they would be taxable, how they would be taxed though is an entirely differnt question. Would they be considered the same as being paid you usual wages and therefore taxed as income? Or taxed like gold, i.e.not taxed until you sell? or perhaps like a stock, a capital gains tax is charged so you pay for any gain they have made since you reeived them? Willing to bet that HMRC has not even considerd it yet.
In the US, if you are paid in gold, it's still taxed as income. Then you are taxed when you sell the gold on capital gains on the difference between the market value when you received it and when you sold it. There's no loophole that allows avoiding paying income tax just because you are paid differently.
I imagine they would be taxed the same as any American paid wages in a non-US currency (i.e. Americans working overseas). This wouldn't be a groundbreaking situation.
