Tax credits claimed by the Italian State amount to €1,268 billion. A huge sum that - if collected - would make it possible to halve or nearly halve the public debt. But collecting it will be impossible, for a number of reasons listed by the resigning director of the Internal Revenue Service, Ernesto Ruffini. Because €150 billion are owed by bankrupt or insolvent individuals, 221 by deceased persons and discontinued businesses, and 138 by taxpayers who, according to data in the Tax Registry, are null and void. An additional €52 billion in collection activity is suspended as a result of various so-called scrapping measures. Some €580 billion remain in the hands of taxpayers against whom the collection agency has already carried out foreclosures and expropriations in recent years. In the end - after deducting installment agreements, which are working - a hundred billion euros in receivables remain theoretically collectible. Taxpayers with debts to the state number 19 million people and 3.5 million businesses, foundations, corporations and associations. Nearly 70% of the claim involves amounts over €50,000.