We study the effective field theory sensitivity of an LHC analysis for the $tau u$ final state with an associated b-jet. To illustrate the improvement due to the b-tagging, we first recast the recent CMS analysis in the $tau u$ channel, using an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ at $sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, and provide limits on all the dimension-six effective operators which contribute to the process. The expected limits from the b-tagged analysis are then derived and compared. We find an improvement of approximately $sim 30%$ in the bounds for operators with a b quark. We also discuss in detail possible angular observables to be used as a discriminator between dimension-six operators with different Lorentz structure. Finally, we study the impact of these limits on some simplified scenarios aimed at addressing the observed deviations from the Standard Model in lepton flavor universality ratios of semileptonic B-meson decays. In particular, we compare the collider limits on those scenarios set by our analysis either with or without the b-tagging, assuming an integrated luminosity of 300 fb$^{-1}$, with relevant low-energy flavor measurements.
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