Ohio State accounting students accept their $5,000 reward for winning second place in the Deloitte FanTAXtic National Competition. From left: first-year Muse Said, second-year Noah Pehr, fourth-year Clinton Do, third-year Mia Zamora and second-year Sami Ibrahim. Credit: Courtesy of Kathy Wantuch
Earlier this month, Ohio State placed second at the annual Deloitte FanTAXtic case competition.
Composed of a team of accounting majors, five students first competed against over 80 teams in a regional competition before advancing against the top 20 schools in Westlake, Texas at? Deloitte University.
“The Deloitte FanTAXtic Competition provides an opportunity for students from accounting programs across the country to gain real-world experience through participation in an interscholastic competition,” according to the Deloitte website.
Sami Ibrahim, a second-year in accounting and real estate, was a part of the team representing Ohio State.
“You are given a real-life scenario that professionals would get on a daily basis at Deloitte, and our job is to essentially role play as these Deloitte tax professionals,” Ibrahim said.
Students could compete only if they had less than a year of experience within the field, Ibrhaim said.?
“This is meant to get your feet wet in the world of tax,” Ibrahim said. “So no one really has any formal experience.”
The team was guided by their mentor, Kathy Wantuch, a senior lecturer in accounting and management information systems. Additionally, Deloitte provided accounting professionals to further assist the team, including two Ohio State alums: Pedro Tula, an international tax consultant and Evan Heiser, a senior international tax manager.
Wantuch said she was proud of the team because of how much effort it takes.?
“It’s just so impressive to see that they’re able to take a subject that they have very little exposure to and do so well in it,” Wantuch said.
The first phase of the tax case competition is the virtual regional competition, in which teams compete to advance to nationals, Wantuch said.
The national competition is hosted over two days, during which students have to apply their technical knowledge and present it to Deloitte professionals.
UCLA won the competition and received $10,000 to the university and $2,000 per team member for the feat, according to the Deloitte website.
The award for winning second place was $5,000 to the university and $1,000 per team member, according to the website. The last time Ohio State made it to the national Deloitte FanTAXtic Case Competition was 2015 where they placed third.
When asked what was the key to Ohio State’s excellent result, Ibrahim said the competitors have to explain well enough for a client to comprehend the information.
“You have to be able to kind of communicate your findings in a simple enough sense that the client can understand, and also you need to add more than what they’re asking,” Ibrahim said. “It’s a little nerve wracking, but I think once we started we had prepared very well.”
At first, Ibrahim said the team was nervous to be presenting in front of the Deloitte professionals.
“Once we started going, it felt just as natural as the rehearsals and practice run,” Ibrahim said.
Wantuch said experiences like this benefit students outside of the classroom.
“This is a great example of what Fisher is really pushing: experiential learning for students,” Wantuch said.
Wantuch said she motivates students to participate in similar experiences.?
“I would always want to encourage this as much as possible,” Wantuch said. “Just do it. It’s worth it.”
