- 6 -
The only dispute is what additional amount of reasonable costs,
if any, petitioners may recover pursuant to section 7430.
In general, petitioners bear the burden of proving that they
meet the requirements of section 7430. Rule 232(e); Grant v.
Commissioner, 103 F.3d 948, 952 (11th Cir. 1996), affg. per
curiam T.C. Memo. 1995-374; Gantner v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. 192,
197 (1989), affd. 905 F.2d 241 (8th Cir. 1990).
B. Petitioners’ Claimed Litigation and Administrative Costs
Petitioners request an award for the following claimed costs
and fees:
1. Administrative personnel expenses of $5,395.6 These
claimed expenses consist of charges for professional services
rendered by Pamela S. Lyons, who is a secretary for GTWP, Gina
West (a.k.a. Gina Grigoraci), who is the office manager for GTWP,
and three other GTWP secretaries. The supporting affidavits
indicate that all these GTWP employees were acting under the
“direct supervision” of petitioner Victor Grigoraci. The
supporting affidavits also indicate that the charges were based
on the time billed by these employees, using the lowest
“customary” GTWP billing rates for the relevant time periods.7
6 This amount includes $240 of secretarial expenses that
petitioners allege they have incurred defending their request for
litigation and administrative costs.
7 The affidavits indicate that the rates increased over time
from $38 per hour to $40 per hour.
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