  We confront the indications of lepton flavor universality (LFU) violation
observed in semi-tauonic $B$ meson decays with new physics (NP) searches using
high $p_T$ tau leptons at the LHC. Using effective field theory arguments we
correlate possible non-standard contributions to semi-tauonic charged currents
with the $\tau^+ \tau^-$ signature at high energy hadron colliders. Several
representative standard model extensions put forward to explain the anomaly are
examined in detail: (i) weak triplet of color-neutral vector resonances, (ii)
second Higgs doublet and (iii) scalar or (iv) vector leptoquark. We find that,
in general, $\tau^+ \tau^-$ searches pose a serious challenge to NP
explanations of the LFU anomaly. Recasting existing 8 TeV and 13 TeV LHC
analyses, stringent limits are set on all considered simplified models. Future
projections of the $\tau^+ \tau^-$ constraints as well as caveats in
interpreting them within more elaborate models are also discussed.
