I wasn't refering to the claiming back bit, just the manufacturing of income by diverting someone elses supply through you to create a false picture of your business. There is a point at which aggresive tax planning crosses the line from a good scheme to something unacceptable. I have no problem with setting up an arrangement toclaim back vat or whatever, but I would not advise incorporating into that scheme an illusion designed to create the appearance of something that does not exist.
Also, for what it's worth, I suggest that when setting up a scheme, don't just look at the vat issues, be aware of the other taxes and how they interact with what you are doing., are you, for example, walking into an unexpected income tax liability?
Assuming you can convince customs that there is commerciality in your scheme, because they do not have to accept a voluntary registration, once you have done your training and recovered the vat, think about deregistration, especially if you go off to the airlines rather than freelance; as it is likley that the company will have no tangible assets on which vat has been reclaimed, or if it does it will be below the deminimus, you could deregister without having to refund the vat, after all, it's not your fault that after years of training there was no call for your skills/you were a useless business owner/you found you couldn't hack it/ or whatever other reason you care to come up with at the point of deregistration.
