TAR UC Students’ Brilliance Shines in Regional Tax Competition

TAR UC students who reigned Champion in the Team Category and the 1st runner-up winner in the Individual Category at the national level Deloitte Tax Challenge 2017, represented Malaysia at regional level and they successfully clinched 1st Runner-up prize in Team Category and 1st Runner-up prize and Best Writer award in Individual Category in the Deloitte South East Asia (‘SEA’) Tax Challenge 2018 held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 27 – 28 February 2018. This is the second time TAR UC students have represented Malaysia at regional level after having won at the national level. Team Taxpacito comprising Carlos Wong Fook Chin, Chong Hsien Leon, Tiffany Thong Siew Mun and Yap Chin Siong from the Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) programme won the 1st Runner-up prize and Lee Peng Qing, also from the Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) programme, won the 1st Runner-up prize and Best Writer award in the Individual Category.

This competition aims at cultivating and enriching the next generation of tax professionals in the region. The 2018 competition saw 24 participants from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines taking part in the competition. This year’s Deloitte SEA Tax Challenge was made more challenging with a new element added to the competition. An additional written report regarding the latest tax reform in the United States was required from the participants in the competition this year. This new element was incorporated to allow the participants to demonstrate their presentation and writing skills.

The 24 participants from top-ranked universities across SEA pitted their skills against each other in Jakarta, Indonesia in front of a panel of judges from Deloitte, which included Balim Boerman, Indonesia Tax Partner, Yee Wing Peng, Malaysia Country Tax Leader and James Walton, SEA Clients & Markets Partner.

On what inspired and motivated the group to win in this competition, Hsien Leon replied: “It was the opportunity for us to make our friends, family and University College proud, as well as a chance to fly the Malaysian flag high, that inspired and motivated us to put in our utmost effort to win in the competition.”

Tiffany waxed lyrical about her two dedicated tax lecturers from TAR UC, Mr Michael Yeo Thiam Swee and Mr Chong Geok Chuang, who spent a lot of time to prepare the students for this intense competition. “From day one, they put in their heart and soul in preparing us for the challenge. We would meet up in TAR UC sometimes up to 10pm to practise and they would give us many articles to read. They even flew to Jakarta to support us!”

“One of the challenges for me in this competition was the presentation part,” said Chin Siong. He went on to say that the presentation was an important part of the competition carrying 60% of the total mark. “We have to be confident when presenting, make our judges feel comfortable, as well as have clear presentation slides. Eye contact, gesture, movement, intonation and so on are the key things in the presentation. We kept on practising by presenting to each other, our friends and our lecturers in order to improve our presentation skills,” he explained.

Fook Chin spoke about the most important thing that he had learnt in this competition. “I have learnt that having a good attitude is important and that I should be humble, as the competitors in this competition are all national champions of their respective countries.”

As for Peng Qing, who won two awards in the individual category, he has this piece of advice for those who wish to participate in such a competition. “I think my advice would be to never see yourself as the best. There will always be room for improvement and take steps to work towards making that improvement.”

Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR UC, was very pleased with the achievements of the students. He said: “All of us in TAR UC are so proud of the students’ achievements. Not only can our students do well on home ground but also in international arena and this speaks volumes of the calibre of our students and the quality of TAR UC education. For close to 50 years, TAR UC has been well-recognised as one of the best providers of business education in Malaysia. The win shows that our students have demonstrated the exceptional standards of our business programmes”.