ASHINGTON, Sept. 16 — The Internal Revenue Service and 40 states announced an agreement today to share investigative leads on promoters of fraudulent tax schemes and to coordinate efforts to shut them down, prosecute them in some cases and warn the public.

The I.R.S. and the states have historically shared information, but usually after audits or enforcement actions were completed, not at the early stages when tips come in about tax evasion. That has meant that some tax frauds have gone unpunished at either the state or the federal level because the statute of limitations for prosecution expired by the time information was exchanged.

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Officials who announced the agreement also said they saw signs of an important shift in tax cheating away from the largest corporations, which Mark W. Everson, the commissioner of internal revenue, attributed in part to extensive news coverage of such misconduct.

"There is a migration of these schemes and scams to smaller corporations and individuals," Mr. Everson said at a Treasury Department briefing attended by federal and state tax officials.

"All of the people behind me would attest that they are seeing more and more" tax frauds, Mr. Everson said to nods of agreement from some of the state tax officials who had signed the agreement in the last three weeks.

The agreement, he added, should worry tax scheme promoters. "We're closing in on you from all sides," Mr. Everson said.

The degree to which the I.R.S. can pursue tax cheats is limited. Congress has steadily eroded the ability of the I.R.S. to pursue tax cheats, cutting the number of auditors by a third, for example, even as the number of tax returns grows. Many tax frauds are openly described on the Internet, as well as in advertisements on the radio, in magazines and newspapers and in books by promoters.

Tax frauds cost California $500 million a year, said Mary Jo Mandel, the state deputy controller. Other officials said they did not have any solid estimates but described losses to tax frauds as significant and increasing.

The agreement is part of a long-term strategy to address tax frauds, said Stephen M. Cordi, the deputy comptroller of Maryland and president of the Federation of Tax Administrators, an association of state tax agencies.

"We are not in this for short-term revenue gain," Mr. Cordi said, taking note of the budget gaps that are forcing cuts in government spending in most states.

Rather, he said, the agreement is intended to guard against more honest taxpayers giving up in disgust and joining the cheats. Unless the I.R.S. and the states aggressively pursue promoters of tax schemes, "We will lose the trust of our compliant taxpayers," Mr. Cordi said.

As he spoke, about two dozen protesters who are part of the so-called tax honesty movement held banners outside the Treasury building saying "No Answers, No Taxes." Among those protesting were two former I.R.S. auditors, Sherry Jackson and John Turner, and Joseph R. Banister, a former special agent in the I.R.S. criminal investigation division, all of whom say that no law requires the payment of taxes.

Mr. Banister, a certified public accountant in San Jose, Calif., has said that he pays his taxes but does not file a Form 1040 tax return. Because of that, and because his clients stopped paying taxes before they hired him, he has said he is confident that the government has no basis to indict him on any tax charges.

The protesters gathered under the aegis of the We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education in Queensbury, N.Y., a public charity that the I.R.S. has approved to accept tax-deductible contributions.

Bob Schulz, the foundation's founder, said that he and others have petitioned for a redress of their grievances, asking to be shown what law requires the payment of taxes, but that the government has not replied. He said that the I.R.S. issued three summonses this year for information because he did not file a personal tax return in 2001 and 2002. He added that he had filed three lawsuits in Federal District Court in Albany to quash the summonses. He said the I.R.S. had ignored his lawsuits.

Asked why the I.R.S. has not answered the group's questions in writing, Dale Hart, the I.R.S. executive who oversees small businesses and self-employed taxpayers, said claims that taxes are voluntary are addressed at the I.R.S. Web site and in print publications.

Later, an I.R.S. senior spokesman, Terry L. Lemons, said that courts had upheld the validity of the tax laws and that the agency did not want to waste time and resources dealing with well-settled issues. Mr. Lemons added that the recent spate of enforcement actions taken by the I.R.S. against promoters of abusive tax schemes, and the new agreement with the states, show other ways that government is answering the petition.

Arthur Roth, who just retired as New York State tax commissioner, said that to detect fraud "all governments are relying more and more on electronic gathering of third-party information" like bank deposits and interest payments. He said the government was rapidly increasing the sophistication with which it mines such sources.

Such techniques are of little value in identifying those who do not file tax returns. Several promoters run schools showing people how to set up bank accounts, hire workers and sell to the public without leaving an electronic trail for the tax authorities.

Mrs. Hart said that under the new agreement the I.R.S. and the states would also look for such promoters and their clients.

"This agreement is about any type of abusive scheme," she said, vowing to look for those who "are trying to drop out of the system."

Mrs. Hart said no state had rejected the agreement and that she expected more to sign it soon. Two states that signed the agreement, Florida and Washington, do not impose an individual income tax. Mrs. Hart said in those states excise and corporate taxes would be the focus of coordinated efforts against tax fraud schemes.