Episode 31: Big Beautiful Bill - Real World Examples
2025 Tax Calculator Tutorial: How to Use Our Free Tool to Estimate Your Refund
You’ve heard us talk about it on this week’s Full Throttle Finance™ podcast, the 2025 tax changes could seriously impact how much you owe (or get back) next year. That’s why we built a free downloadable spreadsheet tool to help you estimate your taxes and potential refund.
This isn’t just a “plug in your income and pray” kind of tool, it’s designed with formula checks to help you make sure your data is right, and it’s tailored to the 2025 federal tax brackets.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through:
Which cells you should update
How to enter your earnings, overtime, and tips
How to check your calculations
How to interpret your estimated refund
Step 1: Download the Tool
📥 [Click here to download the 2025 Tax Calculator Spreadsheet]
Open it in Excel or Google Sheets. You’ll see different sections of the sheet marked in different colors — these colors tell you where to enter your information and where to leave things alone.
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Open the File Menu
In Google Sheets, click File in the top-left corner.
Select “Make a Copy”
Choose Make a copy.
Give your copy a name (e.g., “2025 Tax Calculator – My Copy”) and pick where to save it in Google Drive.
Click “OK”
Your editable version will open in a new tab.
You can now enter your own information and calculate your results.
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Open the File Menu
In Google Sheets, click File in the top-left corner.
Select “Download” → “Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)”
This will save a copy of the file to your computer.
Open in Excel
Double-click the file to open it in Microsoft Excel.
You can now edit and use the calculator.
Step 2: Start in the Earnings Section
This is where you’ll enter your actual work info.
Editable gray fields include:
Regular Hours per Week – Example: 40
Hourly Rate – Example: $28.50
Overtime Hours per Week – If you work 8 hours/month of OT, divide it into a weekly average (about 2 hours/week).
Tips per Week – You can type a number (e.g., 500) or calculate it (e.g., 75 tips × 4 shifts/week = 300).
💡 Pro Tip: Keep all entries as weekly amounts so the formulas work correctly.
Step 3: Above the Line Deductions
If you have overtime or tips, your overtime deduction and tip deduction will pull automatically into this section.
Step 4 – Taxable Income
The Taxable Income box will update to reflect your income with 2025 standard deductions and any overtime/tip deductions applied.
Step 5 – Tax Bill Calc – No Deductions (Purple Box)
Update your income brackets here.
Check the formula check box — it should read 0.0.
Everything in cells A22–A29 should add up to B18.
Step 6 – Tax Bill Calc – Post Deductions (Red Box)
Update your income brackets again, but now based on your post-deduction taxable income.
Everything in cells E22–E29 should add up to F5.
Step 7 – See Your Estimated Refund
Your Estimated Refund is shown in the middle green box.
This is your projected refund (or tax owed) based on the 2025 tax brackets, your entered income, and applicable deductions.
