Big refund or owe a little

[Account Closed]

As a tax return preparer, I run across people that deliberately have more withheld during the year than necessary as a kind of forced savings. Others that initially work at owing nothing or paying a little at year's end.

I'm thinking that most investors would tend toward the latter, but I might be wrong. Personally I don't like to give the government a no interest loan.

[Jon Holdman]

I try to be very close to being break even. There are enough variables to make it tricky. My wife likes to get a refund, but I'm happy to just end up close.

What really gets me is the people who have money withheld to get a refund, then get a refund loan from a tax preparer. First they loan the money to the feds at 0%, then they pay someone else to get it back sooner. What?