The magician has filed legal papers against Robert Baral, accusing the accountant of failing to file his tax returns for 2008 and 2009, and failing to inform him a previous employee had also skipped the form for 2007.

He alleges Baral hired a Canadian firm to deal with the tax blunder, but did not monitor them properly to ensure the situation was handled.

Copperfield claims the mistakes cost him $471,000 (£294,000), according to TMZ.com.