I would say the tax issue really depends on the country one lives in, for example in Ireland you can earn up to 4000 Euro without declaring it as income - so even if Bitcoins were taxable I will be okay for a while.
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Barter is generally considered a taxable transaction. the government is going to want their cut.
I have a question regarding this, actually: if barter was illegal somewhere, would running a shop itself be illegal - or would they have to prove to you that you actually exchanged something for bitcoins to get into you? For instance, if you advertise that you can sell stuff for bitcoin, can they do something to you for advertising itself - or do you have to catch you doing it? (keeping in mind Bitcoin accounts are anynomous it would be damn hard to prove that you actually sold something, unless they arranged a fake sale and pretended being your customer)
