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the prevailing party. Finally, respondent raises a factual
question about the fees and costs sought by petitioners.
At the outset, we note that petitioners styled their
motion “Motion for Award of Reasonable Litigation and
Administrative Costs”. In fact, however, the amount sought
by petitioners, $5,959.87, consists entirely of attorney’s
fees and expenses for services in connection with the
instant Tax Court proceeding. As the affidavit attached to
petitioners’ motion makes clear, all of those services were
provided after submission of the “qualified offer”, which
took place approximately 4 years after the filing of
petitioners’ petition in this Court. Thus, the attorney’s
fees and expenses which petitioners seek in the instant
motion are litigation costs, not administrative costs.
See sec. 301.7430-4(c)(3)(ii), Proced. & Admin. Regs.
We agree with respondent’s first point. On the basis
of our review of this case, we cannot determine that
petitioners exhausted the administrative remedies available
to them within the Internal Revenue Service, as required by
section 7430(b)(1). In such a case, section 7430(b)(1)
provides that “A judgment for reasonable litigation costs
shall not be awarded under subsection (a) [of section
7430]”. See sec. 7430(b)(1). Accordingly, we will deny
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