With three students on the list, the University of Pretoria’s entrants (UP) represented 60% of this year’s top five of the Ernst & Young (EY) Young Tax Professional of the Year (YTPY) competition. The YTPY is a global competition open to students from universities internationally and is mainly directed at finding future tax leaders.

The first leg of the competition runs nationally, where a winner is selected based on a questionnaire, case study and presentation. The national winner then represents the country at the second leg of the competition, where he/ she competes against the winners from other countries on a global stage.

This year students were required to complete an online assessment prepared by EY in the format of an examination and the top five performers were selected as potential YTPY winners. UP’s Dheeya Rampersad, Johann Oosthuizen and Christoph Berndt made it to the top five. According to EY partner Gisela Pieterse, EY received many more applications this year compared to previous years. The number of applications was in excess of 150, with 11 universities participating. These top five students were then required to prepare and present their proposed solutions online to the EY partners. Ultimately, the top three performers were selected. Oosthuizen was awarded third place and Berndt won second place. The prizes for the top three students, as announced by EY, are as follows:

• R3 000 cash prize for the 3^rd runner-up;
• R5 000 cash prize for the 2^nd runner-up; and
• R10 000 cash prize for the winner.This participant also gets the opportunity to represent South Africa in the Global Young Tax Professional of the Year competition.

The winner was announced virtually on 8 October 2020. We are very proud of our students for flying the UP Tax flag high, yet again.

UP alumni who have won the YTPY South African title include Cheyleen Rugan (2019), Karl Frenzel (2016), Benjamin Mbana (2014) and Johan Small (2013). Mbana and Frenzel went on to win the international competitions as well. Small finished 2nd internationally.