Are ETF fees really "tax-deductible?"

ETF fees are paid pre-tax, while taxable managed account fees are paid post-tax, and are not deductible thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (set to expire EOY 2025)

Lucas, S. E. (2020). The Taxable Investor's Manifesto.

I was flipping through Stuart Lucas’s “The Taxable Investor’s Manifesto” again recently. Near the beginning, he says that “management fees and expenses in mutual funds and ETFs are deductible from profits before calculating taxes.”

Occasionally, folks (usually on the internet) abbreviate this by sayi…