You have to accept the obvious, if your government decides to tax you for income earned then you have little choice but pay it because they always win, if you don't, then you're breaking the law and you know the implications of that. So to be on the safe side of the law, give you government what belongs to it and have your peace, so better to remit tax on eth staking reward as demanded by them. Governments especially the US have been trying to regulate every crypto transactions, so it's no surprising that they'll unjustly go way back to demand taxations.