diff --git a/src/PVE/QemuServer.pm b/src/PVE/QemuServer.pm
index f199371..3b9a86a 100644
--- a/src/PVE/QemuServer.pm
+++ b/src/PVE/QemuServer.pm
@@ -2167,6 +2167,8 @@ sub write_vm_config {
 
         foreach my $key (sort keys %$conf) {
             next if $key =~ /^(digest|description|pending|snapshots|special-sections)$/;
+            # an empty tag list is only needed as pending change for removing all tags
+            next if $key eq 'tags' && !$pending && $conf->{$key} =~ m/^\s*$/;
             $raw .= "$key: $conf->{$key}\n";
         }
         return $raw;
diff --git a/src/test/parse-config-expected/empty-tags.conf b/src/test/parse-config-expected/empty-tags.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13e82c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/parse-config-expected/empty-tags.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# empty tag list
+boot: order=scsi0
+cores: 1
+memory: 512
+name: notags
+ostype: l26
+scsi0: local-lvm:vm-100-disk-0,size=4G
+scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
diff --git a/src/test/parse-config-input/empty-tags.conf b/src/test/parse-config-input/empty-tags.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3e09d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/parse-config-input/empty-tags.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# empty tag list
+boot: order=scsi0
+cores: 1
+memory: 512
+name: notags
+ostype: l26
+scsi0: local-lvm:vm-100-disk-0,size=4G
+scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
+tags: 
diff --git a/src/test/run_parse_config_tests.pl b/src/test/run_parse_config_tests.pl
index 62e36ee..84602e4 100644
--- a/src/test/run_parse_config_tests.pl
+++ b/src/test/run_parse_config_tests.pl
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ my $OUTPUT_DIR = './parse-config-output';
 my $EXPECTED_DIR = './parse-config-expected';
 
 # NOTE update when you add/remove tests
-plan tests => 2 * 10;
+plan tests => 2 * 11;
 
 sub run_tests {
     my ($strict) = @_;