ACCOUNTANTS are getting together at meetings which use the Alcoholics Anonymous format.

Tax Club meets every eight weeks at Bury-based business advisers DTE and involves members -- some of them specialist tax advisers -- raising tax issues within the group.

Mr Alan McCann, DTE's Director of Tax, said: "We find this self-help type format works well.

"We even begin by going round the group with people introducing themselves by saying 'I'm so-and-so and I'm from whichever firm' in the much the say way as AA meetings operate."

Mr McCann, who is from Stoneclough, said they sometimes had a guest speaker and their own specialists were on hand to answer questions, but the discussions were largely self-generating.

"A lot of accountants from sole practitioners or small partnerships are especially heartened to learn that they are not the only ones who do not know everything about a particularly obscure area of VAT regulations, for example," he added.

Between 20 and 30 people have attended each of the free sessions, which have been running for 12 months.

Ken Aldred of Ramsbottom-based Aldred Consultancy said: "The main benefits I find are that Tax Club allows me to air issues and get feed-back on unusual and quirky problems -- the kind you wake up to at three in the morning asking yourself 'what have I been doing for the last 20 years?

"I also enjoy listening to the problems of other baggy-eyed professionals -- you realise you are not alone."