Emily Li

Life as a Tax Strategist   I had interned at KPMG Taiwan over the summer for two consecutive years. My journey started during my freshman year as a tax intern and later followed by a second year at the same tax department. Even though I am certainly not knowledgeable enough to prepare a client’s tax return without mistake, let alone answer all tax questions, the time I spent in the company has given me enough understanding about life as a tax strategist.   Working as a tax strategist is more than reading tax codes and preparing tax returns. Consultation, presentation, and negotiation constitute most of the daily tasks.   Consultation Tax strategist is responsible for providing tax strategies that minimize the tax paid by the client. This is certainly not an easy task since there is a variety of rules that a tax strategist should keep track of. Through mix and match a range of tax codes, tax strategist comes up with an optimized strategy that satisfies the government’s nee...

     Less humid and yet just as sunny and relaxing as LA, Kaohsiung is where I was born and raised. Kaohsiung is the second-largest city in Taiwan, an island country that locates in East Asia. Ever since I left my hometown to pursue an education at USC, I have been constantly reflecting on my future goal. This process has brought me to conclude that my ultimate goal is to work for hedge funds. This is certainly not an easy target. Therefore, before reaching my end goal, I have decided to start my career in an accounting firm as a tax strategist to immerse and familiarize myself with financials and tax strategies.        Same as my dad, I spend a relatively large portion of my time reading. More accurately speaking, I have adopted this hobby from him as a kid. We share the same satisfaction when we fill the house with books and turn the rooms into mini-libraries that stores the various topics that we are interested in a different time in life. On the ot...