As you sat down one fine Tuesday morning in January 2021, and you cycled through the emails that rolled into your inbox in the 12 minutes since you last checked them, you notice an update announcing that the IRS is issued final regulations on IRC § 162(f) – deductibility of fines and penalties. You have had prior experience with the Code section, due to Uncle Bill’s penchant for minor violations of laws, regulations, and social mores…and his ill-fated pine marten breeding program. As you remember it, IRC § 162(f) was fairly straightforward. Generally, a fine or similar penalty paid to the government for a violation of the law is not deductible unless an exception applies. Somewhere in the deep recesses of your memory, you seem to recall that IRC § 162(f) was amended by the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 (summarized by the Joint Committee on Taxation, here). …