A few years ago, I started claiming as many deductions on my taxes as I could without filling out extra forms. The goal was to get as close to owing $0 at the end of the year as possible without getting a refund. That’s right, I prefer owing money than having Uncle Sam get an interest free loan.
What we do is budget for tax time to owe $X. X is a significant number because the first time I tried this, there was a lot owed. The neat thing is that I’ve tuned it and only owe a few hundred now, but $X is fixed, sitting in an interest bearing account. Granted, these days interest is measured in fractions of a percent so small you have to use scientific notation to conserve paper, the point it it’s still a positive number, something you don’t get when you feed Uncle Sam too much.
I’d prefer to have more of my paycheck through the year and just put a little to the side to cover the difference when the bill comes due.
Oh, and yet again, my wife wonders why she even bothers working being that 50% of what she makes goes out in taxes (when combined with my salary).
As long as you're on top of things, that's a fine strategy. When/if you refinance a mortgage, change jobs, have a baby - those can throw the numbers off.