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our holding that respondent's position was substantially
justified, we do not decide this issue.
These seven requirements are in the conjunctive; each
requirement must be met before this Court may order an award of
administrative and litigation costs to a taxpayer under section
7430. Minahan v. Commissioner, 88 T.C. 492, 497 (1987). An
award of reasonable administrative and litigation costs to a
taxpayer in a Tax Court proceeding is discretionary with the
Court hearing the case, and appellate courts apply an abuse of
discretion standard to review our determinations of the amount of
costs, if any, awarded to a taxpayer and whether the
Commissioner's positions were or were not substantially
justified. Powers v. Commissioner, supra at 470, and the cases
cited therein; see also H. Rept. 97-404, at 12 (1981).
We turn to the first requirement in dispute; namely, whether
the Commissioner's position was substantially justified.
Respondent took a position in the administrative proceeding when
respondent issued the notice of deficiency to petitioners on
April 20, 1995. Sec. 7430(c)(7)(B). Respondent took a position
in this proceeding when the Court filed respondent's answer on
September 18, 1995. Sec. 7430(c)(7)(A); Huffman v. Commissioner,
supra at 1148; see also Han v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1993-386.
Ordinarily, we consider the reasonableness of each of these
positions separately. Huffman v. Commissioner, supra at 1144-
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