Under current law, any British citizen who has lived outside of the country for 15 years automatically loses their right to vote in general elections…
Article written by The Overseas Guides Company
Unsurprisingly, this issue repeatedly sparks outrage amongst expats who firmly believe they should retain the right to have their say on the running of their home nation.
As this contentious issue is repeatedly challenged in a number of legal cases, expats have begun calling for inheritance tax liabilities to be scrapped after 15 years as well in a bid to level the playing field.
The UK Government argue that the reason that expats lose the right to vote after 15 years is because they will have undoubtedly lost touch with UK politics during that time. The response to this reasoning is that if this is the case, then surely their assets will also be out of touch from the Government in the same period and should also be scrapped.
Currently the law states that if you are domiciled in the UK, inheritance law is charged on all of your assets wherever they are situated across the world. If you are domiciled abroad – then the inheritance tax only applies to your UK assets.
The UK is one of very few European states that remove the right to vote after 15 years.
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