" If you love your tax refund because it means a big check in the mail, you're not seeing things clearly. If you view this as a little gift from Uncle Sam, it's not. The only reason you're getting a refund is because you overpaid your tax bill. You wouldn't do that with your other bills, would you? Consider this response to a bill: Dear Sirs, I know my mobile phone bill this month is $39.95 but I thought I'd surprise you and send in $300. Just do whatever you want with it and we'll settle up later. Pretty dumb, huh? But that's exactly what you are doing every payday. If you're getting a tax refund that means you have been overpaying your bill, telling the government to keep what they need and send you the difference when it's convenient. Do you ever run out of money before payday and feel you have no choice but to use your credit card to get by? How much sense does it make to pay 18-percent interest on a credit card account so you can make interest-free loans to the government? Here's an easy solution: Divide your refund by your number of pay periods in a year (12 if you're paid monthly, 26 if bi-weekly, 52 if weekly). The result is about how much you're overpaying each pay period. Or http://www.irs.gov/ You'll need your most recent pay stubs or tax return. Use this information to fill out a new W-4 Form with your employer. Increasing the number of exemptions you claim by even one will result in fewer dollars withheld from your paycheck. I need to try this, as it seems also the more over-time I work the less I make-go figure? All I know is no matter how we try to get ahead of Uncle Sam, he still gets us..Legal or illegal...lol "