How to get a bigger paycheck and smaller tax refund?

I've been getting these really big federal tax refunds for the past few years—somewhere between $800-$1000 each time. While some people might love that, I'd honestly rather have more money in my regular paychecks throughout the year instead of lending it to the government interest-free. I've tried looking at my W-4 form to adjust my withholding, but I can't figure out what to change to fix this issue. Nothing on the form seems to address my specific situation. I even went through the trouble of using the IRS withholding estimator tool online. It confirmed what I already suspected—I'm having too much withheld from each paycheck. The tool was supposed to tell me exactly how to fill things out, but I'm still confused about what specific adjustments to make. Has anyone successfully adjusted their withholding to get more money in their regular paychecks instead of a big refund at tax time? What specific changes did you make on your W-4?

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22 comments

Omar Mahmoud

•8M

The key to solving this is understanding the revised W-4 form. Since 2020, the W-4 no longer uses allowances, which confuses a lot of people. To increase your paycheck and reduce your refund, you have a few options. The simplest is to use Step 4(c) of the W-4 where you can request an additional amount to be withheld from each paycheck. Except in your case, you'd enter a NEGATIVE number. For example, if you want about $80 less withheld per month (which would reduce your annual refund by about $960), you could enter "-$80" in that line. Alternatively, you can use Step 4(b) to add deductions. This tells your employer you have other income-reducing items they should consider, which will reduce your withholding. Just be careful not to go too far or you might end up owing money instead.

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Omar Mahmoud

•8M

You're right to question that - I misspoke. You cannot enter a negative number in 4(c). That was incorrect advice. Instead, you should use Step 4(b) where you can list additional deductions. When you add deductions here, your employer calculates your withholding as if your taxable income is lower, which results in less tax withheld. For example, if you're getting an $800 refund, you might put $3,200 in additional deductions ($800 ÷ 25% tax bracket = roughly $3,200). This is a legitimate way to reduce withholding.

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Diego Vargas

•8M

I was in exactly the same situation last year - getting almost $1,200 back was nice but I needed that money in my paychecks! I found this AI tool called taxr.ai that helped me figure out exactly how to adjust my W-4. You upload a paystub and your last tax return, and it calculates the perfect withholding amount. The site is https://taxr.ai and it took like 5 minutes to get a personalized W-4 filled out correctly. My paychecks are about $85 bigger now, and I'm on track for just a small refund next year.

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Diego Vargas

•8M

You don't need to provide your SSN - just basic info like filing status, income, and withholding amounts. They use that to calculate the right adjustments without needing your sensitive personal details. It's been very accurate for me. The tool actually lets you choose how much refund you want to target - I set mine for about $200 so I wouldn't risk owing. They use the actual IRS tax tables and withholding formulas, so it's calculating the same way your employer would, just optimized for your situation.

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Anastasia Popov

•8M

Update: I tried taxr.ai after posting my question above and wow - it was super helpful! It showed me that I could claim an extra $4,250 in deductions on line 4(b) of my W-4 and that would give me about $76 more in each biweekly paycheck. The explanation made it easy to understand why I was getting such big refunds (I had checked "Single" but should have used "Head of Household") and exactly what to change. Already submitted the new W-4 to my HR department and they said it'll take effect next pay period!

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Sean Murphy

•8M

If you're still having trouble with your withholding after adjusting your W-4, you might want to actually talk to the IRS directly. I know it sounds horrible, but I used this service called Claimyr that got me through to an IRS agent in like 15 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. I found them at https://claimyr.com and they have this demo video too: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent I talked to walked me through exactly what to put on my W-4 based on my specific situation. Totally worth it because I was doing it wrong for years before that call.

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Sean Murphy

•8M

Yes, it absolutely works! The way they explained it to me is they use technology that basically waits on hold for you, then calls you when an agent is about to pick up. It's the same wait time, but you're not stuck listening to that awful hold music. They aren't calling the IRS "for you" - they're just handling the hold time, then you talk directly to the IRS agent yourself. I was skeptical too, but they use the same public phone lines everyone else does - they've just figured out how to navigate the system efficiently and let you go about your day until an agent is available. Nothing magical about it, just smart use of technology.

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Luca Ferrari

•8M

I need to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After posting that skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway since I was desperate to fix my withholding. Not only did it work exactly as advertised, but the IRS agent I spoke with found an error in how my employer was calculating my withholding! He explained I needed to check the box in Step 2(c) of my W-4 because I have a second job, which was causing the overwithholding. Saved me from another $900+ refund next year and increased my monthly take-home by about $75. Sometimes paying for convenience is totally worth it.

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Nia Davis

•8M

You're right - I should have been more careful with my wording. Claiming exempt is only legal if you expect to have no tax liability for the year, which wasn't my situation. What I actually did was recalculate my withholding midyear and put a much larger number in Step 4(b) for those remaining months to compensate for overwithholding in the earlier months. Then I submitted a new W-4 in January with the correct annual amount. This accomplished what I was trying to describe without improperly claiming exempt status.

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Emma Johnson

•3M

Another option that worked well for me is to calculate how much extra you're getting refunded and divide that by your remaining paychecks for the year. Then add that amount to Step 4(b) as additional deductions on your W-4. For example, if you're getting $900 back and have 20 paychecks left this year, that's about $45 per paycheck that's being over-withheld. You could add roughly $180 in additional deductions (since you're probably in the 25% bracket, $180 × 0.25 = $45 less withheld per check). The key is being conservative - start with a smaller adjustment and see how it affects your paychecks. You can always submit a new W-4 if you need to fine-tune it further. Better to get a small refund than owe a bunch at tax time!

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