Industry heavyweights judge young tax professionals’ ideas

Industry heavyweights to judge young tax professionals’ ideas

Four young tax professionals will present and debate their ideas for the future state of the tax system with respected industry figures in Wellington in October – and come away with an inflated bank balance.

The Tax Policy Scholarships Charitable Trust (TPSCT) is running a competition for young tax professionals working in the public and private sector and academia to showcase new ideas in tax policy or administration.

Finalists will give a presentation and field questions from the judges at Victoria University on 8 October.

The panel will comprise former Inland Revenue (IRD) Deputy Commissioner Robin Oliver, TPSCT and former PricewaterhouseCoopers Chair John Shewan, former Secretary of Treasury John Whitehead New Zealand Initiative Executive Director Oliver Hartwich, and former Bell Gully Tax Partner Joanne Hodge.

The winner will receive $10,000 and the other finalists $2000.

“Sound and innovative tax policy formulation is a critical ingredient to the development of a strong and resilient economy,” says Shewan.

“The Robin Oliver Tax Policy Scholarship Competition provides young professionals with a unique opportunity to promote creative policy ideas to tackle the many challenges that 21st century globally mobile and digitally dependent economies must face.”

Tax professionals under the age of 35 (at 1 January, 2015) are eligible to enter.

Entries close on 25 May. Finalists will be announced on 13 July.

Visit taxpolicyscholarships.org.nz for competition guidelines and judging criteria.

About the TPSCT

The TPSCT was established by Tax Management NZ and its founder director Ian Kuperus to encourage future tax policy leaders and support leading tax policy thinking in New Zealand.

Previously, the Trust sponsored a leading international tax policy thinker to visit New Zealand to engage in debate and discussion, and a New Zealand tax professional to undertake research and study.

The Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Affairs Department, Michael Keen, talked global tax policy issues with a select group of young tax professional in Wellington and Auckland last year.

Professor Alan Auerbach of the University of California, Berkeley was the first visiting lecturer in 2013, while the IRD’s Carolyn Palmer was the inaugural scholarship recipient.

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