Sharesies, Hnry or TradeLog? The Right Tool for NZ Trading Tax

The short version

• Sharesies, Hnry and TradeLog all touch "tax" — but they're built for different people.
• Sharesies is an investing platform. It gives you an end-of-year tax report (including FIF) for the shares and funds you hold on Sharesies — great if that's your whole portfolio.
• Hnry automates tax for self-employed service income — contractors and freelancers. It pays your income tax, GST and ACC as you get paid. It isn't built to work out trading P&L.
• TradeLog is the trading-tax journal: it pulls trades from multiple brokers, converts each to NZD at RBNZ rates, and produces IR3-ready figures across forex, crypto, metals and shares.
• If you trade actively, across more than one platform or asset, the investing app and the auto-tax service both leave gaps. This explains where.

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People lump these three together because they all live near "tax" and "money" in New Zealand. But asking whether you should use Sharesies, Hnry or TradeLog is a bit like asking whether you need a bank, an accountant or a spreadsheet — they're not really competing, they just get mentioned in the same breath. Here's what each actually does, and where the gap is if you're an active trader.

What Sharesies does (and where its tax report stops)

Sharesies is an investing platform — NZ, US and Australian shares, ETFs and funds, plus KiwiSaver and some crypto. On tax, it does a genuinely useful thing: after 31 March it gives you a tax report covering your Sharesies holdings, including a FIF income report using the Fair Dividend Rate and Comparative Value methods, and it handles dividend withholding along the way.

The limit is in the words "your Sharesies holdings." That report only knows about what you did on Sharesies. If you also trade on Hatch, IBKR, an FX broker, a crypto exchange or two — Sharesies can't see any of it. And it's built around investing (dividends, FIF on shares), not around active trading P&L across assets like forex or CFDs. Fine for a buy-and-hold Sharesies portfolio; not the full picture for an active trader.

What Hnry does (and where it stops)

Hnry is excellent at one specific thing: automating tax for self-employed service income. If you're a contractor, freelancer or sole trader, your income lands in a Hnry account and it deducts and pays your income tax, GST, ACC and student loan on the spot, manages expenses from receipt photos, and files your returns.

But Hnry is designed for earned service income — invoices for work done — not for capital-markets trading. It doesn't import your trades from a broker, convert each one to NZD at the RBNZ rate on its close date, apply the trader-vs-investor rules, track loss carry-forward across years, or work out your net trading P&L across forex, crypto and shares. That's simply not the job it was built for.

What TradeLog does

TradeLog is the piece that sits exactly where the other two stop: the active trader's tax layer. It imports trades from multiple brokers, converts every trade to NZD at the official RBNZ mid-rate, runs the NZ tax engine (marginal brackets, ACC, provisional tax, indefinite loss carry-forward), and produces an accountant-ready summary with the figures for your IR3 — across forex, crypto, metals and shares, in one place.

So which do you actually need?

It's genuinely not either/or — plenty of people use more than one:

• Buy-and-hold on Sharesies only? Sharesies' own tax report probably covers you. You may not need anything else.
• A freelancer or contractor who also happens to trade on the side? Hnry can handle your work income and tax, while TradeLog handles the trading side — they don't overlap.
• An active trader across multiple brokers or assets (forex, crypto, metals, shares)? This is the gap. Neither an investing app nor an auto-tax service is built to consolidate that and produce your trading figures — that's what TradeLog is for.

Common mistakes

• Assuming your Sharesies tax report covers everything. It only covers Sharesies. Trades on other platforms are invisible to it.
• Expecting Hnry to handle trading P&L. It's built for service income, not capital-markets trades and FX conversion.
• Thinking you must pick one. Hnry (work income) and TradeLog (trading) can run side by side.
• Leaving multi-broker trading in a spreadsheet. That's the exact job a trading journal automates.

What to do next

Work out which problem you actually have. If it's "I trade actively across brokers and assets and need clean NZ tax figures," that's the gap TradeLog NZ fills — multi-broker import, RBNZ conversion, and IR3-ready numbers for forex, crypto, metals and shares. You can start free and see your live tax position, and sanity-check any tool against the free NZ trading tax calculator.

Worth reading next: the full NZ trader tax guide and, if you hold overseas shares, how FIF tax works.

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Is Sharesies' tax report enough for my trading?

It depends where you trade. Sharesies gives a solid end-of-year tax report — including FIF — but only for the shares and funds you hold on Sharesies. If you also trade on other brokers or exchanges, or trade forex, CFDs or metals, that activity isn't in the Sharesies report, so it won't be your complete tax picture. For a single Sharesies buy-and-hold portfolio, it's usually fine.

Can Hnry do my trading tax?

Hnry is built to automate tax on self-employed service income — contractor and freelancer invoices — by deducting and paying your income tax, GST and ACC as you're paid. It isn't designed to import broker trades, convert each to NZD at RBNZ rates, or calculate trading P&L across assets. Many traders use Hnry for their work income and a dedicated trading journal for the trading side.

What's the best trading journal for tax in New Zealand?

Look for one built specifically for NZ tax rules — actual marginal brackets, ACC, provisional tax and indefinite loss carry-forward — with multi-broker import, official RBNZ currency conversion, and multi-asset coverage (forex, crypto, metals, shares). That combination is exactly what TradeLog NZ is built for, and it's what general investing apps and auto-tax services don't do.

Do I need Sharesies, Hnry and TradeLog all at once?

Possibly, because they don't overlap. Sharesies is where you might invest; Hnry can automate tax on your freelance/contract work; TradeLog produces your trading tax figures across brokers and assets. A freelancer who also trades could reasonably use Hnry for work income and TradeLog for trading, while holding some investments on Sharesies.

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This article is general information only and does not constitute formal tax advice. Product features change — check each provider's current documentation. Review your tax position with a qualified NZ tax accountant before filing. TradeLog NZ accepts no liability for errors in your tax return. See IRD for official guidance.