Accounting students win national competition

A team of UW–Madison accounting students has won a national case competition sponsored by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The UW–Madison was one of 21 leading business schools asked to participate in the competition. The national finals of the xTax Campus Competition were held in Washington, D.C. Feb. 1 and 2. UW–Madison’s five-member team, composed of two sophomores, one junior, and two fifth-year students, won $15,000 for making the finals.

The team earned its place in the finals by submitting a presentation to PricewaterhouseCoopers partners in Milwaukee that was videotaped and then sent to the Washington National Tax Services office of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The team repeated the presentation to members of the National Tax Services Office and corporate executives.

Associate Professor of Accounting Jon Davis, who has been the faculty advisor to the team and accompanied it to Washington, D.C., said, “This competition has provided a really valuable venue for students to develop critical thinking and presentation skills.”

Accounting Lecturer Al Talarczyk also helped coach the team of Lisa Pritzkow, Heidi Kain, Brad Krutsch, Tatyana Levshetz and Brian Taylor.

Wisconsin accounting students also succeeded in another competition held in the fall. In the Tax Challenge, sponsored by accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, the Wisconsin team was one of six finalists out of the nearly 100 teams to compete.