I'd rather not pay the tax because it will substantially raise the tax rate on my earnings as well.
Are you sure about that? Normally the tax rate on that additional income is higher but the tax rate on your income will still be what it was, because of the step wise nature of our tax code. It might affect your eligibility for some things however (such as the ability to put money into a ROTH IRA - my income with alimony is too high, but without alimony I could contribute - not sure how they'll treat this when the new tax law goes into effect.
