<prompt> Human: Our tax refund was unusually small this year, which our tax preparer commented on: you might want to change your withholding to have more taxes withheld next year. Either switch from Married to Married but withhold at the higher single rate, or have an extra 20 dollars withheld from each paycheck federal and an extra 10 for CA. We use a tax service because we have mineral holdings, student loans, and other complicating annoyances. Things are a little tight lately paycheck-to-paycheck, but were making it. Would doing as she says help us at all? Not sure I want someone else to hold our money if we can use it every month.  <response>: Not sure I want someone else to hold our money if we can use it every month.Then you dont want to change your withholdings such that you get a larger refund. Tax refunds just mean you had money locked up for the entire year when you could have been using it. A smaller tax refund is better than a larger one. 