Three students from the Department of Fiscal Administration Sciences, Faculty of Administrative Sciences (FIA) Universitas Indonesia (UI) won 1st Place in the 2023 National Tax Olympiad (NATO) Tax Compar Competition organized by the Taxation Student Study Group (KSMP) Tax Center, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Jember University. The three students were Michael Parulian Marbun, Sahira Nafisa Putri, and Jessyca Wulandari.
The three students managed to rank first in the taxation olympiad after defeating teams from other universities in three rounds, namely the multiple choice round, the essay round, and the case study round. The Olympiad, which was held on September 30 2023, had the theme “Economic Dynamics through Digitalization of Taxation in Maintaining Sustainable Economic Stability.”
In the first round, namely the preliminary round, the three of them completed a multiple choice questions package. The questions covered the topics of Income Tax (PPh), Value Added Tax (VAT) & Sales Tax on Luxury Goods (PPnBM), Land and Building Tax (PBB), Stamp Duty, and Tax Accounting. At this stage, the three of them successfully completed the multiple choice after studying and practicing before taking part in this competition.
After entering the semifinal stage, the competition process became increasingly difficult. Apart from doing multiple choice questions like in the preliminary round, they also have to do essay questions about national taxation. “In the second round, there were multiple choice questions and essays. The material covers the same things, but the level of difficulty is higher. For the final round, we started working on case studies whose material covers current hot topics as well as other material such as carbon tax, administrative updates to the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) system, and so on,” said Sahira Nafisa Putri.
Jessyca Wulandari revealed that the three of them had a strategy to achieve victory, namely by dividing material for each member to study so that each member had their own area of expertise. In the end, everyone can elaborate on each other’s answers when facing essay questions or case studies. This was what made them superior compared to other teams.
However, the three of them also faced a number of challenges when competing. “The biggest challenge we faced was related to the mental aspect. Since this is an Olympiad, we don’t know what types of questions will come out and what the judges will be like. Moreover, we were also racing against time in real time so it’s a bit tense,” said Jessyca.
With an organized strategy and solid teamwork, the three managed to overcome various challenges and finally won the competition. They believe that every success is always accompanied by a journey full of learning. “Failure occurs because of two things, namely people who think but don’t act and people who act but don’t think. Winning is a bonus, but the process of pursuing victory has taught us many lessons,” said Michael Parulian Marbun.
