EY Young Tax Professional of the Year 2022
Background:
The EYHK Young Tax Professional of the Year is an international competition designed to reward young talents and foster the next generation of tax leaders. As one of the yearly highlights of EY Hong Kong, the competition provides an opportunity for students to share experiences with people from a range of backgrounds and cultures. By bringing together different ideas and students from all over the world, the competition aims to demonstrate how much the tax profession has changed today and how business is managed in different cultures.
The first phase of the competition took place in Hong Kong. After completing a quiz on tax concepts and computations, shortlisted participants were randomly grouped and given around 2 weeks to prepare a group presentation on an assigned case. On the competition day, the best presenters were selected and invited to give a 15-minute individual presentation on an extended case followed by a Q&A section. Students were challenged with case studies and interviews by experienced judges.
The Hong Kong finalists invited to join the Greater China final on 15 June 2022. Country winners have been invited to participate in the International final in November 2022.
Website / Image URL:
https://ug.hkubs.hku.hk/competition/eyhk-young-tax-professional-of-the-year-2022
Awardee(s) and Award(s):
Miss LUI On Ni, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 5 (The Champion, National Competition)
Mr. WONG Lok Him, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 3 (The Champion, Local Competition)
Miss LEUNG Sin Yan Kiki, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3 (Finalist, Local Competition)
Students Sharing:
“To start with, I am extremely grateful for Dr. Christina Ng’s unconditional support and continued guidance throughout the competition, having been coached before by her in the last Deloitte Tax Championship as a semi-finalist. The competition was particularly challenging in 3 aspects: Timing, Grouping, and Scoping.
To start with, both the semi-final and final of the competitions took place in mid-to-late-April, which happened to be very close to the end of the semester. This clearly put our time management skills to test, especially for the overwhelming majority of penultimate and final year students in my assigned group. In addition, the competition put heavy emphasis on both our individual competencies and teamwork. The preliminary and final rounds primarily assessed our personal knowledge in profits tax, VAT, and DTA as well as our presentation skills and analytical thinking, whereas the semi-final patently zoomed in on our ability to excel as a team by staying agile, responsible, and efficient. This was the case essentially because of the inter-university and randomized nature of the grouping, the stringent time constraints for presentation, and the strict requirements of having each and every team member speak during the presentation time. Such experience has inspired me to not only engage in further studies about the tax effect of complex decisions, but also to rethink how I can better coordinate and connect with the team to deliver supreme performance and superior results ahead of time.
All in all, I very much appreciate the streamlined process of the competition and the friendship derived from pulling through the challenge together as a team.”
(by Lui On Ni)
“It was a rewarding experience to work with students from various universities and prepare the group presentation together. It was a pleasure to know other talented students who share an interest in tax, some of whom I will be working with and befriending even after the competition. During the preparation for the group presentation, I learned a lot from our collective research on contemporary tax issues and the exchange of ideas with groupmates. This intellectual enrichment was a valuable takeaway from the competition.
The most exciting part of the competition was the final individual presentation. Given such a short preparation time, the pressure was immense. The challenge not only came from the presentation case, but also from the instant Q&A with the judges. Same as many other real-life challenges, keeping composure was the key to success.
While the cash prize was attractive, nothing would be worth more than the opportunity to represent Hong Kong in the Greater China final and the internship offer which would allow me to further explore the tax industry with EYHK. I look forward to building on this experience and continuously developing myself into a world-class, game-changing professional.”
(by Wong Lok Him)
“Joining EYHK Young Tax Professional of the Year 2022 would probably be one of my best moments during my university life. Instead of simply doing some calculation or computation, applying logical and critical thinking to analyse how a cross-border business could better manage its tax liability would properly be the highlight of this competition. I am very honoured to have this precious opportunity for not only presenting my insights in front of the tax professionals from EY, but also to handle the case with students from different universities in Hong Kong. This valuable experience has really provided me with a lot of knowledge of the international tax system, and more importantly, a chance for me to prove my skills and talents.”
(by Leung Sin Yan Kiki)
