'Infosys brought in workers on wrong visas in order to underpay them and avoid paying taxes'

Infosys has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle allegations of misclassification of foreign workers and tax fraud, officials said on Tuesday.

Infosys will pay California $800,000 to resolve the allegation that, between 2006 and 2017, approximately 500 Infosys employees were working in the state on Infosys-sponsored B-1 visas rather than H-1B visas, California attorney-general Xavier Becerra said.

This misclassification resulted in Infosys avoiding California payroll taxes such as unemployment insurance, disability insurance and employment training taxes.

H-1B visas also require employers to pay workers at the local prevailing wage, an official statement said.

“Today’s settlement shows that attempting to evade California’s law doesn’t pay.

Infosys brought in workers on wrong visas in order to underpay them and avoid paying taxes. With this settlement, California has been made whole,” Becerra said.

In the settlement, Infosys denied the allegations.