There was a fun game when the window on this was first closing -- open a bunch of corporations, let them age a bit ("while actively doing business" of some kind

There was a fun game when the window on this was first closing -- open a bunch of corporations, let them age a bit ("while actively doing business" of some kind -- just not too much), and then use them for projects later. Part of the 5y clock would already be run down, but at the time, it seemed very likely QSBS with this kind of favorable treatment wouldn't be offered again. The other way these got used was for existing business -- it's 10x the basis OR $10mm, whichever was larger, so there were deals where people would try to structure a $500mm deal using $50mm of buy-in as QSBS. I'm not sure about the details, but I remember seeing tax attorneys working on them.