Perhaps in a very narrow sense, but I think it's more complicated than that.

Let's assume that there are facts that a person has a legitimate right to conceal in a particular context. What if the only way to conceal such a fact is to create a false impression?

I would hesitate to call that lying, because the word lying ususally implies that it is not legitimate, which contradicts the assumption.

Well, you can actually, you know, consult. Or don’t, if you don’t feel like it. That’s the beauty of consulting.

Just actually register the company. In my country you don't even need to register, you just do business as a contractor. As long as you're under certain revenue limits, there's no registration necessary.

I mean as long as you have done some degree of contracting or consulting with the corp you made or at least can reasonably say that you planned to, it's not really lying.

When pressed it can be as simple as "maintaining a corporation for any work I do (when not working as a FTE/salaried employee) is preferable for accounting purposes". Of course if they press further you should probably have your accounting in order/understand the topic so you can explain this without looking like an idiot but it's unlikely they'd press you much further than that.

I'd say it's reframing the problem in a way that makes the original question about resume gap pointless.