diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
index fc5b4997f01..5d2f9e0a731 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
@@ -229,11 +229,11 @@ class Play(object):
                                 allow_dupes = utils.boolean(meta_data.get('allow_duplicates',''))
 
                         # if any tags were specified as role/dep variables, merge
-                        # them into the passed_vars so they're passed on to any 
+                        # them into the current dep_vars so they're passed on to any 
                         # further dependencies too, and so we only have one place
-                        # (passed_vars) to look for tags going forward
+                        # (dep_vars) to look for tags going forward
                         def __merge_tags(var_obj):
-                            old_tags = passed_vars.get('tags', [])
+                            old_tags = dep_vars.get('tags', [])
                             if isinstance(var_obj, dict):
                                 new_tags = var_obj.get('tags', [])
                                 if isinstance(new_tags, basestring):
@@ -242,16 +242,8 @@ class Play(object):
                                 new_tags = []
                             return list(set(old_tags).union(set(new_tags)))
 
-                        if "tags" in passed_vars:
-                            dep_tags = __merge_tags(dep)
-                            if not self._is_valid_tag(dep_tags):
-                                # one of the tags specified for this role was in the
-                                # skip list, or we're limiting the tags and it didn't
-                                # match one, so we just skip it completely
-                                continue
-
-                        passed_vars['tags'] = __merge_tags(role_vars)
-                        passed_vars['tags'] = __merge_tags(dep_vars)
+                        dep_vars['tags'] = __merge_tags(role_vars)
+                        dep_vars['tags'] = __merge_tags(passed_vars)
 
                         # if tags are set from this role, merge them
                         # into the tags list for the dependent role