Alright, so maybe you dogs can't get your vehicles out of employment and acting charitable quite so easily, just like for your persons -- but that's SIN for you, eh.
But, imho, what you say about charities also applies here in NZ. If a charitable organisation wants to take advantage of tax exemptions it has to be incorporated with the Government. But trusts can still be formed that are charitable but are liable for tax on any income they make.
But you can easily put your vehicle into a trust, and I'll try and explain why I think that's a good idea.
So, again, to put it into a trust you simply go in and pay the fee (about NZ$10) and do a change of ownership by putting a name, for instance The ABC Trust, in the box where is says Trading as/Representing and keeping your name as the registered owner, or the trustee. When the new Certificate of Registration arrives it will be addressed to The ABC Trust (to the P.O box). The name of the trust and its address will be on the left hand side of the form, and the name of the trustee (the registered owner) and the trustee's physical address will be opposite on the right hand side.
That Certificate of Registration is a registered deed of trust for a trust entity, or person, of which the vehicle is the res, or the body of the trust. It describes everything required in a deed of trust: the name of the trust body; the name of the trustee; a description of the res; the nature, or disposition of the trust; the trust's identification, or its unique signature; its history; and the purpose of its existence. It's all there, just as they require for a registered trust.
The Certificate in NZ has three olive coloured sections, and these have the description of the trust's body -- its physical appearance, its nature and disposition, its purpose, it's signature and its history.
The first coloured section is a small box that has:
Plate No.
Cert No.
The second coloured section has:
1. Make
2. Model
3. Vehicle Year
4. CC Rating
5. Body Type
6. VIN/Chassis
7. Engine No.
8. GVM
9. Vehicle Usage [i.e. non-commercial ambulance]
The third coloured section has the history of the body: Ownership History Transfer Dates, and, Odometer readings, and Total Numbers of Owners.
In the uncoloured/white space between the 2nd and 3rd coloured boxes is the name of the trust (i.e. the name of the body, the vehicle) on the left side, and on the right side is the name of the trustee, the registered owner, with their respective addresses (a P.O box and a physical address) underneath their names. The name of the trust is what the body is called, and that name can be put on the body of the vehicle (you'll have seen trust vehicles around with the name of the trust sign-written on the side of the vehicle -- and, of course, company signs on company vehicles).
If this modern society still traded in slaves, our slaves would have exactly the same sort of certificate of registration and ownership as our vehicles. In this case, the slave is the automobile.
The first coloured section (Plate No. and Cert No.) and numbers 6, 7, and 8 in the second section are the personal signature, or the identification of the trust -- the brands on the slaves skin.
Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 describe the physical appearance of the trust entity. For the slave these would be 1. Caucasian/African/etc. 2. Irish/Angolan/etc. 3. Age 4. Stamina and strength 5. Body type, which explains itself).
Number 9 is what describes the nature and purpose of the trust entity. In the case of non-commercial ambulance, that describes an altruistic and charitable nature; transporting injured people for no commercial profit or gain. The words describe it.
Now, do you see how an arrangement might be viewed when the name of the dead rubber and steel body of the trust has the same name and the same address as the living trustee? And what if that name is your name? Eek! "I am a vehicle. I am a vehicle. I am a vehicle". That's the definition of a human, a possessed monster! It's just wrong, and a good person would try to break up such a human arrangement, for the welfare of the possessed person. That's why they have no problem about doing just that, they see it as a good thing… dispossession, it's like an exorcism, performed on the roadside or in the court. So give the vehicle it own name instead of your name.
Added to that horrific man/machine monster possession scenario, I believe the problem of having the vehicle taken away by Government officials comes about because of that number 9, and the fact that a trustee cannot also be the beneficiary of a trust. Number 9 describes the purpose of the trust, describes who will benefit from the trust, and if the beneficiary is also the trustee then the trust can be declared a "sham" and be broken up -- i.e. the body and the trustee are separated… by a tow truck. Typically that number 9 will have something like Commercial Private Use (rather than Non-commercial Ambulance), and typically that will also describe the trustee, meaning the trustee operating the vehicle is also acting as the beneficiary getting the commercial benefit of the vehicle.
Bottom line is, the vehicle is a trust organisation (have no doubt), and a person can't have both the ownership title and the cestui que trust (beneficial use) of a trust. That would be a sham trust and the courts and Governments can easily break up a sham trust arrangement if they want.
But have you looked at your equivalent of the Application to license motor vehicle (MR1B)? We have 05 Commercial Ambulance, and 06 Non-commercial Ambulance. But maybe you could use 12 Diplomatic, or 14 Hearse. What's more altruistic and charitable than being prepared to take a person on their final journey free of charge, eh?