It’s tax time, so everyone is figuring out whether they get a refund or whether they owe some taxes. While it’s great to get a refund, and it’s a bummer to have to owe the government, you’re really better off owing something.

Why? Because when you get a tax refund, you’re not really getting a gift of money. You’re getting a refund of money that should never have been taken out of your paycheck in the first place. It is what it says: a refund of money you’ve already paid and shouldn’t have paid. The extra money that was taken out of your paycheck over the course of the year is money that you could have kept in a savings account and earned interest on. Or if you don’t have a savings account, it’s money that you could have used to buy groceries or other essentials.

Meanwhile, if you do your taxes and find out that you owe money, that means you’ve had the benefit of holding onto that money for the past year, earning interest on it, and so on, when it should have been taken out of your paycheck all along.

The only way it’s a bad thing is if you weren’t planning to owe money and you’ve already spent it and therefore can’t pay it. Or if you’ve already mentally “spent” your refund. Or if you owe too much money and the IRS charges you a penalty.

Psychologically, yeah, it’s much cooler to get some unexpected money from the IRS. But rationally, owing money instead of getting a refund isn’t as bad as it seems. So don’t feel too bad about it!