Navigating state and local taxes can be exhausting. Luckily, you now have an exempt snack to help ease the burden.

After a lengthy tax dispute in a London courtroom, Procter & Gamble lawyers were able to successfully argue that Pringles are not potato chips.

Potato chips and potato-derived snacks (made from potato flour, potato starch, etc.) are subject to a 17.5% London sales tax. Pringles’ key defense — the “crisps” aren’t even made from potato — they’re slices of baked dough.

The snack eventually met the judge’s very “technical” three-pronged requirement for exemption:

1. They don’t look like a chip
2. They don’t feel like a chip, and
3. They don’t taste like a chip.

For purposes of tax exemption, Pringles aren’t “made from the potato,” said the judge. He didn’t specifically say what Pringles were, other than “tax-exempt.”

Tags: London, Potato chips, Pringles, Procter & Gamble, Tax exemptions