KUALA LUMPUR (FEB 22): It is no secret that Malaysia’s middle 40% income earners, or M40 as they are known, are stuck in the middle.

This is the same lot that are too rich to qualify for handouts like Bantuan Sara Hidup which the Bottom 40% households get, but too poor to enjoy the lifestyles of the Top 20% (T20) such as affording private tuition and overseas holidays.

The question that arises here is how do we help this group of people? Do we give them handouts? Do we lower taxes? Do we have more reliefs? Do we lower statutory contributions?

With the government set to unveil its economic stimulus package to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, we collate views from experts on what kind of support the M40 should get in these difficult times.

In the grander scheme of things, we ask them on how they think the government should be helping the M40 in the long term.

In our accompanying stories, we look at how the middle class is categorized and defined,  and whether this definition could use a revision.

We also do a simple of simulation of a married couple living in the Klang Vally, and how much more spending power they would have should be they granted a higher amount of tax reliefs.

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