Indian tech firms paid $22.5 billion as US taxes between 2011 and 2015

Indian technology industry paid $22.5 billion in taxes during the financial years 2011-15, besides investing $ 2 billion in FY 2011-13 in the US, Parliament was informed on Monday.

“The Indian tech industry invested more than $2 billion in USA during FY 2011-13, has paid $22.5 billion in taxes during FY 2011-15 and supported 4,11,000 jobs in FY2015 directly or indirectly,” Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. She quoted data from a report ‘Contributions of India’s Tech Industry to the US Economy', published by the Indian IT Industry body Nasscom. Besides, the US government hiking of visa fee is likely to adversely impact the Indian IT Industry.

Almost all Indian IT companies would pay between $8,000 and $10,000 per H-1B visa from April 1, when the next annual H-1B visa filing session starts, thus making it unsustainable for them.

This is not only because of the $4,000 new fee imposed on Indian IT companies under the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2016, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama, but also due to the series of other fee that the Congress has added in the H-1B visa application over the past one decade.

Notably, the original H-1B visa application fee is just $325. As per the bill signed into law by Obama, companies having more than 50 employees and more than 50 per cent of employees that are on H-1B or L1 visa status would have to pay an additional $4,000 per H-1B visa application.

In the case of L1 visa, it is $4,500. And not to miss is the Premium Processing Fee of $1,225. In addition to all these, most of the Indian companies pay between $1,000-$2,000 as attorney fee for filing the H-1B visa application.

The H-1B visa application fee is non-refundable.

Further, Indian techies who come to the US on H-1B and L1 visas also pay Social Security and Medicare as part of their pay role. According to some estimates, it is more than $1 billion per annum.

While on paper they are eligible to receive Social Security benefits even if they leave the US, provided they have paid Social Security payroll taxes for at least 10 years, but since Indian IT professionals on H-1B visas can’t stay in the US for more than six years, that entire amount becomes non-partible.

India has been in talks with the US in this regard, but there is hardly any movement.