diff --git a/README b/README
index 8a549a6e71..4377f6a43b 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -212,6 +212,17 @@ if it is not your own code, make sure the author has signed the relevant
 copyright papers (for non-trivial contributions), and indicate the author
 correctly in the commit.
 
+** Tags
+
+Git tags should not be pushed to the =elpa.git= repository.  Git tags
+are global throughout a repository, and it is highly likely that tags
+in one package will clash with those in others.  Furthermore, tags
+play no functional role in ELPA repositories.
+
+Developers are welcome to continue using tags locally: so long as they
+are not pushed to the public repository, no conflicts will occur.  Git
+will not push tags without being explicitly told to do so.
+
 ** External branches
 
 A copy of the code of every package is kept in the =elpa.git= repository