Legally they can and do where I live. Crypto isn't really even the main thing my local tax authority focuses on, they stack the value of your crypto holdings on top of your regular holdings, and you have to pay tax over it every year.
It's pretty brutal because even if you don't add anything to your net worth, or lose 50% of the value for whatever reason, you still are subject to a near 2% annual tax hit based on the total total amount.
I'm not necessarily against tax, but this is the worst form of taxation ever in my opinion. Why should I pay tax over the same amount of money over and over again? If you don't they'll throw you in jail for a couple of years.
With tax calculations like this? why don't you keep your assets outside of the country where you live. because in my opinion, it's very crazy. your assets will only continue to decrease due to unreasonable tax calculations.
As human being, It's normal if most people don't want to pay tax, cause they think about win and lose out. so, if newbie has no willing to pay tax but eager to earn money as much as possible that's very normal I guess. Bitcoin is taxable, but the problem is I also still have no idea what or how the tax will be applied on crypto.
I assume that many people want regulation and taxes in their country against bitcoin. Why ? because when the tax has been imposed and carried out with the right regulation. automatically, the country has legalized the circulation of cryptocurrency itself. I am really waiting for this, when I can use cryptocurrency in my own country with clear regulations.