First-place team reflects on their experience working together to secure their win

This year was the third time the Young Tax Professionals (YTP) Case Competition took place, with students having the opportunity to utilize skills they acquired from their past co-op experiences to tackle a given topic. Involvement in this year’s YTP Case Competition allowed our team of three to dive into detail about a complex interest deductibility limitation rule that was proposed into law just this past February. Given the limited external resources available on this legislation, we had to leverage skills we’ve developed throughout our co-op and academic experiences, such as research, tax planning, technical tax writing and concise communication. We also expanded our research beyond just the Canadian application of the rules and compared the proposal to different tax systems around the world.

Working on the deliverables not only helped us understand the technical application of the proposed tax rules implementation but also provided us with the opportunity to interact with other YTP members that we would not have collaborated with otherwise. Our student team is all in different stages of our university experience, ranging from third-year studies in the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) program, to nearly finishing a Master of Accounting (MAcc) degree, so our group needed to communicate effectively to identify everyone’s strengths and capitalize on them. Working on the memorandum and presentation for our case was insightful and exciting.

We strongly suggest that University of Waterloo students get involved with the YTP program and participate in a case competition at least once in their university career! Though it may seem daunting at first, working with a team will allow you to identify your strengths and grow.