100 bright young talents compete in 2019 Deloitte Tax Championship in Chengdu, China

Published: 28 October 2019

The 16th Deloitte Tax Championship was held in Chengdu on 25-27 October 2019 under the theme Leading to success: be bold, be creative, attracting 100 young participants. The Championship brought together teams from top universities across the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to exchange their knowledge and insights on tax and business. The event demonstrates the decisive, innovative mind sets in younger generations' pursuit of excellence.

Every year, the Deloitte Tax Championship asks students to show their knowledge, collaborate, get to the bottom of issues or challenges, and be bold and creative in their solutions. The 3-month long competition this year was a great experience for the Championship students as they redefined the spirit of "leading to success, be bold and creative" in their own ways. We hope this spirit will be a legacy for the new generation of tax talent and drive them to grow and thrive.

Launched in 2004, the Tax Championship is a key initiative of the Deloitte Tax Research Foundation, promoting education, research and innovation in taxation by supporting an array of national and local programs across Greater China. This year, students representing 72 outstanding universities from 32 cities across China were invited to participate in the Championship. Students from 66 universities made it to the competition.   

After three rounds of spirited competition that showed the best of China's student tax talent, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics came out on top, with National Chengchi University and Fu Jen Catholic University in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

The preliminary contest held on 7 July was an online, multiple-choice quiz testing students' knowledge of PRC tax and related practices, as well as their logical thinking prowess. Thirty teams made it to round 2 of the competition on 31 August. In round 2, students are required to analyze simulated business cases, submit written reports, and deliver short speeches on a given topic, focusing on their knowledge of international tax, English proficiency and knowledge of advanced technology.

After two rounds of competition, 13 outstanding teams from the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan participated in the Tax Championship national final in Chengdu last weekend.

"International tax and outbound M&A activities were the highlights in this year's Championship questions, as we aimed to help the participants to expand their horizons through case simulations. This exemplifies our commitment to infusing energy and agility into tax professional education in China, as well as expand the scope of the curriculum in all directions. With a focus on talent training and education, for more than a decade we have organized the Championship to provide a platform for these purposes, and increase awareness of tax matters among academic institutions, educators and students in China. This August, Deloitte's global WorldClass initiative was officially launched in China to further scale-up our impact across society. Our WorldClass goal is to empower 50 million people globally by 2030 by giving them access to the education and skills required to find meaningful work in the new economy," says Deloitte China Tax Managing Partner Eunice Kuo.  

"Deloitte hopes students will apply what they learned during the Tax Championship in real business cases. With this experience, they will realize a depth of understanding of professional subject matter, and expand their knowledge across the curriculum. At the same time, the competition trains them to combine these two equally important experiences in real life. The teams demonstrated their spirit of collaboration and innovation, and came up with the best solutions by leveraging technology. This is exactly what we encourage and want in nurturing tax talent. During the disruption of Industry 4.0, it is especially important for us to build a cross-curriculum team of professionals: a seamless integration of tax and high-tech, as well as tax and operations management. Therefore, we have to recruit high caliber graduates from different majors and backgrounds to maintain our leading position in professional services," adds Deloitte China Tax Partner and Chair of the Deloitte Tax Championship Liang Jie.

"I was deeply impressed by the extraordinary performance of all participants in the Tax Championship this year, and I am confident China's tax services sector has a promising future. We hope the Championship will be a platform for university students to apply their tax knowledge and receive professional tax training. Deloitte is always open to students with great potential from different disciplines, who can join our best-in-class tax team and improve their skills through collaboration to drive the upgrading of China's tax services sector," Kuo concludes.