Getting a sizable tax refund is an enjoyable experience. But you can reduce next year's refund and have more take home pay now by adjusting how much tax is withheld from your paycheck.

What's the right level of withholding? That varies depending on your unique financial situation. People with investment income may want to withhold more to cover taxes on their other income. On the other hand, people with lots of deductions or who are expecting tax credits could lower their withholding. To obtain a more accurate level of withholding, you'll need your completed tax return, a recent paystub, and estimates for your deductions and credits for next year. You'll then be able to use the withholding calculator on the IRS Web site or the worksheets for Form W4.

What I do is get use the IRS calculator to find the number of withholding allowances, and then plug that into a paycheck calculator to see if the withholding for the year will come close to the tax I expect for next year. If I can get the withholding to be about $1,000 above the tax, I figure I've achieved a reasonable about of withholding. And by reasonable, all I mean is I've built some wiggle room into the withholding so if there's more income than expected or fewer deductions, I haven't put the client at risk for owing at the end of the year.

Here's some links to various withholding and paycheck calculators so you can run some figures for yourself.