Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Longest owner?

I have some experience with classic car ‘tax free’ status. I currently have two exempt cars and yes both need to have had their taxation category changed to ‘historic’ in order to qualify for free tax.

The cars still need to be taxed but the cost is £0, in order to tax them they must first be insured.

They should also either have a current MOT or a self declared MOT exemption

The only exceptions to the above are if the car has been SORDed or has been off the road since before these regulations can into force.

I know of several people who had a tap on the shoulder for falling foul of the above regulations.

Yep, can remember now not being able to to tax without insurance ... however this bike was last insured a few years ago and they let me tax it online then came back with the threat of a fine a month or so later ..... as I remember, if the insurance lapsed before the tax you were fine if you didn't use it on the road ... got the sense from the letter that now if the insurance runs out you need to cancel the tax and put it onto sorn or face a penalty.

Thinking about it, this may reflect my adult affluence and responsibility, meaning my cars and bikes have been routinely kept in tax, insurance and mot for decades ... resulting in the whole sorn thing and its implications have gone right over my head!! 😂

K

AI response about tax from WeBuyAnyCar and MoneySavingExpert:

The Classic Car Fine Trap

If you forget to renew your historic car's £0 tax (and haven't declared a SORN), you face the exact same penalties as any other vehicle.

If an owner forgets to complete this annual paperwork, the DVLA's automated computer sweeps flag the vehicle as untaxed. Historically, data obtained via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests showed that over 34,000 drivers of zero-rated ("nil-tax") vehicles were fined in a single year, funneling over £500,000 into the DVLA for vehicles that were technically free to tax.

(I notice that the single year mentioned was 2017/2018).

Interesting Ian,

I bought a 2012 Morgan that had been in professional storage in London for 5 years, and it hadn't been taxed or SORN over that period, it had also passed thru the trade immediately before I bought it. So I was very wary when I came to register and tax the vehicle in my name, I did speak to DVLA in Swansea before hand and they were quite relaxed about it, mind you this wasn't a histroic .zero rated vehilce. , I did it online and it went through without any issues. I was not made aware of any penalties incurred by the seller's.Mind you it did belong to a member of the Kurdish Royal family whilst in storage, so whether it was registered as a diplomatic car for a while, I just don't know, and I get the feeling it was occassoionally used from the different mileages on storage documents whilst in storage when it was neither taxed , Sorn.or MOT'D.