diff --git a/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go b/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go
index 33c2719e993..ef89d17266b 100644
--- a/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go
+++ b/pkg/cloudprovider/providers/aws/tags.go
@@ -174,7 +174,11 @@ func (c *awsTagging) readRepairClusterTags(client EC2, resourceID string, lifecy
 		}
 	}
 
-	if err := c.createTags(client, resourceID, lifecycle, additionalTags); err != nil {
+	if len(addTags) == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	if err := c.createTags(client, resourceID, lifecycle, addTags); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error adding missing tags to resource %q: %v", resourceID, err)
 	}