Making your savings work harder

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Tax Time

Making your savings work harder

You work hard for your money, so it’s only fair your hard-earned works even harder for you.

With Stage 3 Tax Cuts offering ongoing savings opportunities, there could be more chances for you to build your rainy-day funds, holiday stashes, super balances and more.

If you’re wondering how you can make bank with your windfalls, there are different ways you can save in style.

What are Stage 3 Tax Cuts?

The Australian Government introduced cost-of-living tax cuts effective from 1 July 2024. Stage 3 Tax Cuts are designed to support low and middle-income earners by lowering the tax withheld from their take home pay.

Individuals earning between $18,201 and $45,000 per year will have their tax rate reduced from 19% to 16%, while individuals earning between $45,001 and $120,000 per year will have their tax rate reduced from 32.5% to 30%.

The table below shows the difference in tax brackets and rates between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 (featuring Stage 3 Tax Cuts) financial years.

Tax Bracket	2023-24 Financial Year Tax Rates	2024-25 Financial Year Tax Rates
0%	$0 – $18,200	$0 – $18,200
16%		$18,201 – $45,000
19%	$18,201 – $45,000
30%		$45,001 – $135,000
32.5%	$45,001 – $120,000
37%	$120,001 – $180,000	$135,001 – $190,000
45%	$180,001 +	$190,001 +

How much could you save with Stage 3 Tax Cuts?

Stage 3 Tax Cuts aren’t designed to offer a lump sum saving. Instead, households will see some extra coin in their pay packets on an ongoing basis.

Based on the Australian Government’s tax cut calculator, if someone is on an $85,000 annual salary, for example, their tax cut savings (from an estimated $19,792 down to $17,988 under Stage 3 Tax Cuts) is $1,804 which could work out to be:

$34.69 weekly.
$138.76 monthly.
$1,804.01 yearly.

Estimate your tax cut with the Australian Government’s tax calculator here.

Small changes, big savings

While it can be tempting to splurge your newfound kitty, tax cuts could be a great chance to instead build towards savings goals.

The exciting news is that there’s so many different savings products out there, whether you’re thinking short-term (like saving for a holiday), medium-term (for example, a home reno) or long-term (such as growing your superannuation).

High interest savings account

Setting up transfers from your pay to a high interest account is a hands-off way of growing your savings.

For example, Savings Maximiser is ING’s highest interest savings account, where eligible customers could get a great variable rate of 5.50% p.a. every month (available on one account for balances up to $100,000).

To qualify for ING’s highest variable rate, customers who also have an Orange Everyday bank account must do these things each month:

Deposit at least $1,000 from an external source to any personal ING account in their name (excluding Living Super and Orange One)
Make 5 or more settled (not pending) eligible ING card purchases
Grow their nominated Savings Maximiser balance (excluding interest earned for the current month).

When the criteria is met in a calendar month, the benefits and additional variable rate will apply in the next calendar month. Available on one account for balances up to $100,000.

How much interest can you make from your savings? Check out our savings calculator to crunch the numbers and find out.

High balance savings account

If you’ve squirrelled away a high balance, you could enjoy a dedicated interest rate for it. Savings Accelerator has a high variable interest rate on balances over $50,000, and an even higher rate on balances over $150,000, all without bank fees so the interest you earn is all yours.

Super investment

Super is a way of saving for retirement. Effective from 1 July 2024, your employer is required by law to contribute 11.5% of your ordinary time earnings salary in 2024-25 into your super fund. This is known as the superannuation guarantee rate.

You can also make voluntary personal contributions, which are the amounts you contribute directly to your super fund.

Personal contributions:

are in addition to any compulsory super contributions your employer makes on your behalf.
don’t include super contributions made through a salary-sacrifice arrangement.

Term deposit

A term deposit is a fixed-term investment in which you receive a guaranteed interest rate on the deposited amount for the timeframe of your choice.

If you’ve already got a little savings nest egg put aside, a term deposit can help avoid any temptation to prematurely dip into it because the money is locked away for the agreed timeframe.

However, because life can happen, early withdrawal may be possible in exchange for paying a fee.

You can learn more about our term deposits here.

Paying off debt

It’s always satisfying saying ‘cya’ to lingering debt, including credit cards, personal loan and buy now pay later accounts.

If you’ve got a mortgage, you may also be able to make extra repayments to drive your balance lower and save on interest while you’re at it.

Students with a HECS debt may also look to chip away at their remaining balance. Every dollar paid helps finalise accounts sooner while reducing the impact of HECS indexation, where the balance is adjusted annually to reflect the changes in the cost of living.

Thinking of saving your extra pay?

Check out our savings range to learn more about which products could help you reach your savings goals.

Savings Maximiser

The additional variable rate (that is added to the Savings Maximiser standard variable rate) applies on one nominated Savings Maximiser per customer for the next calendar month when you also hold an Orange Everyday account and in the current calendar month you do the following:

deposit at least $1,000 from an external source to any personal ING account in your name (excluding Living Super and Orange One);
also make at least 5 card purchases that are settled (and not at a ‘pending status’) using your ING debit or credit card (excluding ATM withdrawals, balance enquiries, cash advances and EFTPOS cash out only transactions); and
ensure that the balance of your nominated Savings Maximiser account at the end of the month (excluding interest) is higher than it was at the end of the previous month. When we assess whether you’ve met this balance growth requirement, we do not take into account any interest earned on your account in the month.

Each customer can nominate a maximum of one Savings Maximiser account (either single or joint) to receive the additional variable rate (where eligible). You can check and change your nominated Savings Maximiser account via online banking. If no nomination is made, the additional variable rate (where eligible) will be applied to an account nominated by ING at its sole discretion.

Any amounts above $100,000 are subject to the Savings Maximiser standard variable rate applicable at the time. If you do not satisfy the conditions to receive the additional variable rate, the standard variable rate applies. ING can change or withdraw the additional variable rate or the additional variable rate offer at any time with notice. The additional variable rate is not payable in conjunction with any other promotional rate.

Savings Accelerator

The combined total deposits in all your Savings Accelerator accounts is not permitted to exceed $5 million, whether the accounts are in individual or joint names.

ING does not endorse and is not affiliated with third parties mentioned in this article. ING is not responsible for any services provided by third parties nor does ING accept any liability or responsibility arising in any way from any products or services supplied by the third parties.

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