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Tax deadline, again, collides with holiday

WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- The countdown to the deadline for U.S. tax returns has been extended this year, due to a collision with a holiday.

Tax day is normally April 15. This year, however, that falls on a Sunday and Monday is a holiday in the nation's capital, CNNMoney reported Saturday.

April 16 is Emancipation Day, the day slaves were freed with a law that only applied to Washington, D.C.

This may sound familiar. In 2011, the tax deadline was April 18, as April 16 fell on a Saturday, so Emancipation Day was celebrated on Friday the 15th. That bumped the deadline past the weekend to Monday the 18th.

The deadline for filing taxes applies to everyone, but there is no penalty for filing late for taxpayers who don't owe the IRS.

Taxpayers who do owe the IRS are charged a 5 percent late filing fee for every month past the deadline to a maximum of 25 percent, CNNMoney reported.

Treasury points out bailout profits

WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- Rescuing the U.S. economy may, in the end, make a profit for taxpayers, the Treasury Department said.

In a release that smacks of election-year spin control, the Treasury said in a new report that, "Overall, the government is now expected to at least break even on its financial stability programs and may realize a positive return," The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, a last-minute bank bailout designed by the George W. Bush administration, $431 billion was given out and most of that has already been recovered, the study said.

The department also warned there was more work to be done, pointing out the housing market remains depressed and the economy has not yet bounced back fully.

The department said the U.S. Federal Reserve spent trillions of dollars buying Treasury notes to keep interest rates low and taxpayers are reaping the interest on the central bank's purchases.

Republicans, in turn, have blasted the bailouts as examples of an intrusive, meddlesome and expanding government.

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has called the separate bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler "cronyism."

McCEO Skinner's pay drops before retiring

OAK BROOK, Ill., April 14 (UPI) -- Pay for McDonald's retiring Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner slipped in 2011 compared to 2010, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Skinner, who announced his retirement in March, was paid $8.8 million in salary and stock awards -- including stock options -- for 2011, a 10 percent drop from his 2010 pay of $9.7 million, The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

As he leaves the company, Skinner will be paid an additional $10 million in cash at the end of the year, McDonald's said.

Skinner is leaving June 30 and will be replaced by McDonald's Chief Operating Officer Don Thompson.

Mrs. Romney, take heart -- and $112,000

WASHINGTON, April 14 (UPI) -- The average mother in the United States is worth $112,000 per year, an annual study with an election year spin has concluded.

Salary.com's annual survey of thousands of mothers raising their kids concluded that the work that includes cooking, cleaning, counseling and chauffeuring – not to mention the grueling hours – would net a worker $112,000 in pay, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

The study has political value this year, as it was released not long after Hilary Rosen, a strategist for the Democratic Party, said that Ann Romney, wife of Republican forerunner Mitt Romney, "Never worked a day in her life."

That comment flared up in news reports without any help from the study. But the timing could hardly be more appropriate.

"That's laughable. Moms absolutely have value. They work -- and they work a lot," said Aaron Gouevia, content manager at Salary.com.

Author Ann Crittenden, who wrote "The Price of Motherhood," said she was dismayed that women were fighting amongst themselves over the value of mothering. "Women can't seem to stop being judgmental of each other, which is a tragedy, because 'divided you shall be conquered,'" The New York Times quoted her as saying.