diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/azure_rm_deployment_fix_45941.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/azure_rm_deployment_fix_45941.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bbfa8c78782
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/azure_rm_deployment_fix_45941.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- azure_rm_deployment - fixed regression that prevents resource group from being created (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/45941)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/azure/azure_rm_deployment.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/azure/azure_rm_deployment.py
index 43f09f0617f..c8e777c9d0e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/azure/azure_rm_deployment.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/azure/azure_rm_deployment.py
@@ -491,7 +491,8 @@ class AzureRMDeploymentManager(AzureRMModuleBase):
 
         if self.append_tags and self.tags:
             try:
-                rg = self.get_resource_group(self.resource_group_name)
+                # fetch the RG directly (instead of using the base helper) since we don't want to exit if it's missing
+                rg = self.rm_client.resource_groups.get(self.resource_group_name)
                 if rg.tags:
                     self.tags = dict(self.tags, **rg.tags)
             except CloudError: