Introducing Zelvo — rental tax, sorted.

Zelvo is live. This is the first post on the blog, so before we get into release notes and how-tos, here's the short version of what Zelvo is, who it's for, and how you can help shape where it goes next.

What Zelvo does

Zelvo is a focused tool, not a general accounting app. Here's what it does well:

Organises your records. Income, expenses, receipts, transactions, room layouts, tenancies — one place, ready to query when tax time arrives.
Calculates IRD-compliant deductions. Floor-area apportionment (QB 25-01), interest deductibility, chattel depreciation, mileage, capital-vs-repair classification — all applied automatically. No manual maths.
Handles flatting setups. Renting rooms to flatmates while living there yourself? Zelvo applies the IRD floor-area method correctly — full deduction for flatmate-only rooms, 50% for shared spaces — and tracks each bedroom's tenancy day-by-day, so an empty room for a month adjusts the ratio automatically. Most NZ tools don't cover this; flatmate landlords usually end up in a spreadsheet.
Splits joint ownership properly. If you own with a spouse or partner, each owner gets their own IR3 figures scaled to their ownership percentage.
Walks you through IRD filing. Open the IRD Filing page and you get the IR3R line-by-line breakdown, ready to paste straight into myIR.

Setup takes about 10 minutes. The first property is free, no credit card.

Zelvo organises figures, not advice. Hand the report to your accountant, or use it to file yourself — either way, you have the numbers in front of you.

What Zelvo doesn't do (yet)

Being upfront about scope, because misaligned expectations help no one:

FY 2025-26 onwards only. If you're still filing 2024-25 or earlier, you're past the 7 July deadline.
Residential rentals only. No commercial property.
NZ residents, NZ properties. No overseas property, no non-resident filing.
Actual-cost method only. Boarder/short-stay standard-cost rates and mixed-use day-counting aren't supported.

If any of those describe your situation, please work with a tax agent — Zelvo isn't built for those scenarios.

What to expect on this blog

A small handful of posts a year, covering:

Release notes when something material ships.
Practical guides on the IRD rules landlords get wrong most often.
Behind-the-scenes posts on how the calculations actually work.

No newsletter spam. No SEO content farm. You'll only hear from us when there's something worth reading.

Help us build it right

Zelvo is still in its early days. We've done our best to cover the IRD rules and get the calculations right, but the rulebook is large — if you spot anything that doesn't look right, please tell us. And if there's something missing that would make your landlord life easier — a feature, an edge case, a workflow — say so. Your feedback is what shapes where Zelvo goes next.

Thanks for being here. More soon.

— Hari