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on petitioner's motion on the basis of the parties' submissions
and the record in the instant case as a whole. We incorporate by
reference herein the portions of our opinion on the merits in
this case, Urbauer v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1997-227, that are
relevant to our disposition of the motion.
On May 13, 1997, we issued our opinion on the substantive
issues in the instant case. Pursuant to their divorce,
petitioner and his ex-wife sold their marital home. They entered
into an agreement under which the ex-wife was responsible for
paying the taxes due from the sale of the marital home. No joint
return was filed by petitioner and his ex-wife for the year in
which the house was sold. We found that, despite their
agreement, since the divorce court did not change the result of
the operation of Michigan law, petitioner owned a one-half
interest in the house and was responsible for half the taxes due.
In the notice of deficiency, the Commissioner determined that
petitioner owed taxes on 50 percent of the gain from the sale.
However, in ill-advised reliance on Friscone v. Commissioner,
T.C. Memo. 1996-193, the Government reduced its claim to only 25
percent of the taxes due on the gain. Accordingly, we held that
petitioner was charged with tax on 25 percent of the gain from
the sale of the family residence.
Generally, section 7430(a) provides for the award of
reasonable administrative and litigation costs to a taxpayer who
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