A team of five students from the University of Wisconsin School of Business won the PricewaterhouseCoopers xTAX competition last Friday for the third time in five years.

The accounting competition, held in Washington, D.C., allowed students to gain real world experience with a mock tax case.

UW sophomores Taylor Barrett and Dilan Van Ryn, junior Luke Farrell, senior Ashley Muehlbauer and fifth year accounting student Amy Hartstern completed the team. They were coached by business professors Jon Davis and Alan Taraczyk, who have led a group of students into the xTAX finals four out of the past five years.

Farrell attributed the team's success to their preparation and hard work, which allowed them to advance from the local November 2006 competition.

"We were well prepared, we put a lot of work into it ahead of time, we did it our best and we were satisfied," Hartstern said.

The team made great progress throughout the year and reaped the rewards on the national stage.

According to Farrell, each student on the team won $2,500 along with a small silver bowl from Tiffany and Co.

"The students really came a long way, and the PwC competition really gave them tremendous opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills," Davis said. "I'm really happy — we had a lot of fun, and the students got a lot out of it."

Outside of UW, the contest included teams from Brigham Young University, University of California-Berkeley, Syracuse University and University of Notre Dame. Davis described this year's competition as "the closest I've ever seen."

Hartstern, who also won at nationals in 2004, said the competition in Washington was unique.

"The competition is fierce at this level," Hartstern said. "Every year, all those teams are just solid."

Farrell said each team had 40 minutes in front of the national panel, including a tax partner for PwC. The UW team used only 12 minutes for its tax policy proposal, Farrell said, and then was bombarded with questions.

Although UW has a stellar track record at the competition, this year's team said they did not expect an easy victory. Davis said making it to Washington was an accomplishment on its own.

"At that point, we did not care if we won or not; we did the best we could," Davis said. "Winning for us was a bonus."

Hartstern said the team returned to Madison two weeks early from winter break to prepare and read up on their tax policy and other economic studies.

Although the team was scheduled to come back Saturday, Davis said they chose to stay in Washington after winning the competition. The team kicked in its own money to "chase around D.C. for an extra day."

Hatstern said the extra day allowed the team to become closer and take advantage of the capital's sights.

"We wanted to spend an extra night seeing the sights, being touristy and getting to know each other better," Hartstern said.