Costs Involved in Transfer of Land

A decision was requested concerning costs to be charged for the sale of public land to a railroad. The costs incurred by the Government for surveys should not be capitalized but should be recovered in the amount originally paid. Since the surveys were conducted by contractors many years ago and there is no way to determine the costs of these contracts, the Government may add a reasonable percentage to the cost of the surveys to recover the contract costs. The Government may also recover the costs of searching records and calculating the cost per acre from the railroad.