I think it is the other way around. There would be no taxes if it was legal tender. Which it is not, therefore, taxes must be paid.
You're right -- many people get confused, especially if they’re new to crypto taxes. Since Bitcoin is classified as property, that’s where capital gains tax comes in. But if it's considered as a legal tender or currency, we don’t pay taxes on every trade we make.
Maybe that’s also why most countries prefer to label Bitcoin as property rather than currency. Only El Salvador has officially recognized Bitcoin as legal tender, which means there’s no tax on transactions in that area.
El Salvador gave up Bitcoin as legal tender, in return they got almost 1 and a half billion USD in "bribe money" from the IMF.
I kind of confused myself a bit there. I knew that one of the IMF’s major requirements was that countries shouldn’t force businesses to accept Bitcoin, and El Salvador complied with that to secure their loan. But I didn’t fully realize what that meant, because if Bitcoin is a legal tender, it should technically be accepted everywhere. The fact that businesses in El Salvador can choose whether to accept Bitcoin or not means it’s no longer truly a legal tender.
And now, with CAR reversing its decision on Bitcoin as legal tender, no country officially has Bitcoin as a legal tender anymore. So, moving forward, most countries will continue treating Bitcoin as property, just like what the Philippines has done.