Hi,
You should be able to reclaim VAT on anything you bought for “business” while still VAT registered as that is written in statute. The capital goods scheme – whereby VAT on assets claimed is adjusted over 5 years or 10 years but only applies to individual items costing at least £50,000 (excluding VAT) and anything else is reclaimed in the usual way, hence the first HMRC officer is wrong.
However in as much as you want to claim input VAT, when you deregister you are treated as if you have sold all the stocks in hand and hence output VAT is chargeable of the deemed sales price. Whilst you can claim the £2k input VAT, you should also account for any stock and other assets you have on this date if (1) you had claimed input VAT when you bought them (2) the total VAT due on these assets is over £1,000.
So in your case, i would think the net benefit is nil.
If there were no such rules, businesses would register for VAT and claim input VAT on major purchases and deregister immediately.
Hope this helps.