The vehicle needs to be 40+ years old on the 1st of January prior to the 1st of April of the same year.
This is the current wording on the Government website
Historic vehicle tax exemption
You can apply to stop paying for vehicle tax from 1 April 2020 if your vehicle was built before 1 January 1980. You must tax your vehicle even if you do not have to pay.
This will change pro rata this year to
Historic vehicle tax exemption
You can apply to stop paying for vehicle tax from 1 April 2021 if your vehicle was built before 1 January 1981. You must tax your vehicle even if you do not have to pay.
As yours is registered after the 1st January 1980 you did not qualify last year. On the 1st January 2021 yours was 40+ so from 1st April 2021 you do qualify so we only have Jan, Feb and March where tax would need to be paid which is about £25 for all 3 months, Therefore financially it would not be worth paying Kawasaki £55 to prove it’s age when the maximum you would pay in tax till then is only £25.
Again from my experience if you take your log book to he post office and submit a change to historic vehicle the system automatically knows it does NOT require a valid MOT and also does NOT require a payment for tax. You still need to apply for tax every year but won’t be charged.
You also need to be mindful of the following:
What you have to do
You must apply for a vehicle tax exemption to stop paying vehicle tax. This is sometimes called putting a vehicle into the ‘historic tax class’.
You do not have to apply to stop getting an MOT for your vehicle each year. However, you must still keep it in a roadworthy condition.
You can be fined up to £2,500 and get 3 penalty points for using a vehicle in a dangerous condition.
Not needing an MOT makes it your responsibility to ensure the vehicle is in a roadworthy condition and not doing that could turn out to be a very expensive bald tyre, worn chain, faulty brakes etc!
KK
