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petitioners' submissions to this Court, that their net worth was
less than $2 million when their petition was filed. Rule
231(b)(5). Thus, the only issue remaining for decision is
whether the position of the United States in the administrative
and court proceedings was not substantially justified. Position
of the United States Not Substantially Justified
To recover administrative and litigation costs, the taxpayer
must establish that the position of the United States was not
substantially justified both in administrative and court
proceedings. Huffman v. Commissioner, 978 F.2d 1139, 1148 (9th
Cir. 1992), affg. in part and revg. in part T.C. Memo. 1991-144.
A position is not substantially justified in law if legal
precedent does not substantially support the Commissioner's
position given the facts available to the Commissioner. Coastal
Petroleum Refiners, Inc. v. Commissioner, 94 T.C. 685, 688
(1990).
In deciding this issue, we must identify the point in time
at which the United States is first considered to have taken a
position, and then decide whether the position taken from that
point forward was not substantially justified. The "not
substantially justified" standard is applied as of the separate
dates that respondent took a position in the administrative
proceedings as distinguished from the proceedings in this Court.
Sec. 7430(c)(7)(A) and (B); Han v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1993-
386. The administrative position of respondent means the
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