20 3. Amounts of Reasonable Administrative and Litigation Costs We next decide whether the amounts of petitioner's administrative and litigation costs were reasonable. Reasonable costs include (a) administrative fees or similar charges imposed by the IRS, (b) reasonable expenses of expert witnesses, (c) reasonable costs of studies, analyses, engineering reports, tests, or projects that are necessary to prepare the taxpayer's case, and (d) reasonable fees paid or incurred for the services of attorneys. Sec. 7430(c)(1) and (2). Petitioner bears the burden of proving that these costs are reasonable. Rule 232(e). a. Attorney's Fees Petitioner seeks attorney's fees based on 136.6 hours billed by its counsel. Respondent argues that petitioner's counsel's invoices do not show the number of hours he spent for each activity he performed for petitioner, and that they contain billings for some services that do not relate to petitioner. Petitioner submitted a revised affidavit from Shannahan in an attempt to show the number of hours he spent working on this case. We agree with respondent in part. Shannahan billed 13.1 hours to prepare the Tax Court petition for petitioner's shareholder, to prepare S corporation elections, to write letters to the CaliforniaPage: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
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