There is an inherent value to a currency system, and that value amplified by network effects. The government definitely anchors that network (through many mechanisms, not just taxation), but there's still a lot of inertia there regardless.
What other (governmental) mechanisms do you view as anchoring the currency?
Well, the primary reason is that US dollars are declared by government fiat (hence the term) to be "legal tender for all debts public and private". You can't legally refuse to take US dollars (in the United States, obviously ... other countries give their own currencies a similar status). That seems only tangentially related to whether the dollars come from taxes or printing presses.
Government accepting payment for public debts in legal tender... is taxes. They're the first market maker for a fiat currency. It's certainly possible to just run printing presses, but that typically leads to hyperinflation and the replacement of the currency.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartalism [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory
Having taxes to have circulatory value sounds pretty dumb to me.