TAR UC Students Bag Top Prizes at Deloitte Tax Challenge 2017

Perpetuating its tradition of excellence, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College’s (‘TAR UC’) students clinched top prizes again at the Deloitte Tax Challenge 2017, underlining TAR UC’s impressive run of success at the said competition. This year’s win marks the 10th successful participation by TAR UC since 2008.

Team Taxpacito, consisting of Carlos Wong Fook Chin, Yap Chin Siong, Tiffany Thong Siew Mun and Chong Hsien Leon was named team category Champion at the final round which was held on 1 November 2017 at Deloitte’s Head Office in Kuala Lumpur, beating a total of 172 teams from 50 universities and colleges nationwide. They walked away with RM8,000 cash prize and employment offers from Deloitte Malaysia. Another team from TAR UC – Team Taxaholic which was made up of Lee Peng Qing, Tan Jye, Ng Peng Feng and Lee Dong Cheng – secured the 2nd Runner-up position. Chong Hsien Leon, Tiffany Thong and Lee Peng Qing were also named Best Presenters in the team category. Apart from that, TAR UC students also bagged multiple awards in the individual category with Lee Peng Qing winning the 1st Runner-up whilst Chong Hsien Leon and Lim Jing Jie won merit awards.

Bagging three awards in the competition came as a pleasant surprise for Lee Peng Qing. The Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) student was brimming with joy when he won prizes in both the team and individual category. His strategy to make his presentation more interactive by posing some questions to the judges also paid off as he also won Best Presenter in the team category.

“It was different participating as an individual participant as compared to being a team participant, and I had to juggle both. As an individual participant, I had to cover wider scope alone as compared to team participation,” he explained. “This experience has provided me with invaluable exposure on taxation and has taught me how to better compose myself when working under pressure.”

Team Taxpacito shared that the most challenging part of the competition was during the final round as the questions were unexpected and was something totally new as compared to the questions from previous years. The team’s strategy was to harness each other’s strength in a combined effort to attempt the questions within 2.5hours.

Chong Hsien Leon also expressed his gratitude to the lecturers, Mr Michael Yeo Thiam Swee and Mr Chong Geok Chuang for their support and guidance. “Our lecturers were fantastic as they were helping us to prepare for this competition. They were very helpful, dedicated and committed to ensuring that the team got the best advice and coaching. TAR UC has provided us with a solid foundation in basic taxation which enables us to better understand more advanced topics.”

Beaming with pride, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR UC, praised the students for their achievement. “It is certainly encouraging to know that our students are able to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom in real-life situations. This win further reaffirms TAR UC’s focus on strengthening students’ capability to be work-ready by imbuing them with the needed industry-relevant skills and knowledge,” he said. “I have confidence that they will no doubt continue to create their own successes in the future.”

Team Taxpacito will be representing Malaysia at the Deloitte Southeast Asia Tax Challenge in Jakarta next year. Lee Peng Qing will also be joining them in Jakarta to compete as an individual category participant.