Koinly vs TradeLog NZ — Why Koinly Doesn't Quite Work for NZ Traders

The short version

• Koinly is a solid tool — but it's built for US/Australian capital gains tax, not NZ income tax.
• It only does crypto. No forex, no metals.
• It uses its own exchange rates, not the RBNZ mid-rates IRD wants.
• Its reports aren't structured for an NZ IR3.
• TradeLog NZ was built for NZ multi-asset traders, on NZ rules.

---

Up front: Koinly is a good product. If you're an Australian crypto trader, it's probably the right call. This isn't a hit piece.

But I'm writing for NZ traders — and especially the ones trading forex, metals, or a mix of things. For us, Koinly has some limitations that don't show up until you sit down to do your IR3. I found this out the hard way, which is part of why TradeLog NZ exists. Here's the honest comparison.

What Koinly is

Koinly's a crypto tax tool that's been around since 2018, with a big presence in the US and Australia. It connects to hundreds of exchanges, pulls in your transaction history, and spits out tax reports — gains and losses, cost basis, taxable events, the lot. It's genuinely good at that. The catch for us is what it's designed to calculate.

Where it falls short for NZ traders

It's built around capital gains — and we don't have one. Koinly's whole output is a capital gains calculation, because that's how crypto's taxed in Australia, the UK and the US. In NZ, active trading profit is ordinary income, taxed at your marginal rate alongside your salary. That's not a tweak — it's a different calculation from the ground up. When Koinly shows you a "New Zealand tax report," it's bending NZ rules onto a CGT frame that doesn't fit, and the numbers it lands on aren't what IRD is expecting.

It only does crypto. If you trade EUR/USD on MT4, or gold through a CFD broker, Koinly can't help — those asset classes aren't supported. Plenty of NZ traders run crypto on Easy Crypto, forex on BlackBull, maybe metals somewhere else. You can't bring all that into Koinly. TradeLog NZ takes forex, crypto, metals, NZX shares and more in one place, for one tax calculation.

It doesn't use RBNZ rates. IRD wants foreign-currency income converted to NZD at the RBNZ mid-rate for each trade's date. Koinly uses its own rate sources (CoinGecko and others), which aren't the RBNZ rates — so your NZD figures are based on the wrong reference. TradeLog NZ fetches the official RBNZ mid-rate for every close date and stores it, which is exactly what you'd want on hand if IRD ever asks.

Its report isn't built for an IR3. Koinly can export a crypto gains/losses PDF, but it's a generic report. An NZ return needs net trading income in NZD, deductible expenses, loss carry-forward applied, a provisional tax view, and the right "self-employment" or "other income" framing. Hand a Koinly report to an NZ accountant and they're reprocessing it. TradeLog NZ's Pro export is laid out for exactly the way an NZ accountant works.

It doesn't know the NZ-specific bits. Indefinite loss carry-forward tracked across years, provisional tax instalments, the ACC earner levy, business-vs-investor classification, the GST treatment of financial services — none of that is in Koinly's world, because none of it exists in the countries it was built for.

Head to head

| Feature | Koinly | TradeLog NZ |

|---|---|---|

| Crypto support | ✅ Excellent — 700+ exchanges | ✅ Major exchanges via CSV |

| Forex trading | ❌ Not supported | ✅ MT4/MT5, all pairs |

| Metals (gold, silver) | ❌ Not supported | ✅ Full support |

| NZX shares | ❌ Not supported | ✅ Supported |

| NZ income tax calc | ⚠️ CGT framing, not NZ | ✅ NZ marginal brackets |

| RBNZ exchange rates | ❌ Own rate sources | ✅ Official RBNZ, auto-fetched |

| NZ tax summary for IR3 | ❌ Generic crypto report | ✅ NZ figures for your IR3 |

| Loss carry-forward ledger | ⚠️ Basic, not NZ-specific | ✅ Full NZ carry-forward |

| Provisional tax | ❌ | ✅ |

| ACC levy | ❌ | ✅ |

| Business classification | ❌ | ✅ |

| Accountant share link | ❌ | ✅ Read-only |

When Koinly's still the better pick

I'd rather be straight about this than pretend TradeLog NZ wins every time:

• Crypto-only and you live in your exchanges. If you're purely on Binance, Kraken and Easy Crypto, Koinly's API auto-imports are more convenient than CSV.
• You're actually in Australia. Koinly's excellent for Australian CGT. If you landed here by mistake, go use it.
• Heavy DeFi. Liquidity pools, bridging, complex staking — Koinly handles those more completely than we do today.

Use the right tool for your situation. For NZ traders with forex or metals in the mix, or anyone who wants the NZ income-tax treatment done properly, TradeLog NZ is the better fit. For pure-crypto-in-NZ, Koinly works — just with the caveats above.

The bottom line

Koinly was built for a world with capital gains tax. We're not in that world. Every figure it reports "correctly" under CGT rules can be wrong under NZ income tax rules — so if you're filing an IR3 off the back of a Koinly report, it's worth checking the numbers actually hold up.

You can start free at tradelog.nz, import your existing history, and see the NZ-calculated estimate before you pay anything.

---

General information only, not tax advice. TradeLog NZ isn't an accountancy firm. Talk to a qualified NZ tax accountant about your own situation.