As you already probably know, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has been asked to step down by the White House after 32 years with the company. As the AP notes:

Wagoner isn’t the first CEO to lose his job as part of a government bailout. The CEOs of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were forced out after the government took over the companies in the fall. Robert Willumstad, the former CEO of American International Group Inc., left the company in September.

The good news for auto manufacturers, as we first mentioned a month ago, is that the IRS is now letting most of you deduct state and local sales taxes from new cars purchased between Feb 16, 2009 and Jan 1, 2010:

The deduction is limited to the state and local sales and excise taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price of a qualified new car, light truck, motor home or motorcycle.

The amount of the deduction is phased out for taxpayers whose modified adjusted gross income is between $125,000 and $135,000 for individual filers and between $250,000 and $260,000 for joint filers.

Considering how tight finances are for many of us, most of you are probably not thinking about buying a new car anytime soon. But just in case you are, the government just made that big purchase a bit easier on your wallet. Whether it will make a difference to the struggling domestic auto industry remains to be seen.