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C. Petitioners’ Litigation Costs
Petitioners incurred attorney’s fees for services performed
in the underlying case from January 20, 2000, to July 8, 2001, as
follows:
Date Attorney services Attorney hours
Jan. 20, 2000 Filed petition 2.46
July 2, 2000 Developed case 6.00
Mar. 4, 2001 Prepared for trial 2.00
Apr. 3, 2001 Prepared for trial 6.00
May 2, 2001 Tried case 4.00
June 4, 2001 Prepared brief 10.00
July 8, 2001 Prepared brief 4.00
Total hours 34.46
Multiplied by the attorney’s hourly rate $285.00
Total hourly fees 19,821.10
Client costs for copying respondent’s files $151.00
Client costs for filing petition 60.00
Total costs 10,032.10
1 Petitioners attached to their motion a document entitled
“Billing Schedule” which erroneously stated that the total hourly
costs of 34.46 hours at $285 per hour was $9,761.
Discussion
A. Motion for Litigation Costs
Generally, a taxpayer who has substantially prevailed in a
Tax Court proceeding may be awarded reasonable litigation costs.
Sec. 7430(a), (c).1 To be entitled to an award, the taxpayer
must:
1 We apply sec. 7430 as amended by sec. 3101 of the
Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998,
Pub. L. 105-206, 112 Stat. 685, 727, effective for costs incurred
or services performed after Jan. 18, 1999. Sec. 7430 was amended
most recently by the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000
(CRTRA 2000), Pub. L. 106-554, sec. 319(25), 114 Stat. 2763A-647,
effective Dec. 21, 2000. The petition was filed on June 15,
2000, and thus the CRTRA 2000 amendment (which was purely
clerical in nature) does not apply here.
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