FEIFA chief executive Paul Stanfield said while it is impossible to know which way the referendum will land in June, there is also no precedent in which a country voluntarily leaves the collective of nations.
Most of FEIFA’s membership; which tend to be advice practices based in mainland Europe, advising expat clients living in mainland Europe, should remain largely unaffected.
“They are UK by birth rather than either the nature of their business or the domicile of the clients they advise, so if the UK left it shouldn’t really matter because they will be subject to EU regulation anyway.
“For expats, the UK position would not have any relevance at all,” he added.
Passport revoked?
Stanfield said for firms with UK clients, the EEA status of the UK would have more significance, influencing their ability to passport.
“We are in the realms of no one knows. It is extremely difficult to know exactly what is going to happen – both in the referendum itself, but even after that there is nothing in EU legislation or statute for a situation that sees a country voluntarily leave the union.”
Huge concern
The Spectrum Group, which has presence in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, thinks it will be a huge concern.
“We specialise in advising British expats resident in the EU. The problem is nobody knows how a Brexit will work,” said chief executive and founder Michael Lodhi.
He also expressed concerns about the cost of an exit to the British taxpayer, which he presumes will be vastly more expensive than remaining in the union.
