hi all My van is first registered Feb 1980 but I believe Vw stopped making them before that. Is there anyway for me to prove this and therefore be tax exempt for this year? If not can I become tax exempt in Feb or do I have to wait until jan when I believe it changes? Thanks
Your bus was almost certainly made at the end of 1979 - but you will need a "birth" cert from VW to prove - I think that buses registered in the Jan are automatically assumed to be made the previous year, so you might get away with it if you try -So a 1979 bus is tax free on 1st April 2020 - a 1980 bus has to wait another year
It’s only if registered between 1st and 7th of January that it is assumed to have been built the previous year. Document INF34 on the DVLA site quotes this.
VW will confirm build date. There’s an email address on here somewhere. Or send €50 and wait months for Wolfsburg to get back to you. edit; it’s something like typeapproval@vw.com edit again; it’s this type.approval@vwg.co.uk
If you do apply for the birth certificate by application on the VW website, they are quicker posting it these days. Mine took about 10 days. If the build date is before the registration date, you'll have to apply to the DVLA for tax exemption by post. The Post Office can't do it (as they work off the registration date from the DVLA database).
IIRC I completed something on the reg document and the post office sent it off. Though the 1st post office I went to was useless and didn’t have a clue, the 2nd post office knew exactly what to do.
