General Overview of the Initiative
* The QETP initiative is a collaborative, nationwide program seeking to identify employment tax schemes and illegal practices and increase voluntary compliance with employment tax rules and regulations. The Internal Revenue Service, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Federation of Tax Administrators and the state workforce agencies of California, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina worked together to develop the QETP initiative and endorse the memorandum of understanding (MOU) as a tool to help increase employment tax compliance at the federal and state levels.
* The MOU allows the IRS and the state workforce agencies to exchange audit reports and audit plans, and to participate in side-by-side examinations, when appropriate.
* The QETP initiative provides, for the first time, a centralized and uniform mechanism for IRS and state employment tax data exchanges.
* The MOU is a joint effort between the IRS, the states and other federal agencies. All of the participating agencies worked together on various facets of the MOU from the initial draft, to implementation, to communication, to design and provision of outreach and educational materials.
* A QETP oversight team oversees all program activities. The team is comprised of representatives from each of the participating agencies. The states participating on the oversight team are California, Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina.