands.
Enter Nikhil Kamath. At the NDTV World Summit 2026, the Zerodha co-founder dropped a perspective that made rooms full of affluent people squirm. He argued that inheritance tax might not be the worst idea in the world. People hate hearing that. When Kamath floated similar thoughts previously, the internet practically roasted him. But stepping past the knee-jerk outrage reveals an economic reality we are desperately trying to ignore.
The Asset Price Trap
Look closely at how modern wealth actually works. If you earn an active income, you pay steep taxes on your labor. But if you hold assets—real estate, stocks, private equity—your net worth swells without you lifting a finger.
Kamath pointed straight at the Gini coefficient during his summit conversation with Rahul Kanwal. The metric tracks income and wealth inequality. In most parts of the world, it is flashing red. The math is brutal: when wage growth lags far behind asset price inflation, wealth inequality is guaranteed to widen. You cannot out-earn a housing market that doubles every few years by saving your salary.
Governments eventually have to intervene. Leaving unchecked dynastic wealth to compound indefinitely creates an entrenched economic aristocracy. That is why Kamath views intergenerational wealth transfer through a different lens.
Grappling With Practical Reality
Nobody wants to pay more taxes. Founders and business owners panic at the thought of liquidating equity in their own companies just to satisfy a sudden tax bill triggered by a death in the family. Kamath acknowledges this hurdle. Any rational inheritance policy cannot mean forcing founders to sell off chunks of operating businesses as unrealized gains. It has to be structured efficiently.
Yet, the core premise stands. Taxing income while letting massive pools of inherited capital pass untaxed across generations creates a two-tiered society. It destroys meritocracy. If your starting line depends entirely on whose family you were born into, the social contract fractures.
Kamath framed it bluntly for the high-net-worth individuals sitting in the audience. Solving inequality isn't about altruism. It is pure self-preservation. If wealth concentration reaches a breaking point, the societal pushback will be far worse than any tax policy the government could draft today.
What This Means For Your Financial Strategy
If you are building wealth from scratch, paying attention to these shifts matters.
- Focus on Assets: Relying solely on a salary is a losing game. You must acquire income-generating assets that match or beat inflation.
- Estate Planning Reality: Keep an eye on global tax policy shifts. Governments facing ballooning deficits will inevitably look at capital and inheritance as revenue sources.
- Think Long-Term: Build structures that protect your family while preparing for a tax environment that will likely favor redistribution over dynastic accumulation.
Stop pretending the wealth gap will fix itself. The conversation around inheritance tax is only beginning.
