A Weekend Adventure: Tax and Texas

My team in Texas!

A few short days after returning to Fordham to begin my final semester (YIKES, these four year flew!), I was off to spend a weekend in Texas. Back in November, my team, which consisted of two sophomores, one junior and a graduate student (all studying Accounting), qualified to compete at the Deloitte National FanTAXtic Competition after placing first at our regional competition. Our win secured us a spot to compete amongst eight other universities (including University of Wisconsin-Madison, USC, William & Mary, and Texas A&M) at Deloitte’s National Training Center in Westlake, Texas!

For the last few months, our team has been under the instruction of Gabelli’s undergraduate tax Professor and a Deloitte tax professional from the New York office. While they were not permitted to solve the case study for us, their feedback and input helped us to prepare for each of our final presentations (one for each the Regional Competition and the National Competition). 

Deloitte University in Westlake, TX!

Shortly after landing in Texas and arriving the Deloitte University (Deloitte’s National Training Center and a truly AMAZING facility), we were presented with our first task; based off information provided to us from our 'client', we were given two hours to prepare a memo advising the company on how to best deal with the tax consequences. The following day, we were presented with different information and given three hours to develop a 15 minute presentation advising our ‘client’ about different tax issues and transactions. While working under the time constraint was quite stressful, my team successfully completed both tasks and anxiously waited for the results to be announced later that night!

The results were announced at a formal dinner and awards ceremony and though our team did not win, the experience was tremendous! Many Deloitte professionals shared with us how great they thought participating was because it was very similar to work they do on a daily basis. In addition, I met students from other universities all over the country and worked with a great team of students from Fordham who I had never met prior to beginning the competition. Finally, having the opportunity to take a trip to Texas was quite an honor and a highlight of my time here at Fordham for sure!