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Are Petitioner’s Claimed Costs Reasonable?
The first category of costs we consider is petitioner’s
claim for his time (at $25 per hour) for his preparation and
participation in the administrative and litigation proceedings.
Petitioner’s allowable costs include only those expenses
actually “paid or incurred”, and “lost opportunity costs” may
not be recovered. United States v. McPherson, 840 F.2d 244, 245
(4th Cir. 1988); Frisch v. Commissioner, 87 T.C. 838, 846
(1986). Accordingly, petitioner is not entitled to recover the
$3,000 portion of his claim attributable to the time he spent
engaged in the administrative proceeding and this litigation.
With the exception of petitioner’s $60 petition filing fee,
respondent contends that the remaining amounts petitioner
claimed are not recoverable because petitioner failed to
establish that he paid those costs or incurred them in pursuit
of the administrative proceeding or the litigation. We consider
each part of the $555 portion of petitioner’s claim separately.
Petitioner claims $200 for “Professional Legal assistance
from lawyer (2 hours @ $100 per hour)”. Petitioner is pro se
and has not presented any detail regarding the billing of the
alleged legal services. If petitioner had been represented in
this case, his attorney’s detailed billing records would have
been a prerequisite to the allowance of an award for the
attorney’s fees. We cannot permit a lesser standard for the
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Last modified: May 25, 2011