- 18 -
to respondent. Accordingly, respondent was substantially
justified, in fact and in law, in taking and maintaining the
positions determined in the notices of deficiency. Petitioner's
motions with respect to administrative costs are, therefore,
denied for both years at issue.
With respect to litigation costs, the Court must look to the
information available to respondent at the time the answers were
filed and from that point forward.
Respondent's answer in the 1988 case was filed on
December 10, 1992. On September 27, 1993, respondent mailed a
letter to petitioner requesting that she submit evidence in
support of her position. Petitioner did not respond to this
letter. After the decision was rendered in Sharer v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-453, on September 8, 1994,
respondent contacted petitioner again to see if the 1988 case
could be settled and, as to those issues common to the 1986,
1987, and 1988 tax years, respondent agreed to abide by the
Court's opinion that dealt with petitioner's 1986 and 1987 years.
Petitioner sent respondent some documentation with a letter dated
November 2, 1994, and further documentation with a letter dated
January 10, 1995. Although the information provided in these
letters is not shown in the record, it is evident from the
language in the several letters between the parties that
petitioner was moving in the direction toward providing
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011