-25-
1958), we stated that we would continue to use 1981 as the
correct year for making the COLA calculation, unless the Court of
Appeals to which an appeal would lie had held otherwise. Golsen
v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. 742, 756-757 (1970), affd. 445 F.2d 985
(10th Cir. 1971).
This case is appealable to the Court of Appeals for the
Eleventh Circuit, which has not addressed the question of whether
1981 or 1986 is the correct date for purposes of calculating the
COLA adjustment under section 7430. Swanson v. Commissioner,
supra at 100-101. Accordingly, we shall continue our holding in
Bayer, and find October 1, 1981, to be the applicable date from
which to make the adjustment. Id.
We use the Consumer Price Index of All-Urban Consumers (CPI-
U) published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics to adjust the $75 hourly limit for increases in the
cost of living. We award petitioner attorney's fees at an hourly
rate not to exceed $125.74 for 1995 and $129.46 for 1996.7
1. 1995
We find that certain charges for attorney's fees, as
itemized in the statement submitted by petitioner, are not
reasonable litigation costs. Petitioner's attorney billed 3.8
hours between January 31 and February 3, 1995, for the
7 The index for the 1982-1984 CPI-U is 100. The CPI-U
index is 90.9 for 1981, 152.4 for 1995, and 156.9 for 1996.
Thus, the maximum hourly rate is $125.74 (152.4/90.9 * $75) for
1995, and $129.46 (156.9/90.9 * $75) for 1996.
Page: Previous 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011