You cannot tax bitcoin because bitcoin is not owned by anyone (decentralized), but the government can implement tax once you convert that bitcoin to currency owned by that government i.e. BTC to PHP. What you have earned through that transaction is taxable.  It is also known as "income tax".  They may tax you through the exchanges you are using i.e. coins.ph through their KYC feature (the one imposed on the exchanges by the BSP so that exchanges can legally operate in this country and also to avoid/detect money laundering). So, clearly, there is implemented regulation in place and since there is regulation in place, we must pay our taxes.  They know who we are.  So, if we don't want our government to ban bitcoin, we should pay our dues (even though we hate it).  Since the government is implementing a new tax law next year, those earning 250k and below annually is not taxable. So, we can still enjoy our earnings.