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pursuant to section 7430. Petitioners calculated the COLA from
1981, but respondent contends that the COLA should be calculated
from January 1, 1986. October 1, 1981, and January 1, 1986, are
the respective dates on which COLA's were provided pursuant to
the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. sec. 2412
(1994), and section 7430. Swanson v. Commissioner, 106 T.C. at
100. Section 7430 has its roots in the EAJA, and, during 1986,
Congress amended that section to conform it more closely to the
EAJA, adopting the EAJA's $75 per hour limitation on attorney's
fees and the EAJA's existing COLA language. Bayer v.
Commissioner, 98 T.C. 19, 24 (1992). We recently discussed the
question of the appropriate date from which the COLA applicable
to awards of attorney's fees should be calculated as follows:
Our position on this issue was addressed in Bayer
v. Commissioner, 98 T.C. 19 (1992), where we concluded
that Congress, in providing for cost of living
adjustments in section 7430, intended the computation
to start on the same date the COLA's were started under
the EAJA; i.e. October 1, 1981. Citing Lawrence v.
Commissioner, 27 T.C. 713 (1957), revd. on other
grounds 258 F.2d 562 (9th Cir. 1958), we stated that we
would continue to use 1981 as the correct year for
making the COLA calculation, unless, of course, the
Court of Appeals to which appeal lay had held
otherwise. [Swanson v. Commissioner, supra at 100;
citations omitted.]
As noted in our opinion on the merits, petitioners resided
in Hampton, New Hampshire, at the time they filed their petition.
Consequently, the instant case is appealable to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the First Circuit, which has not addressed the
question of whether the COLA adjustment is to be made from 1981
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