Here's why a big tax refund might not be a good thing — and what you should do if you get one

• You might be looking forward to a big tax return in the next few weeks.
• Receiving a lot of money back from the IRS isn't necessarily a good thing, though.
• Here's how you can optimize your tax return for the biggest savings.

One thing that makes filing your taxes less of a chore is the knowledge that you could be getting a few thousand dollars back when your tax return hits.

However, a big tax return isn't necessarily a good thing, according to Ashley Weeks, a wealth advisor at TD Wealth. In fact, you might want to take steps to minimize your tax return in coming years.

A tax refund is a reimbursement made to the taxpayer for the excess state and federal taxes they've paid throughout the year. So when the IRS pays you money after you file, it means that you've overpaid the government during the tax year.

"It's essentially an interest-free loan made to the government that you only get back in April of the year after you issued the loan," Weeks said.

"The first thing I tell clients when they get a larger-than-expected refund is to take a breath, figure out why the refund was so big, and make some adjustments for the next year," Weeks added. "If you're getting more than $1,000 back, there's probably room for optimizing your withholding strategy."

The main reason why clients get a big tax refund is because they're overpaying taxes from their W-2 job during the year.

If that's the case, Weeks recommends checking in with your HR department and adjusting your Form W-4. Form W-4 determines how much tax your employer withholds, and the IRS recommends filling out a new one each year, or whenever your financial situation changes.

It's a good idea regularly check on your W-4 as time goes on to ensure that the information is accurate.

"It's a form that very often people only fill out when they start with their employer and don't revisit it," Weeks said. "Obviously, life changes. Income can go up, there can be outside sources of income from side hustles, people have kids, people have more deductions."

Real estate investors and self-employed individuals may also experience over-withholding issues, Weeks said.

Income taxes are collected on a continuous basis, which is why your employer takes money from each paycheck. For those earning income independently, the IRS requires you to pay estimated taxes quarterly.

You can calculate estimates from what you paid in the previous year, or you can annualize based on how much you've earned so far this year.

Overestimating your quarterly taxes will result in a bigger tax return. If you think you're overpaying your quarterly taxes, you can adjust the number on Form 1040-ES.

Plenty of taxpayers like the feeling of getting a lump sum in April. Some of Weeks' clients think of a tax return as a "forced savings mechanism." For those who get one, Weeks recommends using the tax return to pay off high-interest debt and build up an emergency fund.

However, the tax return comes at a cost. If you hadn't overpaid your taxes during the year, you could have been using the extra money to pay off debt, save up for a big purchase, or invest. Ideally, you want to keep more of your money easily accessible year-round.

"It's just probably not the optimal strategy because, again, the government holds that money and doesn't pay any interest," Weeks said. "That can be damaging if, during the tax year, someone has to go into additional credit card debt to pay expenses, or they reduce their retirement savings rate simply because they don't have the liquidity on hand that they should have because the money is being held by the government."