Definition
Taxation of costs is the formal procedural process by which a court officer — typically a clerk of court or designated judicial officer — reviews, calculates, and officially determines the amount of recoverable litigation costs to be awarded to a prevailing party against the losing party. The result is a dollar figure entered into the record that may be incorporated into the judgment.
The term does not involve taxes in any revenue or fiscal sense. "Taxing" here is a term of art meaning to assess, fix, or charge — the officer "taxes" the bill of costs much as an auditor examines an account.
The process typically unfolds in two stages: (1) the prevailing party submits a bill of costs itemizing specific expenditures claimed as recoverable; (2) a court officer reviews that bill, allows recoverable items, disallows non-recoverable or excessive items, and certifies the net amount. In federal practice, the clerk performs this function under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d) and 28 U.S.C. § 1920, which defines the categories of costs subject to taxation.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Taxation" is the imposition of a compulsory levy by a government on income, property, goods, or transactions to fund public expenditures.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The act of laying a tax, or of imposing taxes, as on the subjects of a state, by government, or on the members of a body or society, by the proper authority; the raising of revenue."
The gap here is significant and a persistent source of confusion. In everyday usage — and in virtually the entire field of tax law — "taxation" means the governmental imposition of a levy. In procedural law, "taxation of costs" has no fiscal meaning whatsoever. It means assessment or formal determination. A researcher encountering the phrase in a civil procedure context should not expect any connection to revenue law.
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Common Confusion
TAXATION OF COSTS vs. COSTS AWARD: These are related but distinct steps. A costs award is the judicial decision that a party is entitled to costs — the "who pays" determination. Taxation of costs is the subsequent ministerial or quasi-judicial process that determines the specific dollar amount — the "how much" determination. Courts sometimes use "award of costs" loosely to encompass both steps, but in strict procedural usage they are sequential and separable. A costs award can be appealed; the taxation itself is typically reviewed by motion to the presiding judge.
TAXATION OF COSTS vs. ATTORNEYS' FEES: In American practice, attorneys' fees are generally not taxable as costs unless a fee-shifting statute or court rule expressly authorizes them. The categories of taxable costs in federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 1920 — filing fees, transcript costs, witness fees, copying costs, and similar items — are narrower than a full attorneys' fee award. Researchers should not conflate a motion for attorneys' fees with a bill of costs proceeding, though courts sometimes consolidate them.
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Why It Matters in Research
The phrase "taxation of costs" appears with different procedural weight depending on the era and jurisdiction of the source. In older English practice, taxation of costs was performed by a court officer called a Taxing Master — a role that persisted in English courts well into the twentieth century and appears prominently in nineteenth-century American treatises that followed English procedure. Researchers working with pre-code American sources or equity practice materials should expect this terminology and should not assume the procedure maps directly onto modern Rule 54(d) practice.
In federal practice, the controlling framework is Rule 54(d)(1) for costs generally and Rule 54(d)(2) for attorneys' fees motions. The categories of taxable costs are enumerated in 28 U.S.C. § 1920. Because § 1920 is a statute, courts treat its list as exclusive absent other authority — a limitation that post-1970s case law has reinforced. Historical sources that describe taxation of costs more broadly may reflect a procedural world before this statutory narrowing.
State practice varies considerably. Several states retain the "Taxing Master" terminology or an equivalent officer. Others assign taxation to the trial judge directly. Some state cost schedules are more generous than § 1920. A research trail running through state court records should treat the taxonomy of what is "taxable" as jurisdiction-specific.
The term also appears in international arbitration materials, where "taxation of costs" may refer to a tribunal's assessment of arbitration costs and legal fees — a broader category than U.S. federal court taxable costs. Researchers using comparative or transnational sources should be alert to this difference in scope.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines taxation of costs as: "The process of ascertaining and charging up the amount of costs in an action to which a party is entitled to recover." This definition, consistent across multiple editions, correctly emphasizes the ascertainment function — fixing an amount — rather than the entitlement question, which is a separate judicial determination.
The entry is reliable as far as it goes but is thin on procedure. It does not distinguish between the entitlement determination and the taxation proceeding, nor does it address the federal statutory framework that now governs the categories of recoverable costs in federal court. For procedural depth, Black's alone is insufficient; researchers should move directly to the encyclopedia entry and the text of Rule 54(d) and § 1920.
Older dictionary sources, including Bouvier's, use the term interchangeably with "taxing costs" and reference the Taxing Master as the officer performing the function — a reflection of the English procedural inheritance that shaped American equity practice. That framing is anachronistic in most U.S. jurisdictions today but remains accurate for historical research purposes.
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Jurisdictional Note
Federal practice is governed by Rule 54(d) and 28 U.S.C. § 1920, with the clerk as the default taxing officer. State courts vary: some assign the function to the clerk, others to the judge, and a handful retain specialized cost officers. In international arbitration, "taxation of costs" encompasses a broader range of recoverable items, often including legal fees, making the term materially different in scope from its U.S. federal counterpart.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
civpro_142: Costs and Taxation of Costs — Rule 54(d) and 28 USC 1920 (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia)
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