- 8 - II. Unreasonable Protraction of Proceeding Petitioners are not eligible for an award of litigation costs for any portion of the proceeding that they unreasonably protracted. Sec. 7430(b)(3). Petitioners did not protract the proceeding. Petitioners did file numerous motions, but none were meritless and two were necessitated by respondent's multiple requests for documentation already in his possession. III. Reasonable Litigation Costs Petitioners request an award of $95,513 in litigation costs. Section 7430 allows petitioners to recover attorney's fees and court costs if such fees and costs are reasonable. Although petitioners' attorney's billing statements do not delineate the precise number of hours related to each of the various issues, they provide sufficient detail to determine an appropriate award. Where petitioners' attorney did not allocate his hours and costs to specific issues, we use an "apportionment percentage" to determine the number of hours and costs for which petitioners are entitled to an award. The apportionment percentage is a fraction: The numerator is the total adjustments relating to the issues for which respondent was not substantially justified (i.e., cash contributions of $400,000 and depreciation deductions of $468,589), and the denominator is the total adjustments relating to all issues (i.e., $1,624,589). Accordingly, petitioners are entitled to reimbursement for 53 percent of thePage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011