COTA LAUNCHES SECOND ESSAY COMPETITION FOR STUDENTS

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  The Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) has launched its second essay competition for secondary school students throughout the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) aimed in part at stimulating broad interest in taxation matters.

The topic is `Building Efficient Tax Administrations in Promoting National and Regional Development’.

The competition is geared at encouraging youth – as potential taxpayers and decisions-makers – to become knowledgeable about taxation policy, as well as to engender an interest in this field as a career choice. Tax Administrators will collaborate with the Ministries of Education in CARICOM Member States with regard to the participation of the schools in the competition.

The Members of COTA are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago,  Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Among the prizes for the top three winning schools are desktop computers. The student who wins the first prize will receive a laptop computer and printer, and an airline ticket and accommodation for him/her and chaperone to attend the prize-giving ceremony. Second and third prize winners will receive a laptop computer and printer, and a laptop computer, respectively.

Criteria for participation

• Competing Students should be between the ages of 14 – 18 years old.
   
• Essays should be no more than 1000 words, typed in Times New Roman (size 12) on quarto-size paper, with 1.5 line spacing and fully justified.
   
• Competing schools may submit 3 papers from students in either Forms 4, 5 or 6.
   
• Each entry must contain the name of the Member State, the name of the School and the name of the Competing Student on the first page of the Essay.

Schools are required to submit Essays to the Heads of the Inland Revenue/Tax Administration Department in their respective Member State on or before 30 April 2009.

Entries at Regional Level

Heads of Inland Revenue / Tax Administration Departments are required to submit Three (3) of their best Essays to the CARICOM Secretariat by 30 May 2009, via mail, in sealed envelopes marked COTA ESSAY COMPETITION. The names of regional winners will be published by the Secretariat in July 2009.

Evaluation Scheme

Credit will be given to essays that demonstrate reasonable knowledge and understanding of the role of taxation in the economic development of the Caribbean Community, proper grammar, sound argumentation, and ingenuity of ideas. The use of examples from regional and international jurisdictions will be rewarded. The marking system will be based on the following schema.