I agree. I also agree that "mined" coins are a source of income, just like any business. I see the possibility that miners will have to be regulated now, or somehow a record of the "BTC" they produce maintained.
Issues that will need to be worked out in time as will all new technologies. There was a times when didn't need red lights or even parking meters. ;)
If I take a yard of fabric and make a shirt, sell it, then the “income” is taxable.
If I take a company, sell it, (equity sale) then that income is not taxable, from what I understand.
The difference is the transfer of ownership, being either ALL or PARTIAL ownership.
A shirt is a shirt that no one expects it to appreciate in value. But, if I made or even bought a thousand shirts at $10 and sold them for $20, I’d have a taxable event.
Bitcoin miners will have to reduce their cost basis by calculating their costs to produce them. Their time, effort and computing power usage, etc etc etc. They can easily claim that their costs have exceeded their sales price.
Do you think the IRS is going to set some standard for “Production costs”?
From my perspective, Bitcoins are neither a currency nor a property, in the way they define them, but a property more like a chicken, a barter tool, used to trade for other properties.