I know that unbearable pressure when you have to apply for permanent residency but you don't meet the revenue threshold
I remember when I used to live in Europe, I was in a situation like that. The end of the year before my permanent residence, my revenue was 5000 Euros short. At the time, I had a client who had a massive project but unrealistic budget for his expectations. Everybody in the place turned him down. I called him and I offered to sell my soul to him. I gave him a quotation for 5000 Euros if he moves immediately. The actual value was probably above 15000 Euros. Miracle, he accepted! I met my threshold last minute then worked like crazy for that client.
However using loopholes is always a slippery path. Because these perceived "good" ideas start circulating and many people use them. In no time, the administration grows wiser as they see thousands of applications following the same pattern: inflated revenue when lodging the application followed by a correction to lower liability once the application approved. It was so common that the Home Office and HMRC created a special joint task force just to tackle that. As usual they committed a few mistakes and flagged incorrectly some applications, but most the time, they were correct in finding fraudulent applications.
