diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/NoTagsKeyValue.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/NoTagsKeyValue.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c4c8351f5b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/NoTagsKeyValue.java
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright The Apache Software Foundation
+ *
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.classification.InterfaceAudience;
+
+/**
+ * An extension of the KeyValue where the tags length is always 0 
+ */
+@InterfaceAudience.Private
+public class NoTagsKeyValue extends KeyValue {
+  public NoTagsKeyValue(byte[] bytes, int offset, int length) {
+    super(bytes, offset, length);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  public int getTagsLength() {
+    return 0;
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV2.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV2.java
index b30d5c2bd38..1775230aa24 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV2.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV2.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CellUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.KeyValue;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.KeyValue.KVComparator;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.NoTagsKeyValue;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.fs.HFileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.FSDataInputStreamWrapper;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.encoding.DataBlockEncoder;
@@ -747,7 +748,11 @@ public class HFileReaderV2 extends AbstractHFileReader {
       if (!isSeeked())
         return null;
 
-      KeyValue ret = new KeyValue(blockBuffer.array(), blockBuffer.arrayOffset()
+      return formNoTagsKeyValue();
+    }
+
+    protected Cell formNoTagsKeyValue() {
+      NoTagsKeyValue ret = new NoTagsKeyValue(blockBuffer.array(), blockBuffer.arrayOffset()
           + blockBuffer.position(), getCellBufSize());
       if (this.reader.shouldIncludeMemstoreTS()) {
         ret.setSequenceId(currMemstoreTS);
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV3.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV3.java
index f881ff5a3d2..b5cadb124b4 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV3.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/io/hfile/HFileReaderV3.java
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.Cell;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.CellUtil;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.KeyValue;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.NoTagsKeyValue;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.fs.HFileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.FSDataInputStreamWrapper;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.io.crypto.Cipher;
@@ -190,6 +191,22 @@ public class HFileReaderV3 extends HFileReaderV2 {
       return kvBufSize;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public Cell getKeyValue() {
+      if (!isSeeked())
+        return null;
+      if (currTagsLen > 0) {
+        KeyValue ret = new KeyValue(blockBuffer.array(), blockBuffer.arrayOffset()
+            + blockBuffer.position(), getCellBufSize());
+        if (this.reader.shouldIncludeMemstoreTS()) {
+          ret.setSequenceId(currMemstoreTS);
+        }
+        return ret;
+      } else {
+        return formNoTagsKeyValue();
+      }
+    }
+
     protected void setNonSeekedState() {
       super.setNonSeekedState();
       currTagsLen = 0;