In my country (the Netherlands) it's the same: Income is any task for one gets funds in one or the other way, doesn't matter where the money comes from. When earning irregular, it may be possible to classify the income as income from a hobby, which is not taxed as income, though the income should not become regular. when posting to HIVE more than a few times a year, it's gonna be super difficult to convince the tax officer it's a hobby... though for us it may be a hobby :)
VAT is also applied, regardless of the party that 'pays' is handling the VAT side of things. So I have to pay VAT to the tax agency on the earnings I make on HIVE.
The other side of the coin is that any cost I make to 'earn' on HIVE, I can deduct as costs. Like a laptop and other gear, I use to create posts and whatnot. But also the energy I use. The internet subscription I need to have to get to HIVE and so on and so forth.
I am no fan of government and I think taxes are theft, but I am also a realist and know that if you want to enjoy their payment rails you have to pay the fee.
I see it all the time, people thinking they too smart for the government because nothing has happened to them YET! The past doesn't equal the future and that gamblers fallacy will burn a lot of people. 99% of people who use bitcoin and crypto have horrible opsec and some think they can use a privacy coin and its all dandy and its going to erase all the times they dox'd themselves alone, there is a reason these chain analysis firms are around, they are government-funded projects
A lot of people are going to find they're not as wealthy as they think they are once that tax bill hits them in the face
You are so right. That's why I handle my taxes as well, also my crypto taxes. One can always bend the rules a bit, as many do, but in the end, our tax agencies know more about us than we like to believe. Even when they don't at the moment, they will in a few years. AI will help a lot. Added to that, even when someone not making any reference to his/her true ID and does not use a centralised exchange, the content itself + behavioural analyses will, in the end, make anonymous peeps, not so anonymous anymore, I'm pretty sure of that.